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how do you get good at English advanced ? (1 Viewer)

murthyakshtih

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Nov 21, 2012
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as the above states ^ i am currently in year 12 and just thought i'd seek advice from the year 12's who have just completed there hsc ?
 

smashgh

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A combination of:
1. Doing some extra reading from critiques to get good ideas (theses) and flashy bits of analytical phrases
2. Seeing what a "good essay" is (depending from school to school) and transfiguring your own ideas in to the same paragraph structure and sometimes even the sentence structure
3. Practice on questions under exam conditions

^repeat for each assessment task and you'll ace english.

What i found throughout the hsc is that while english is the biggest bullshit subject, it is undoubtedly a subject that actually rewards you for putting more work in .
 

kwu1

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1. Consult your English head teacher/teacher ALOT to get feedback on practice essay questions.
2. Read through the text at least once to get a thorough understanding especially for important extracts.
3. Know your techniques e.g. simile, metaphor, different types of imagery- visual, aural, olfactory, etc.
4. Practice!
5. Stay motivated :)
 

strawberrye

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My advice-don't rely on other people's notes, because no matter how good their essay is or how brilliant their notes are-at the end of the day, there is no substitute for developing a personal understanding-I don't know whether you love English as a subject or had to do it because it is compulsory, because if you are lucky enough to either have a tutor who inspire you or a brilliant English teacher who motivates you to pursue the subject with a personal passion-it will make all the difference between just hard working and working with happiness and satisfaction-willing to go beyond the extra mile to get good marks, personally I sacrificed some of my study time for other subjects to try and get a good result in English Advanced-it was more than just a subject, being a migrant,

1) be prepared to write good quality essays, i.e. in each essay, not only should you be giving it your 100%-you should try to reflect on the mistakes you have done in your previous ones and avoid it-

2) write a lot of essays-i.e. one per week-to get good at a subject, you should stop calculating whether you are spending too much time, but rather determining whether you understand the module

3) get someone who are prepared to give you detailed comments to mark it-it is useless to write 20 essays without another person marking because you would simply be making the same mistake 20 times without knowing it-wasting your time as well as energy without improvement

4) listen in class, and formulate your own opinion

5)Accept criticism with an open heart and open mind-although sometimes you will feel deflated that all your efforts seems to gone unnoticed-but the thing is, HSC is a year long journey, it is not good enough to keep putting 100% effort for three months and burn out, no matter how much you want to give up, you must persevere through it-for an entire year, that includes the holidays as well-use the upcoming summer holidays to get ahead in English, read the texts in advance if you need to-I am not just talking about your text for term 2, but if you have time, why not read the entire year's worth of prescribed text to get a good idea of what you are confronted

6)-be prepared to search through the internet and library for good quality information to extend your own understanding-make your OWN notes-and remember, often it is only in the trials or HSC-that you see a dramatic improvement-so don't expect your effort will pay of in 10 weeks times, if it does, good, keep going, but if it doesn't appear to, then keep trying-ask for advice

7) always remember to trust yourself-and believe in yourself-actually, hard work is going to get you where talent doesn't, don't care about rankings-well, for me, rankings was so superficial, say, you came first in an assessment task, but there is no guarantee you will get first in your next one-particularly for English, so when you ignore your rankings, but rather, focus on your marks and try your very best-miraculous results will appear-I had to do 10 times the amount of work for HSC advanced than I did for preliminary-and I have to say, I worked very very hard for my preliminary already-be prepared to put in the hard yards for the last year of your high school-make it spectacular!- I wish you all the best for your HSC journey:) (If you love it, you will excel in it-I know it is hard-but try to find that love, that inspiration:))
 
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murthyakshtih

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don't have a passion for the subject but I'm not going to lie, you have honestly inspired me to do well :)
 

strawberrye

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No worries, if you need any help with English, particularly considering these few weeks I have nothing much to do besides waiting for my HSC results, you are welcome to pm me:) Unfortunately, inspiration is just the first step, you need perseverance and determination to last you through the entire year:) But I have faith you can do it!
 

