VCE English Language is quickly becoming one of the more popular subjects as more students opt for English Language over English.
We asked one of our tutors, Benjamin, to share his best advice on how to get a 50 in VCE English Language.
Why English Language Is Different
English Language is a unique subject insofar as it really is a blend of Science and English. Yes, you need find-grained analytic skills to find the clearcut, black-and-white components of a text. But it’s equally true that there are many annoying nuances that no amount of rote memorisation will help you with. In this article, I’m going to explain my approach to learning (and, now, teaching) English Language, how you can apply it, and finish with some general tips and advice for exams, studying, and year 12 in general.
How did you study for VCE English Language? What techniques did you use to study?
My guiding philosophy in English language is what I call error minimisation. There are only so many different purposes, only so many different features, only so many different text types, and consequently only so many possible mistakes you can make. Improvement should be thought of in terms of minimising errors instead of maximising correctness or precision.
The most basic way to reduce your number of errors is by making as many errors as possible before your assessment and learning from them. In other words, do as many practice SACs / exams as possible. Then, to actually learn from your errors, I recommend you carefully record all of your errors in a document (I suggest breaking it up into AoS / SAC type. You can have some awesome tables!). Review this document semi-regularly, so you know what mistakes you’ve made in the past and so you won’t repeat them. This will help you with your SACs and with your exams in English langauge and will ensure you can actually improve and learn from your errors.
What is your advice for VCE English Language students for the SACs?
My other advice for SACs and short answer questions is this: although it might seem like it, no text is ever completely new. You will have seen similar purposes and functions elsewhere, probably a similar text type, maybe even a similar setting, similar tenors, etc. This background knowledge you have about how these purposes, functions, registers, and contextual factors interact will mean you don’t have to do a mountain of thinking every time you are presented with a text. You already know a lot of what’s going on! Or, at the very least, you can make reasonable guesses about what to look for.
For example, suppose you get an interview text type for an SAC. You already know, simply in virtue of it being an interview, that there will be turn taking, topic management, conversational roles that the interlocutors try adhering to, adjacency pairs, purposes of informing (from the interviewee) and eliciting information and creating an engaging text (from the interviewer). Similarly, suppose you get an excerpt from a novel or some other fiction text. You know to keep an eye out for adjectives describing the characters / setting, high frequency of content words, adverbials marking time to construct a sense of narrative chronology, proper nouns denoting characters / settings for exposition, maybe even some figurative language to help draw the reader in. Maybe these won’t all appear in the text, but you know to look for them simply in virtue of the text type. This skill of using background information (often in the little introductory section associated with each text) to help guide your read / analysis of the text will save you time, which is important in your SACs and imperative in your exam.
Towards the end of the year, you might even have some set phrases or sentences you like to use in your analysis of common features. I personally loved analysing subheadings by calling them “lexical signposts which help the reader orient themselves in the landscape of the text”. Another analysis I was fond of was “this declarative helps to succinctly and unambiguously relay information about X, thereby assisting in the referential function and the informative purpose / purpose of clarifying” (declaratives are such an easy feature to analyse if you’re running short on time!). Pay attention to features and analyses that crop up again and again and maybe try remembering some set templates for analyses like these which really work for you. A quick warning about this though: you always want your responses to be text specific. Never rely on memorised sentences only, and when you are using a sentence, you have memorised, try make it text-specific (e.g. for the declarative analysis above, replace X with whatever the field of the text is).
What is your advice for VCE English Language students for the end of year exams?
For essays, the idea is pretty similar. Have a set of flexible examples memorised and be familiar with the different ways you can discuss them, so in your essay SAC or section C on the exam, you’re confident with your examples and analysis. This confidence, and this deep knowledge of your examples, once again comes from repeated practice.
