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CoraL reef ecosystems :: management strategies (2 Viewers)

midnight

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Don't worry, I'm only saying MC is the easiest to improve because my teacher told me the same thing. :p And in a way it is. I'm not completely convinced though.
I was getting 9-11/15 for all of my exams. And like you said before, the errors that you make aren't even clear when you get it back. It can be difficult to start fixing the problems [and I left it quite late].
What helped me was going through the past papers and doing them, then checking the answers and finding out why I got that particular question wrong. You'll see a pattern with the types of questions that you get wrong, probably, then you can take that problem to your teacher or someone who has a good idea of what you need help with. And of course then it is just a matter of drilling the concepts into your head until you don't need to think about it anymore. Ultimately if you've tried as hard as you can with a particular concept and it still doesn't stick in your mind then you just have to give up and guess.
I only managed 13/15 in the actual HSC exam, but at least I improved. :)

If essays are your best part then that's really good. It is more difficult to get higher marks in essays than it is to get 100% in skills, because there is less of a 'right or wrong' answer, it all depends on how you explain yourself.
If your teacher says they're marking at HSC standard they're probably marking slightly more harshly or they're trying to scare you, perhaps both. :eek: It's good for them to be overly harsh because it makes you work harder. Our English faculty would do this, and so I came out of the HSC exams thinking I'd get a band 4 because what I wrote was terrible compared to my usual work, and I ended up with a band 6. You just never know. :D

That's my motivational essay for the day. ;)
 
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midnight said:
Don't worry, I'm only saying MC is the easiest to improve because my teacher told me the same thing. :p And in a way it is. I'm not completely convinced though.
I was getting 9-11/15 for all of my exams. And like you said before, the errors that you make aren't even clear when you get it back. It can be difficult to start fixing the problems [and I left it quite late].
What helped me was going through the past papers and doing them, then checking the answers and finding out why I got that particular question wrong. You'll see a pattern with the types of questions that you get wrong, probably, then you can take that problem to your teacher or someone who has a good idea of what you need help with. And of course then it is just a matter of drilling the concepts into your head until you don't need to think about it anymore. Ultimately if you've tried as hard as you can with a particular concept and it still doesn't stick in your mind then you just have to give up and guess.
I only managed 13/15 in the actual HSC exam, but at least I improved. :)

If essays are your best part then that's really good. It is more difficult to get higher marks in essays than it is to get 100% in skills, because there is less of a 'right or wrong' answer, it all depends on how you explain yourself.
If your teacher says they're marking at HSC standard they're probably marking slightly more harshly or they're trying to scare you, perhaps both. :eek: It's good for them to be overly harsh because it makes you work harder. Our English faculty would do this, and so I came out of the HSC exams thinking I'd get a band 4 because what I wrote was terrible compared to my usual work, and I ended up with a band 6. You just never know. :D

That's my motivational essay for the day. ;)
woahhh dude - you should become one of those motivational speaker people - lol
nah, but serzly thanks heaps - that stuff u said actually made sense
and congrats on gettin band six in english [what'd you get for geo?]
 

zenger69

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and also HSC markers make really positively according to a teacher who was a supervisor at the english marking centre.

Yeh and my teacher says he marks to HSC standards but he marks really easy.

So i'm beginning to think that Geo is actually easy compared to English.

And big point of advice USE HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS IN YOUR ESSAY so teacher can identify what your talking about easier.
 

firehose

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Oh yea while we're on the topic of essay writing, how are Geography essays supposed to be structured differently to English essays? Is there a set way of writing a Geography essay or are the styles more broad? Our teacher a few times went over writing Geo introductions and he said to forget what English told u about introductions and to do it the geo way :eek:
 

zenger69

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well don't forget the english introductions.

In geo make the intro nice and simple, like the word Introduction, use it to introduce your answer. Introduce your points:
-point 1
-point 2

then you'd have your points in your main body.
-point 1
(your response)
-point 2
(your response

then a conclusion, which you can say "As seen through point1, point 2, ________ is a challenge facing citizens of the future and it is something that must be addressed in an appropiate fashion...................."

something nice and easy for conclusion.
 

midnight

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-MuNcHKiN- said:
woahhh dude - you should become one of those motivational speaker people - lol
nah, but serzly thanks heaps - that stuff u said actually made sense
and congrats on gettin band six in english [what'd you get for geo?]
I'd love to earn the same amount as a motivational speaker! :eek:
I got 94 for geog.

zenger69 is right, the markers are looking to give you marks rather than take them away. Geography is particularly lenient in some areas - it doesn't matter if your grammar or spelling isn't 100%, as long as you can make clear the concepts you're discussing. It doesn't mean you can write like you would in a text message [if I was a teacher I'd give that 0...], but if you can't spell a word but get it close they won't hold it against you.
So yeah it's heaps easier than English, since you don't have to stress about how you're writing, you just have to know what you want to write.

I wrote my geography essays like English ones purely because those were the only two extended response subjects that I did and I found it easier to get into the habit of always being structured. But geography teachers/markers are happy to mark them set out under headings.
For some topics or parts of topics it'd be really easy - for urban dynamics you just list it then define, explain, give example etc.
I did this in year 11 but I found it was taking longer than writing in standard essay format would for me.

The main thing about geog introductions that is different to English is that they want you to explain the terms in the question, and state the name/location of your case study/studies if applicable.
So, to use a thread-specific example ;) if you were asked about the management strategies of one ecosystem and you studied the GBR, in your intro you'd say "the GBR is a coral reef ecosystem located along the east coast of Australia from 9 degrees south [at PNG] to 24 degrees south [at southern Queensland]. It is 2300km long, has an area of 344000 square kilometres and is made up of 2900 separate reefs and 940 islands and cays. Because of its size, and the fact that it is the most biodiverse ecosystem in the world, management strategies must be put in place to protect its outstanding uniqueness"
It's the sort of thing that teachers like, with your definitions, statistics and standard textbook descriptions. :p
You don't even need a conclusion if you run out of time, but it's nice to have one anyway to just sum up your key ideas.

So yeah, remember: content is more important than extended response structure.
 

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