The 4-Step Exam Preparation Plan So You Can Ace Your HSC English Trial Exams

Here’s the TL;DR:

• I’ll show you exactly how to structure your study and prep for HSC English so you can boost your essay marks worth 60% of your total marks in your HSC Trials (and unlock that Band 6!)

Why trust me? 

• This approach is based on a decade of research with 2,500 students who scored 98+ ATARs (including English State Rankers and Perfect ATAR scorers)
• We’ve used this to support thousands of students at Art of Smart to improve their marks by 20% on average

To ace essay writing in your HSC English in your Trials, you need to:

Step 1: Polish Your Quote Tables for Your Texts

Step 2: Build a Library of Thesis Statements & Topic Sentences

Step 3: Polish a Model Essay for Each Module

Step 4: Use the Rule of 3 Strategy to Practice Writing in Exam Conditions

Step 5: Have a Clear Plan for When You’ll Do Each of These Steps

Let’s dive into each step and how you can do it fast.

Step 1: Polish Your Quote Tables for Your Texts

Your quote tables are the meat of any essay you write — they are your supporting evidence and will become the core of your paragraphs.

If your quote tables are weak, your essays will be weak 😕

This is why you need to review:

1. Your quotes to make sure you’ve found the best ones
2. Your techniques so that you’ve picked the most sophisticated one
3. Your explanation of how the technique creates meaning

This ensures your foundation will be strong when you start writing practice essays in exam conditions.

How to Review Your Quotes in Less Than 3 Minutes

Sign up or log in to Artie, our AI English tutor for FREE!

Select the ‘Find Quotes’ tool, and select your text, and thematic or character focus.

This will give you a list of the relevant quotes for this idea. Review the list you have in your quote & analysis table.

Have you missed any? If so, add them into your table.

How to Find the Most Sophisticated Techniques in 10 Seconds

Not all techniques are made equal.

There is a hierarchy of sophistication in the techniques you should use — and you want to make sure you’re using the most sophisticated techniques possible that are relevant to your argument.

Here’s how to identify and check if you’ve got the best ones quickly:

In Artie, insert your quote into the ‘Identify Techniques’ tool, and select your text.

Artie, in less than 10 seconds, will show you the most sophisticated techniques (in order of sophistication) in your quote.

Review your quote and analysis table and update it if needed.

How to Improve The Effect of the Technique in Creating Meaning

How does the technique create meaning? 

This is critical because when you write your paragraphs, you’ll need to link this to the idea you are arguing in your topic sentence. 

Review the effect of your chosen technique in your quote table.

In the ‘Identify techniques’ tool in Artie, it will show you how the technique creates meaning.

Add this to your quote table if it’s missing.

Step 2: Build a Library of Thesis Statements & Topic Sentences

Great, you’ve now got a strong foundation with your quote tables.

There’s still one BIG problem:

Even if you have great textual evidence, if your thesis statement and argument suck, it will drag your entire essay mark down.

Do you find it easy to come up with sophisticated thesis statements and topic sentences to an unseen question, in an exam environment?

I doubt it… This is one of the most difficult things to do.

The way we solve this is to develop a library of thesis statements and topic sentences in practice.

This way, when you get into the exam, you’ll likely get a similar question, and instead of having to make something up, you can delve into your library of thesis statements & topic sentences.

Pick the best one and tweak it and you have a highly sophisticated argument to use in your exam.

This means that it’s critical to build this library before the exam.

Here’s how you can do it fast:

Generate Practice Essay Questions for Your Text & Module

You’ll first need to have a list of likely essay questions you could receive in your HSC Trials for each of your Modules.

We’ve got a free list of practice essay questions you can use.

Or you can also generate unlimited numbers using Artie.

Hit the ‘Essay Question Maker’ tool, and input your text and Module. It’ll then predict possible HSC English essay questions you can use.

Build a Thesis Statement for the New Essay Question

Now that you’ve got a list of essay questions, it’s time to build your thesis statements for each one so you can add it to your library.

Ideally, you should have at least 3 thesis statements in your library per Module (make sure they’re for quite different questions, so you’ve got coverage for what you might get in the exam!)

Check out our definitive guide on building Band 6 thesis statements. 

Option #1: Write Your Thesis Statement with a Timer

Give yourself a 10-minute timer, and craft a thesis statement. This will help you both build your exam technique, while also building your thesis statement library.

Then log in and work with Artie our AI English Tutor to quickly in < 5 minutes get feedback on your thesis statement and polish it!

Option #2: Work with Artie Step by Step to Build Your Thesis Statement

Or you can work with Artie, who will guide you step by step through crafting a sophisticated thesis.

Select the ‘Thesis Statement’ tool, select your text, and essay question, and Artie will help you craft a Band 6 thesis 🙂

Craft Topic Sentences for the Thesis Statement

Now that you’ve got at least 3 thesis statements in your library, it’s time to build out the topic sentences (and your arguments) for each one!