iSplicer

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Strathfield
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My advice-don't rely on other people's notes, because no matter how good their essay is or how brilliant their notes are-at the end of the day, there is no substitute for developing a personal understanding-I don't know whether you love English as a subject or had to do it because it is compulsory, because if you are lucky enough to either have a tutor who inspire you or a brilliant English teacher who motivates you to pursue the subject with a personal passion-it will make all the difference between just hard working and working with happiness and satisfaction-willing to go beyond the extra mile to get good marks, personally I sacrificed some of my study time for other subjects to try and get a good result in English Advanced-it was more than just a subject, being a migrant, 1) be prepared to write good quality essays, i.e. in each essay, not only should you be giving it your 100%-you should try to reflect on the mistakes you have done in your previous ones and avoid it- 2) write a lot of essays-i.e. one per week-to get good at a subject, you should stop calculating whether you are spending too much time, but rather determining whether you understand the module 3) get someone who are prepared to give you detailed comments to mark it-it is useless to write 20 essays without another person marking because you would simply be making the same mistake 20 times without knowing it-wasting your time as well as energy without improvement 4) listen in class, and formulate your own opinion 5)Accept criticism with an open heart and open mind-although sometimes you will feel deflated that all your efforts seems to gone unnoticed-but the thing is, HSC is a year long journey, it is not good enough to keep putting 100% effort for three months and burn out, no matter how much you want to give up, you must persevere through it-for an entire year, that includes the holidays as well-use the upcoming summer holidays to get ahead in English, read the texts in advance if you need to-I am not just talking about your text for term 2, but if you have time, why not read the entire year's worth of prescribed text to get a good idea of what you are confronted -be prepared to search through the internet and library for good quality information to extend your own understanding-make your OWN notes-and remember, often it is only in the trials or HSC-that you see a dramatic improvement-so don't expect your effort will pay of in 10 weeks times, if it does, good, keep going, but if it doesn't appear to, then keep trying-ask for advice-but always remember to trust yourself-and believe in yourself-actually, hard work is going to get you where talent doesn't, don't care about rankings-well, for me, rankings was so superficial, say, you came first in an assessment task, but there is no guarantee you will get first in your next one-particularly for English, so when you ignore your rankings, but rather, focus on your marks and try your very best-miraculous results will appear-I had to do 10 times the amount of work for HSC advanced than I did for preliminary-and I have to say, I worked very very hard for my preliminary already-be prepared to put in the hard yards for the last year of your high school-make it spectacular!- I wish you all the best for your HSC journey:) (If you love it, you will excel in it-I know it is hard-but try to find that love, that inspiration:))
Genuinely good advice, I can vouch for this 100%.
 

Crobat

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Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
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1. Consult your English head teacher/teacher ALOT to get feedback on practice essay questions.
2. Read through the text at least once to get a thorough understanding especially for important extracts.
3. Know your techniques e.g. simile, metaphor, different types of imagery- visual, aural, olfactory, etc.
4. Practice!
5. Stay motivated :)
I concur.
 

murthyakshtih

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Messages
67
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
No worries, if you need any help with English, particularly considering these few weeks I have nothing much to do besides waiting for my HSC results, you are welcome to pm me:) Unfortunately, inspiration is just the first step, you need perseverance and determination to last you through the entire year:) But I have faith you can do it!
Thanks heaps again :) greatly appreciated the help just out of curiosity what subjects did you do ?
 

strawberrye

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2018
No worries-bored of studies have helped me a lot with its resources in the past-so I felt I am doing what little I can to give something back to the community by helping others-particularly since I have the time and since having done the HSC, I am now more 'eligible' to help current HSC students-having undergone what they will undergo... the anxiety, the stress, etc... to satisfy your curiosity, I did Extension one English, extension one maths, physics, chemistry and visual arts
 

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