We all know that English is the one compulsory subject in the HSC, so your marks will count! There’s no doubt that it can be a tricky subject to navigate, especially if you’re more of a maths and science kind of person.
But guess what? Even if English isn’t your best (or favourite) subject, you can still ace it. Kieran is proof of this! That’s why we’ve sat down and had a chat with him because despite Kieran not enjoying HSC English, he managed to turn his marks around!
From scoring 60% in his first Year 12 English assessment task, he walked away with a final score of 81% for HSC English.
Now, that’s a huge improvement, so how did Kieran do it, how did he bounce back and find the motivation? You’re going to want to keep reading!
Shift Your Motivation
Do those Practice Questions
The Lead Up to Trials
Getting Support from Art of Smart
Changed Approach for HSC
You Don’t Have to Write Heaps
Shift Your Motivation
English just wasn’t Kieran’s thing. He much prefers more logical and structured subjects like Maths compared to English, which is subjective — you have to think on your feet and write a lot!
Kieran scored 60% in his first Year 12 English assessment which was an improvement for him, but he still had to find that extra motivation to get where he wanted to be. He told us that his marks in Year 11 were much worse. In his yearly exam, he scored 6 out of 20.
“Not caring about it [English] led to not really understanding it and not wanting to do well,” Kieran told us.
Once he began realising that English was compulsory and there was no way around that, he knew that he had to put in the effort to score well.
Kieran entered his Year 11 marks into an ATAR calculator to see what point he was at. “It sort of put into perspective, just how much English actually counted,” he said.
“You just got to remind yourself, I have to do it, whether I like it or not,” Kieran explained.
Do those Practice Questions
Once he had shifted his motivation, Kieran started putting effort into his notes and doing practice questions — something he had never done in Year 11.
At the start of Year 12, he started by writing dot points under each section of the essay — like an essay scaffold.
Kieran mentioned that he is quite a slow writer, so he didn’t have as much time to sit there and write out five full practice essays.
So by writing out dot points, it saved him time and he said, “It helped me understand, the contents of an essay”.
Later on in the year, Kieran started writing full introductions and paragraphs.
The Lead Up to Trials
Kieran did about two practice timed essays before Trials.
He spent a lot of time writing out quotes. He had about 40 quotes to remember and he admits that he left memorising them to the last minute.
“I think I was writing them the night before the actual assessment which did not help at all,” Kieran said.
When Kieran walked away with 40% in the Trials, he knew something really needed to change if he wanted to score high in English.
Getting Support from Art of Smart
Kieran worked with his tutor at Art of Smart to better understand the texts. That meant analysing the texts and writing a whole heap of practice essays.
There was this constant feedback loop which was helpful for him because it gave him that extra bit of support and details on how to improve. He mentioned that while he got feedback from his school, it wasn’t very specific.
“Getting feedback from a tutor is much better, because it’s kind of tailored to your style, and they sort of go, alright, you need to do this, this and this, rather than this is what’s wrong,” Kieran explained.
“I think that’s a lot more important, rather than just pointing out what’s wrong with your writing because that just gets me down,” he added.
Kieran said the best thing about Art of Smart tutoring was that “they really cared about me [him] and my [his] progress”.
Changed Approach for HSC
In the lead-up to his HSC exams, Kieran completely changed his approach.
He told us he did more timed practice essays, wrote out his quotes a few weeks in advance (instead of the night before), got his TEE tables organised and re-read some of the HSC texts.
So, there was this big turnaround in his study approach.
You Don’t Have to Write Heaps
Although Kieran was a slower essay writer, it didn’t matter! You don’t have to write over 5 pages to get the marks.
He wrote 2-3 pages per essay and still ended up with a Band 5 in English — so that’s proof you don’t have to write a novel, you just have to write well.
He told us the most important thing for slow writers is “word choice and choosing your quotes quite selectively and being comfortable with your analysis”.
This is something Kieran didn’t develop until the end of Year 12.
He said it’s important to know what you’re writing because you don’t have any time to lose, especially if you are a slower writer. You don’t have the time to stop and think for a minute.
Final Advice
“I think the main thing is don’t spend more time on Maths and Science or whatever than English — make it about 50/50,” Kieran said.
He said if that’s too hard, just try and make the time you give to each subject as equal as possible.
“If you’re struggling with one subject, make sure to put the effort in to get the marks,” Kieran told us.
So there you go!
Kieran managed to turn his marks around despite not loving HSC English. It’s definitely possible for you to do the same. Be sure to take on his advice and remember, English is the only compulsory subject so make sure you put the effort in!
Looking for some extra help to improve your HSC English marks?
We pride ourselves on our inspirational HSC English coaches and mentors!
We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!
Looking for a HSC English tutor in Wollongong? Get in contact today to get booked in with one of our experts!
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Tanna Nankivell is a Senior Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently in Germany completing a year of study for her double degree in Communications (Journalism) and Bachelor of Arts (International Studies). She has had articles published on Central News – the UTS Journalism Lab and wrote a feature piece for Time Out Sydney during her internship. Tanna has a love for travel and the great outdoors, you’ll either find her on the snowfields or in the ocean, teaching aqua aerobics or creating short films.
