Year 12 is often one of the most stressful times of a young person’s life.
You’ve got a whole load of assignments and tests on the go at any one time, and couple that with the impending end of your school life and everything you’ve ever known. It doesn’t help that you MUST pass your English WACE course in order to receive your WACE Certificate of Graduation. That means you must do well in your course work during the year, yes. But it also means that you are required to do well in your final WACE English exam. The fate of your entire 12 years of academic life comes down to three hours on a normal Monday morning in early November. So the question is, what is the key to passing your English exam. How do you do well in your English course? We’re glad you asked.
Start at the very beginning
Don’t make your life hard – begin studying and organising your year from the very beginning. The most successful year 12 students will begin their prep before semester even starts. It means that you can get ahead of your coursework, rather than be behind. Remember, you only have three terms this year – make them count!2
Keep notes!
Terms that you learn and texts that you study at the beginning of the year will seem like a distant blur to you come December. Create a matrix of all your themes and qutoes, keep a book of notes on each text that you do and make sure that you keep all of your practise essays and tests in a file to call back to when you are studying for your final set of exams.
Read the news
You may not know it now, but a third of your mark is dependent on your current affairs and general knowledge. English requires a broad range of knowledge and the questions you are asked in your exam will ask you to call on your understanding of different topics, including the state of affairs in the world. Pick a few topics and become an absolute expert in the subject matter. Start with social media, technology, and environmentalism and work from there.
One essay per week
As a minimum, you should be practising one essay (or comprehension, or creative piece) per week. By the end of the year, you will have completed about 44 practice questions just by doing one per week. This is going to set you apart as you will have seen all the different types of questions asked and you will have perfected how you write for English.
Read examples of other people’s work
The Good Answers Guide for English is published every year with exams of other students’ work. Whilst I wouldn’t take this for gospel and copy other peoples’ style of writing, it is always good to look for new angles and new vocabulary that you never even thought of! This can be purchased to the ETAWA website.
For more help with your WACE English exam coursework, contact us today! We offer a number of solutions to help you get that passing grade (and well above) that you need to graduate from high school.
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