VCE English is by far the most popular subject in the VCE, pretty much because you HAVE to do it unless you prefer VCE Literature or VCE English Language or you fit the requirements for ESL. English is also an important subject because it goes on your top four subjects in your ENTER increment. In the past, I’ve heard stories about people who obtained 50’s in every subject except in English. As a result, an ENTER that could have been a 99.95 got shot down significantly.

I have advice about year 12 English which I will dispense now in a random fashion.

STUDY THREE BOOKS FOR YOUR EXAM. Oh my goodness, study three. I was seriously considering only studying two (In the Lake of the Woods and The Wife of Martin Guerre). Anyway, I ended up being convinced by some people (teachers, fellow students, the Chief English Examiner…) that I should study three and I’m glad I did. I ended up writing on The Wife of Martin Guerre and Oedipus Rex because the In the Lake of the Woods topics sucked immensely. Give yourself the best chances possible for doing well!

When it comes to your oral presentation, practice like mad. When I did year 11 English we were required to do two oral presentations. I got a B for one and a C for the other. In year 12 I got an A for my oral presentation and it was actually my highest mark for the entire year of English. The difference was simply preparation. For year 12 English, I wrote my speech as early as possible and had memorised a great deal of it by the time I had to do it.

Aim to get the highest internal ranking of your school. That was my aim (and I don’t think I quite achieved it, but I was certainly up there). It means that if you bomb the exam, your GA1 and GA2 grades will still be quite high. It also means that if you get the top exam score as well, you’ll certainly get the best score in the school. In short, SACs matter!

Personally, I didn’t have to worry about that because my scaled unit 3 and 4 scores reflected my exam score but there are numerous examples of people who get a B on the exam, and still manage to get A’s for coursework which is due to a good internal ranking. So yes, remember that you are in competition with your peers, particularly when it comes to ranking – which is a significant part of your final study score.

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Erin is studying at Melbourne University in 2007. She like rubber duckies, fishies and ice-cream! :o)