This way, you don’t need to come up with these completely from scratch in your HSC Trial exam — you’ll have a bunch you can remix and quickly use in your exam while ensuring they are high quality!

Option #1: Write Your Topic Sentences with a Timer

Give yourself a 15-minute timer (5 minutes per topic sentence) and write your 3 topic sentences. This will help you both build your exam technique, while also building your topic sentence library.

Then log in and work with Artie, our AI English Tutor, to quickly in <5 minutes get feedback on your topic sentences, including the progression across all of them and then polish it!

Option #2: Work with Artie Step by Step to Build Your Topic Sentences

Or you can work with Artie, who will guide you step by step through crafting a sophisticated topic sentence.

Select the ‘Topic Sentence’ tool, select your text, and essay question, and Artie will help you craft a Band 6 thesis 🙂

Rinse and Repeat at Least 3 Times for Each Module

We recommend that the minimum thesis statements and topic sentences in your library is at least 3 per module.

This will enable you to cover different types of essay questions (e.g. including Technique, Form, To What Extent, Thematic or Genre Essay Questions).

And you need to make sure you’ve covered every Module you’ll get an essay for!

Once you’ve done this, it’s now time to move to Step 3!

Step 3: Polish a Model Essay for Each Module

OK, this might seem intense, and mean, but it’s just the honest truth.

If you’re aiming for a 17/20, or a 19/20 (or whatever mark you want), if you haven’t written an essay in practice, where you scored AT LEAST that same mark, you will NEVER achieve that mark in the HSC Trials 🚨

That’s because practice is WAAAAY easier. You’ve got all the time in the world, with no exam pressure, and you can workshop with a tutor (like Artie, our AI Tutor), and get lots of feedback.

If you still can’t with all of this support and time write an essay that hits your goal mark in practice, it will not happen in the HSC Trials.

You’ll be facing an unseen question, in an exam hall, with a timer ticking down. Scary right?

So, the next step is making sure you can write an essay for each of your Modules at the same quality level you want to score in your HSC Trial exams.

This way, you will be much more likely to achieve this mark in HSC Trials.

To score a 18/20 in your HSC Trials, you need to be writing at least an 18/20 in practice before ⬆️

So this is where you now need to pull out an essay you’ve already written (perhaps it was for your assessment) and you’ve got to polish it and polish it until it’s at the level you want to ideally score in your HSC Trial exam.

This is where I’d recommend working with Artie to help you polish it.

Artie will give you feedback on each component of your essay (including your thesis statement, topic sentences, quote analysis) identifying exactly where you can improve, and then you can work with Artie step by step to polish it.

You can then input your introduction, paragraphs and conclusions and Artie will help you polish these as well 🙂

Log in to Artie now for FREE! ✅

Once you’ve polished each of your essays, you’ve now built the foundation you need (quote tables, thesis & topic sentence library and polished essay) to being your exam practice!

Step 4: Use the Rule of 3 Strategy to Practice Writing in Exam Conditions

To write an incredibly sophisticated response to an unseen essay question in timed conditions, you need:

1. Be able to come up with a high quality thesis statement + supporting arguments quickly
2. Know all your quotes, techniques and effects from memory
3. Use and adapt all of this to craft your response to the question you’ve received

If you’re doing this for the first time in your HSC Trial exam, you’re going to suck at it, and not do very well.

So practice is important.

That’s where the Rule of 3 strategy comes into play.

The Rule of 3 is super simple, but incredibly powerful.

You then rinse and repeat this for every Module.

Why does the Rule of 3 strategy work?

• You are practising 3 times taking your library of thesis statements and topic sentences, and in exam timed conditions adapting them to the new questions you are responding to. This will enable you to do this lightning fast in the HSC Trial exam.
• You’re rewriting out your quotes, techniques, and effect multiple times, supporting you in memorising these word for word + you’re also practising adapting these to different questions.
• You’re practising writing under timed exam conditions, building your writing speed and confidence!

You’re probably wondering now, “How do I actually get all of this done?”

Step 5: Build Your Plan for When You’ll Work on Each Step

Firstly, here’s a checklist you can download to use to keep track of what you need to do:

If you’ve got 30 days until your HSC Trial exams, here’s a timeline we recommend achieving these by:

So, ready to get started?

Sign up for free here to work with Artie, our AI English tutor, to help you fast track your HSC Trials preparation!

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Rowan Kunz is the founder of Art of Smart Education, an award-winning provider of 1 on 1 tutoring and mentoring. Rowan has spent the last 8 years conducting research with thousands of Australia’s top students who scored ATARs of over 98 and is the author of Secrets of HSC Success Revealed. Rowan has 10 years experience in tutoring and delivers workshops across Australia on excelling academically at school. Rowan’s videos on YouTube have been watched more than 1,000,000+ times.