HSC English paper 1 2023: Marker reveals biggest time-waster for unseen texts
A former HSC marker has revealed her predictions for the first paper Year 12 students will sit. With the English paper 1 exam starting tomorrow, these are the experts’ tips.
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A veteran HSC marker has revealed what students must expect from their first exam, and why they can’t risk having strong opinions on the extracts within – no matter how confusing they seem.
Every HSC student will begin the written test period with an English exam, as it’s the only subject currently mandatory for NSW’s most common high school credential.
The vast majority, including standard and advanced English students, will undertake a 100-minute common paper testing their analysis of five unseen texts and ability to write an essay about a prescribed text in response to an unseen question.
Unseen texts have long been a source of frustration for students, with some even targeting abuse at the authors of the texts after their exams. Vietnamese Australian poet Ocean Vuong was inundated with complaints from HSC students after an excerpt from his novel was included in the 2021 paper.
Cluey Learning’s Dr Selina Samuels, an English tutor with years of HSC marking experience, said the key to getting through the first section is being “very clinical” about the texts, and not getting distracted by your feelings about them.
“It’s not really up to the student to have a view, in fact it’s probably better not to have a view about whether you like the text or not. Don’t waste time with that, you’re really just looking for things that you can say about the way in which the text has been composed,” she said.
“(The questions) increase in difficulty and there will be a trickiness to one of at least one of the excerpts whether it’s prose or poetry.
“Make as many observations as there are marks allocated to that question. The first questions should be fairly straightforward, so don’t overthink it.
“By and large, the format of these questions doesn’t change terribly much from one year to the next, so students should know what to expect – the most important thing is that they do some practice papers.”
Matrix Education English co-ordinator and PhD in English Literature Trish May said the short response section is the one that trips most students up, but the high-achieving students have a common habit.
“That part of the paper, we find, is the one that often schools don’t spend a lot of time helping students to prepare for, because there’s so much content that you have to get through with the rest of the syllabus,” Dr May said.
“I think, understandably, schools say ‘we’ve got to get through the set text’, but that first section of the paper is actually half the marks on offer.”
The students who find Section I most challenging, she said, are those who don’t read widely outside of the classroom.
“The students who are reading in their leisure time have quite a big advantage over a lot of other students.”
Related: TikTok star on track for 99+ ATAR gives her top tips, watch the video.
DR MAY’S TOP TIPS FOR ENGLISH PAPER 1
Expect the worst from unseen texts:
“If you hate poetry, and you find poetry really challenging, and you don’t read poetry, expect that there’s going to be a really difficult poem. Do what you can in the lead up to the exam to expose yourself to examples of that form of writing, and polish up your knowledge of different technical aspects that you could talk about in a response.”
Swap practice papers with mates:
“In the lead-up to the HSC, you can’t just be bombarding your class teacher … so form study groups with your peers. If you have a group of friends, sit down and sit a practice paper together, then you can mark each other’s responses.”
Budget your time:
In mock exams, Dr May often sees students writing more for a four-mark question they prefer over a seven-mark question they dislike.
“In the short response section, you really, really, really need to be using the time cleverly. You need to be looking at the number of marks on offer for each question and then making sure that you don’t overwrite.”
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