When it comes to choosing and memorising essay examples, I recommend finding as many examples throughout the year as possible. During SAC / exam prep, make a list of every single paragraph topic you can think of for all the prompts you can find in this AOS, e.g. for language and identity, you might have paragraph topics of teenage identity, covert prestige, overt prestige, jargon and in-group language, gender, sexuality, Aboriginal identity, Australian cultural identity, etc. Then peruse your examples that you’ve collected and assign 2-3 per paragraph topic, repeating as many as you can (repeating examples / choosing flexible examples means you have to memorise less). If you don’t have enough examples for certain paragraph topics, try find them (social media, the news, googling key words, etc are strategies for this. Also, ask your teacher or your classmates). Once you’ve finished this list of paragraph topic with examples, you’ve written out every example you need to memorise. I actually suggest memorising your examples in paragraph chunks. For example, if you’re making flashcards, have one side of the flashcard being the paragraph topic, and the other side being the 2-3 pieces of evidence associated with that topic. This will actually make memorising your examples easier, because you group them together in your mind – if you remember the first of three examples, you’re likely to remember the other two, simply because you’ve associated them in your mind.
This advice should be able to get you through your SACs, but the exam itself is a whole new can of worms. The 2-hour time limit is going to push every single student. Many won’t finish the exam. My tips for completing the exam in time are as follows:
- Use your reading time wisely. I recommend choosing an essay prompt and planning it in your head for the first five minutes. Then familiarise yourself briefly with the section B text, thinking particularly about purpose, register, context and function. Then, read the section A text and start answering the short answer questions in your head.
- When you writing time starts, power through your short answer questions. These are the easiest marks. You want to have them done and dusted. This should take 15-20 minutes.
- Do your essay / section C next, and finish with the AC. The reason you should do your essay before your AC is that if you run out of time, an unfinished AC is much less obvious (and will hurt your marks less) than an unfinished essay.
- Know where you can save time if needed. Ideally, you would be able to write your best possible AC and essay in the exam. But realistically, this probably isn’t going to happen with the time constraints. In other words, you need to have various tactics in your arsenal that will save you time with minimal cost to your marks. Know how to write a two-sentence essay conclusion. Practice writing short essay body paragraphs which are still detailed and concise. Be prepared to have one less example per paragraph in your AC. Cut your losses and know where the wisest cuts are.
Do you have any useful study tips?
Lastly, here are sone of my general some general study tips which I’ve found to be helpful in VCE and university.
- Make yourself a cup of tea every half hour as a little study break. This kept me sane during VCE. You don’t even need to make yourself a cuppa. Just do something as a regular short break that isn’t phone related.
- Place your phone in a different room when you need to lock in and get study done. I still do this for uni. Phone time is OK, but when you’re studying, you need to remove your phone because it will massively decrease your study efficiency.
- Make your study space comfortable but not distracting. Maybe buy a candle or some flowers, but do not have a stack of items which you can fiddle with to procrastinate.
- Use lists. When you sit down for a study session, create a short list of what you want to get done in that session. Every item on this list should be a specific, concrete goal, and this will give you direction and intent every time you settle down to study.
- Never leave study to the night before a SAC. My rule of thumb was always be prepared enough for a SAC such that if my friend’s spontaneously decided to hang out the night before my SAC, I would be able to go! I other words, aim to do your last SAC revision before the night before your SAC. This isn’t saying do not revise the day before your SAC though. It’s saying put yourself in a position where you don’t have to. This will open up your life a little bit more – you won’t be chained down to studying or have to cancel plans because you need to study. In this sense, this particular tip is not just a study tip but a tip on how to get balance.
That’s just about all the advice, tips, tricks and strategies I have for you all. Study hard, try to enjoy your VCE, and best of luck for the exam!
About the Author
I graduated in 2021 with a 99.95 ATAR and a study score of 50 in English Language (as well as Chemistry, Biology and Specialist Maths). I received three Premier’s awards and Melbourne University’s Chancellor’s Scholarship. Four years later, this is still crazy to me, because I didn’t go to a flash inner city private school, I didn’t have any tutors, and I didn’t buy any fancy extra resources. I grew up rurally, and the average study score in my year level was bang on 30. What I’m trying to get at here is the advice in this article works, and this advice is for you, regardless of what school you go to or what score you want to achieve.
