HSC 2022: Marker’s prediction for English paper 1 essay question

A HSC marker has revealed her prediction for this year’s English Paper 1 essay and has a very good reason to back it up. See her six tips to nail the exam.

A veteran HSC marker has revealed a series of very simple but common errors students make in the HSC Paper 1 exam.

Cluey Learning’s English expert Dr Selina Samuels revealed her advice ahead of the exam on Wednesday — which will see students asked to answer a series of short questions about texts which they have never seen before.

That is in addition to an essay which will centre on “texts and human experiences” as well as a text they have studied in class.

Tip 1: Adapting to the length of the short answer questions

The most common errors I think in the short answer section are that students don’t adapt the length and depth of the answers to the number of marks the question is worth.

It’s really important that if it the question is worth two marks, that really requires students to make probably two statements, or just two sentences even. Often students spent too much time on the questions that are worth less points. If you practise, you can get quite good at doing that and moving through the paper at a good pace.

Cluey Learning’s Dr Selina Samuels. Picture: Supplied

Also, in the short answer section it is crucial that students look at what the question was asking.

For example, if a student had to read a short story and was then asked to analyse how the writer represented a particular theme, that meant it is not just simply about identifying techniques the writer has used — but about noting them and then linking them back to what impact those choices had.

If the question was worth six points, students must use that as a benchmark of how much to write.

The important thing in a question like that is that you really look at the techniques that the writers used, the choices that the writer has made and identify the reasons why they have made this choice. It could be because they want to have a particular impact or to have a particular effect on the reader.

In this example, students are not just making observations without explaining the effect of them — you have to put those two together.

No need to stress: there are certain things students can do now before the exam. Picture: iStock

Tip 2: Handwriting

I was marking for years. When you’re a HSC marker, you get very good at reading handwriting but for students the important thing is that you get you write as legibly as they can obviously — but you’ve also got to get a lot of content down

Tip 3: How to be strategic about the essay question

The questions in this section of the paper are likely to be fairly general because they’ve got to be applicable to a wide range of texts.

The most important thing is the opening — so in the introduction, students need to set the parameters of their answer to the question.

They should be very clear about how they are going to answer the question. And they need in that first paragraph to use the terminology of the question, not just restate the question, but to use the terminology of the question to demonstrate how they’re going to tackle the essay.

The biggest and most important thing is to read the question and in the essay answer that question — and not some other question that you rather hope it is.

Remembering quotes can be tricky but students do not necessarily have to get them 100 per cent correct, Dr Samuels says.

Tip 4: Writing the essay

You only have 45 minutes, you’ve got to write as much as you can and you want to make sure that your marker can see that you’ve answered the question.

You might write more than three body paragraphs and how fast you can write and what you want to say. But the important thing is to make sure that you’re always answering the question

Tip 5: Quotes

You should of course have some quotes memorised. Don’t panic if you can’t remember it 100 per cent perfectly, the marker’s aren’t going to penalise you if you got a single word wrong, it doesn’t work that way.

It’s about demonstrating that you have knowledge of the text which is the most important thing.

Tip 6: Re-read the text

In the final days and hours before the exam, you should re-read the text. If it’s a film, watch the film again

I think it’s better to have the text fresh in your mind, not necessarily trying to remember everything by heart. It is just about thinking about the text from as many different perspectives as possible so that you’re very familiar with it when you go in.

If you haven’t read the text at all, your marker will know

I’ve certainly come across plenty of exam papers when it’s quite clear that the student hasn’t read the text.