Head of English, Anthony Phillips invited 2018 graduates Abbey Henderson and Taylah Carozza to speak with the current Year 12 ATAR English students this week.

Before introducing Abbey and Taylah to share their top tips, Anthony spoke to the students about how the girls were brave throughout the year. He explained that they made decisions and backed themselves. He told the students ‘We would rather your opinions than ours on your exam papers, justify your opinion, think about why your response is your response and stand by it.” He also reminded the girls that many students who think English is not their subject, end up scoring well in it.

Both Abbey and Taylah performed strongly in their English ATAR exams, both received a Certificate of Excellence and finishing in the top 0.5 % of the state.

Here are Abbey and Taylah’s top study tips.

1. Don’t think you can’t study for English: You can! Practice questions, journals
2. Cut down but don’t quit: Don’t quit all of your co-curricular activities. Rather than quit, cut down so it’s maintainable. You’ll know what’s right for you.
3. Balance is important to maintain your overall wellbeing
4. Study smart, not hard: Use practice questions, group study sessions. Apply yourself to syllabus-based questions.
5. Organisation is key: Start studying early, it will lessen your stress.
6. Don’t just pick your top four subjects and focus only on them: Things can change. Both Abbey and Taylah, didn’t believe that English was one of their top subjects.
7. Get other people to edit your work: You might think that your work makes sense, but it might not to the exam marker. Have someone look at it for you and provide feedback.
8. Finally, make the most of Year 12.

And there was plenty more on narrative voice being vital along with genre and context; conventions and vocabulary; and ITEC/R charts. The pair gave specific advice for all three sections of the exam. Question time was fun and enlightening too.

Students found the PD very useful and a nice way to start the year.

In 2019 Taylah is going to be studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, majoring in Physiology and a second major in Communications and Media at the University of Western Australia. Abbey is going to be studying a Bachelor of Physiotherapy at Notre Dame.