English can often be one of those subjects that is hard to grasp. There is not one formulaic way to write the perfect essay, and often, you have to try to find a little ‘writing style’ of your own!
If you are struggling to grasp the concepts and methods of how to succeed in English, you have come to the right place! In this article, we’ll discuss Ashim’s English success story!
At the beginning of the year, Ashim received an 8/20 for his first English assessment, but multiplied this mark terrifically, receiving an amazing 74 percent overall for his HSC – a staggering 34% mark improvement! How did he turn around his mark you ask?
Well, read on to find out!
Tip 1: Recognise the problem
Tip 2: Seek help!
Tip 3: Put in the work
Tip 4: Write practice essays and get feedback
Tip 5: Expose yourself to a variety of questions
Tip 1: Recognise the problem
This is probably one of the most important steps to begin with if you want to turn your marks around whether this be close to the HSC, Trials, or at the beginning of your senior year! You’re probably wondering what it means to ‘recognise the problem’ as this can encapsulate a variety of things.
Well, in many ways, you must ‘analyse’ your situation, which will be specific and unique to you! Take a look at the task you didn’t do so well in, and think about how you prepared for the task.
Was it the case that you actually didn’t know some key concepts that were required in your response, or was it that you didn’t understand how to properly analyse a piece of evidence, or was your study not effective, or did you not put in the proper amount of effort?!
These are just some questions you want to ask yourself so that when you go searching for support, you know exactly which area you must target!
In Ashim’s case, he realised that his problem was not putting in enough effort!
Ashim said, “First recognise the problem – I needed to change the amount of time I spent doing English from zero, to about 4 hours per week.”
Tip 2: Seek help!
This is another super important tip that many students don’t end up doing in their senior year! It cannot be stressed enough that whenever you have any questions or concerns about a topic, or a subject, to reach out to either a fellow student, a teacher or a tutor!
This type of external support can really aid the learning process where you feel as though someone has your back, and that you have someone you can rely on to ask questions and develop not only in your subject, but in the skills needed to ace that subject.
This is exactly what Ashim did to improve his marks! Once realising that perhaps putting in the extra work was not enough and that he might need some extra support from an external source other than his teachers, he decided to get himself a tutor.
“I started asking for help from teachers, but when I realised that I needed a little more help, I then decided to get a tutor,” reflected Ashim.
Tip 3: Put in the work
The next step that Ashim took to turn his English marks around was to put in the extra effort and really pack down on the work! This is a super effective strategy for any subject, but English in particular as it is a subject that requires a build up of skill which can only really occur through practice, practice, practice!
Ashim realised that completing assignments last minute was not the best idea, so he started getting in a more organised and structured study routine, where he would start assignments and homework pieces early so that he could get feedback on such tasks and improve his work for next time.
Ashim told us, “I started doing things beforehand — I was writing practice essays, sending them over to teachers and tutors and I was attending one-on-one tutoring sessions at Art of Smart.“
“If I’ve got homework, I would do it at the beginning instead of leaving it to the very last minute. I tried to stop messing around and start doing more English,” Ashim stated.
Tip 4: Write practice essays and get feedback
Ashim’s next assessment showed a drastic amount of improvement — from an 8/20 to a 14/20! Ashim realised the importance of the work he was putting in and was given some positive momentum with the good results that he had achieved.
From this point onwards, Ashim continued to pack down on English work — writing a tonne of practice essays and creating a feedback and improvement loop!
Once receiving feedback for the work that Ashim gave to his teachers and tutors, he would then examine where he went wrong and implement the comments given to him into his next practice essay.
Ashim mentioned, “To prepare for Trials, I wrote a lot of practice essays and sent them to my tutor. I was also getting a lot of help from the group classes – asking if my Mod C work made sense, if this was the correct way to structure and write things up.”
“It was a constant back and forth between tutors and teachers,” said Ashim
Ashim reflected upon the feedback loop he created by saying, “It was about getting the feedback and applying that feedback. It was just a constant cycle of that.”
If you’re on the hunt for a tutor to provide feedback, our incredible Blacktown tutors can support you!
Tip 5: Expose yourself to a variety of questions
The English HSC can be super daunting, especially with the unseen questions. But, the best way to practise responding to unseen questions is by practising and exposing yourself to multiple questions and question types!
This is exactly how Ashim practised, especially as it neared HSC exam time. He would continually write practice essays based on a variety of questions, and sometimes even make up questions of his own, just so that when exam time came, he was fully confident and prepared!
“Remember to do practice questions, you all have quite a bit of material to go off of,” remarked Ashim.
And that’s how Ashim turned his English marks around and aced HSC English!
Check out this guide on how to achieve a Band 6 in HSC Creative Writing!!
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Yasmin Hasan is a current first year psychology student at UNSW. She loves making art, playing piano or reading in her spare time. She graduated from high school in 2021 so her memories of her own high school experience are still quite fresh. She would love to use her own experiences to help other students build their confidence and improve in their academics!
