written essays vs hand in essays (1 Viewer)

kractus

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So, something came over me pretty recently. I've been doing pretty well so far in Y11 with English advanced but the problem is that I don't feel well equipped for any unseen question examinations as all my assessments have pretty much been hand-ins (besides a Y9 one which I trolled)

I usually spend up to 17 or 19 hours perfecting my FIRST draft before submitting it for feedback, which is pretty worrying considering you're given about 40 minutes in the HSC lol...

I was wondering if this is something I should be worried about, and if so, how would I improve my pace at writing??
 

indeed

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Not something to really be worried about for yr 11, I'm at the same stage in yr 12 right now. I suppose it can be good to slowly develop the skill, so I guess practising your ability to answer essay Qs in time limit (the content of the essay will vary in yr 12 so don't worry about that)
 

dav53521

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So, something came over me pretty recently. I've been doing pretty well so far in Y11 with English advanced but the problem is that I don't feel well equipped for any unseen question examinations as all my assessments have pretty much been hand-ins (besides a Y9 one which I trolled)

I usually spend up to 17 or 19 hours perfecting my FIRST draft before submitting it for feedback, which is pretty worrying considering you're given about 40 minutes in the HSC lol...

I was wondering if this is something I should be worried about, and if so, how would I improve my pace at writing??
As the assessments are mostly hand-ins you're likely spending more time on them because there is no extreme time pressure so it gives you more flexibility to take longer. However since you haven't done any unseen questions it could lead to issues further down the line as you won't be as prepared and it is possible to freak out or just "meme" it because you won't know what to do as you haven't really encountered this situation before and your mind won't be thinking straight due to stress. So i'll say to try and practice unseen questions with a time limit and see how you do and make sure you understand the text and have some quotes/techniques/ideas to use before you begin as there's no point in doing unseen essay questions without knowing your text (this will be different for paper 1 section 1 (short ans ques) and the best thing you can do is just practice them and get feedback on your practice attempts). I'll also add that paper 1 section 1 can be quite difficult for a lot of people so don't feel discouraged if you're not good at it in the beginning just practice it and do your best.

There is always the options to memorise essays and regurgitate them in the exam however, that tactic could backfire badly if the question is not in your favor and it is not possible to manipulate it to fit the question and won't work for the short answer section in paper 1 section 1. However, in general I would say don't stress too much over it as you still have time but don't procrastinate it as time does fly.
 

howcanibesmarter

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So, something came over me pretty recently. I've been doing pretty well so far in Y11 with English advanced but the problem is that I don't feel well equipped for any unseen question examinations as all my assessments have pretty much been hand-ins (besides a Y9 one which I trolled)

I usually spend up to 17 or 19 hours perfecting my FIRST draft before submitting it for feedback, which is pretty worrying considering you're given about 40 minutes in the HSC lol...

I was wondering if this is something I should be worried about, and if so, how would I improve my pace at writing??
As someone who was in the same situation as u in yr11, all I can say is prepare for whats coming in yr12.

To put it simply, Yr11 english advanced is a breeze compared to yr12. Not trying to put u off or anything, but there is no handin for english advanced yr12 (okay idk about ur school but mine are all tests), and also the workload (not necessarily workload, its more pace) is a lot more/faster.

I'm not sure about u, but I'm someone who hated reading Shakespeare and texts, so at the start of yr12 I was really struggling on writing essays and handing them in for the teacher to check on time. However, once you do get a fully-fleshed out essay that you are confident in, it really becomes easy and depends on how much effort you want to put in. That is, you could always opt in for the classic method of memorising every essay (This is what I did for my trials) but if you are someone who wants more leniency/hates memorising (since trials you have to memorise roughly 4000), then doing some practice questions and seeing if you can rewrite the majority of your analysis is a good way of practicing.

Your pace at writing shouldn't be a primary worry, since if you did the correct preparation where you enter the exam with at least 3 foundation essays (analysis only) and 1 creative/discursive idea, you should be ready. Remember, you essentially have the entire yr12 to write 3 essays and 1 creative lol. For short answers however, if you were someone who wasn't strong at answering on the spot with no prior preparation, this might be difficult. But honestly you just bs in short answers anyway so its not even bad. U said u were doing pretty well in yr11, so I'm guessing you have an above average english comprehension. The only thing I would urge you to do is try to work on speed. There is definitely a time constraint on short answers section, and if you end up going over the designated time (45minutes), then you will fall short on finishing ur essay.

Ofc this is just general word of advice, because every school does english differently. I.e. our trials was last term and everything was tested. Meaning we had 1 less term to prepare than everyone else for the same test.
 

kractus

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As someone who was in the same situation as u in yr11, all I can say is prepare for whats coming in yr12.

To put it simply, Yr11 english advanced is a breeze compared to yr12. Not trying to put u off or anything, but there is no handin for english advanced yr12 (okay idk about ur school but mine are all tests), and also the workload (not necessarily workload, its more pace) is a lot more/faster.

I'm not sure about u, but I'm someone who hated reading Shakespeare and texts, so at the start of yr12 I was really struggling on writing essays and handing them in for the teacher to check on time. However, once you do get a fully-fleshed out essay that you are confident in, it really becomes easy and depends on how much effort you want to put in. That is, you could always opt in for the classic method of memorising every essay (This is what I did for my trials) but if you are someone who wants more leniency/hates memorising (since trials you have to memorise roughly 4000), then doing some practice questions and seeing if you can rewrite the majority of your analysis is a good way of practicing.

Your pace at writing shouldn't be a primary worry, since if you did the correct preparation where you enter the exam with at least 3 foundation essays (analysis only) and 1 creative/discursive idea, you should be ready. Remember, you essentially have the entire yr12 to write 3 essays and 1 creative lol. For short answers however, if you were someone who wasn't strong at answering on the spot with no prior preparation, this might be difficult. But honestly you just bs in short answers anyway so its not even bad. U said u were doing pretty well in yr11, so I'm guessing you have an above average english comprehension. The only thing I would urge you to do is try to work on speed. There is definitely a time constraint on short answers section, and if you end up going over the designated time (45minutes), then you will fall short on finishing ur essay.

Ofc this is just general word of advice, because every school does english differently. I.e. our trials was last term and everything was tested. Meaning we had 1 less term to prepare than everyone else for the same test.
thanks this was very helpful and reassuring :D
 

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