The prepared essay debate November 4, 2009
Posted by eruditehsc in HSC English.trackback
As a teacher with many years experience, I’ve never thought learning the essay was a good idea:
- if you prepare your answers and rely on them, do you actually read the question and address the issues in the question?
- what do you do when the learned essay doesn’t fit the question?
The purpose of an exam is to test your knowledge. In English, reading the question carefully and then answering the question that has been set is part of that process. This means selecting from the body of knowledge that you have developed over the year just the right material and quotations to address the issues in the question.
Using rote learned answers shows up in a number of ways:
- the phrasing from a past question, even using the terms of a past question
- passages that lack direct reference to the question
- an argument that doesn’t align with the set question
- failure to refer to the issues in the question set despite evident knowledge
Learning the answers can be a product of a lack of confidence or a belief that there is a right answer of some sort. There isn’t. There are many ways to answer a question but whatever the answer, the question on the day must be answered: thoroughly, with textual reference and with appropriate quotations.
Learning pre-prepared answers is a bit like leaning heavily on publishers study notes. It doesn’t suggest your have engaged with the text. You need to show your understanding of the text, not someone else’s and certainly not one that can be accessed by everyone studying the text.
So what can a student really do?
Everyone in my grade uses prepared essays and our head teacher tells us whilst we should not memorise essays, we must do many many practice essays and get feedback from the teachers. So in a sense, aren’t we preparing as well?
Also, I go to JR and most students there receive a band 6 for English.
Practise essays are about getting the skills to deconstruct a question and use the information you have to shape an answer. If you know the whole text and the elective then you have the material to answer any question. If you answer one practice question and rely on the example you used in it then you have not given yourself the breadth of knowledge to answer any question, only one or one like it. Examiners try not to repeat themselves. If you learn the whole text and the whole elective then it will mean more to you demonstrating student engagement – which the markers want. You will be able to better answer those your understanding questions because it all means more to you because you engaged with it all rather than worked out shortcuts.
I assume James Ruse is JR. I know you get spectacular results. There is something in the spoil or the water there. But the point remains the same. You study properly then you are learning skills for life; not for the short term. You can’t at uni learn the essay and certainly not in the workplace where you have to respond to the moment on occassions in any job with responsibility.