ENGLISH EXAM Revision –

Semester TWO 2023

Year 11 ATAR English
COMPREHENDING
SECTION 1
1 HOUR
2 questions
Short Answer/Comprehension –
General tips for you (to study on your own)
• Revise your literary terms – if there’s anything in your Course Outline Glossary
that you don’t understand/would like more help with, ask me; you have to review
these terms, first, though!

• Read articles, short stories, and other short texts (as well as photographs) –
search around for one- to two-page texts and practice with them. What sticks out
to you?

• Time yourself – timing yourself helps you become more comfortable with the clock.
It can be your enemy, but it can also help you if you’re aware of it and use it
to guide you.

• We will work on comprehension in class today, but this is for you to do on your
own. I know ATAR English is not your only subject for your exams, but it is still
a vital part of those exams (and objectively the greatest subject)
Comprehension – back to basics
• Why? What’s the point? Why is this part of the exam?

• The purpose of the Comprehension Section is to assess your ability to read a

text, analyse for meaning, and identify specific elements that help convey that
meaning – basically, how well can you use the literary knowledge you’ve gained so
far?

• Your writing skills – while necessary to communicate your ideas – are not the
most important part of this (writing = 30% of your mark for this section)

• T.E.E.L. structure may not be the most exciting format for a response, but it is
there to help you – use it

• Your overall goal for the Comprehension Section should be accuracy and clarity
+ Have you identified what the question has asked? Have you used the correct terminology?
+ Have you clearly explained your answer AND how you arrived at your answer?
(we’ll break this down further)
Comprehension: the terminology & the ‘what’ and
‘how’ approach
Terminology related to the evidence/examples Terminology related to the curriculum
you use – THE HOW concepts/main topics you’ll write about – THE
WHAT
• Figurative language (metaphor, simile, & • Attitudes
analogy) • Values
• Emotive language • Ideas
• Persuasive techniques (rhetorical • Issues
questions, repetition, inclusive language, • The human experience
call to action, hyperbole, etc.) • Perspectives
• Tone & voice • Audience responses
• Point-of-view • (occasionally, items from the other column
• Form, medium, & genre are used here – e.g. you may be asked how
• Juxtaposition language features are used in the
• Imagery & descriptive language construction of the author’s voice)
• And more (personification, alliteration,
other language features, etc.)
Comprehension (AND Responding!) –
explaining the evidence
• Remember, the purpose of Comprehension is to assess your understanding
of the texts
• Identifying the right examples is only part of your answer; identifying
the main topic is another; clearly and explicitly linking these together
is the goal
• Tips: avoid words/phrases like: obviously…; as you can see…; this
clearly shows that… - don’t treat your ideas as obvious (even though
they might be!)
+ Don’t describe an example as ‘clear’ or ‘obvious’ – make it obvious in your
explanation
Sample Text: Analyse how the complex relationship between people and communities
is represented in this text.
An extract from the novel A Sport and a Pastime (1967) by James Salter.

This blue, indolent town. Its cats. Its pale sky. The empty sky of morning, drained and pure. Its deep, cloven streets. Its narrow courts, the
faint, rotten odour within, orange peels lying in the corners. The uneven curbstones, their edges worn away. A town of doctors, all with large
houses. Cousson, Proby, Gilot. Even the streets are named for them. Passageways through the Roman Wall. The Porte de Breuil, its iron railings sunk
into the stone like climbers’ spikes. The women come up the steep grade out of breath, their lungs creaking. A town still rich with bicycles. In the
mornings they flow softly past. In the streets there’s the smell of bread.

I am awake before dawn, 0545, the bells striking three times, far off and then a moment later very near. The most devout moments of my life have
been spent in bed at night listening to those bells. They flood over me, drawing me out of myself. I know where I am suddenly: part of this town and
happy. I lean out of the window and am washed by the cool air, air it seems no one has yet breathed. Three boys on motorbikes going by. And then the
pure, melancholy, first blue of morning begins. The air one can bathe in. The electric shriek of a train. Heels on the sidewalk. The first birds. I
cannot sleep.

I stand in line in the shops, no one notices. The girls are moving back and forth behind the counters, girls with white faces, with ankles white as
soap, worn shoes going at the outside toe, dresses showing beneath the white smocks. Their fingernails are short. In the winter their cheeks will be
splotched with red.

“Monsieur?” *

They wait for me to speak, and of course it all vanishes then. They know I’m a foreigner. It makes me a little uneasy. I’d like to be able to talk
without the slightest trace of accent – I have the ear for it, I'm told. I'd like, impossible, to understand everything that’s said on the radio,
the words of the songs. I would like to pass unseen. The little bell hung inside the door rings as I go out, that’s all. I come back to the house,
open the gate, close it again behind me. The click is a pleasing sound. The gravel, small as peas, moves beneath my feet and from it a faint dust
rises, the perfume of the town. I breathe it in. I’m beginning to know it, and the neighbourhoods as well. A geography of favoured streets is
forming itself for me while I sleep. This intricate town is unfolding, detail by detail, piece by piece. I walk along the river on the bank between
two bridges. I stroll through the cemetery that glitters like jewellery in the last, slanting light. It seems I am seeing an estate, passing among
properties that will someday be mine.

* Monsieur: French word for Mr or Sir

 Sample response:
• TOPIC SENTENCE/ELABORATIONAnalyse
- Text how One explores
the complex thebetween
relationship idea people
that and
individuals may havein this
communities is represented an text.
affinity towards some
aspects of a community but feel marginalised by others. This creates a complex relationship between the
individual person and their community as they are neither fully accepted or are rejected. The speaker in the
extract is shown to feel a deep connection to the physical setting of the town.

• EXAMPLE EXPLAIN - This is conveyed by the second paragraph which features emotive imagery of the morning
landscape such as “washed by the cool air”. The personification of the air furthers the concept of a strong
affinity with the town by referencing the relationship the speaker and the air ‘one can bathe in.’ The simple
imperative concluding the paragraph, “I cannot sleep”, conveys that the speaker is physically incapable of sleep
when the option of experiencing the town’s landscape is presented. Complexity arises however in the fact that
the individual feels marginalised by his ability to connect to the town’s people due to difference in language.
The juxtaposition between the relationship with place and estrangement from people reveals that belonging is far
more complex than initially thought.

• EXAMPLE EXPLAIN - The disconnect to local residents is shown by the quote “Monsieur.” It is written in italics
and has been given its own line which draws attention to it and highlights its importance. The difference in
language between this word (French) and the rest of the extract (English) portrays the root cause of the
problem. The line “it all vanishes” conveys how the previous relationship with the community is completely
replaced by feelings of rejection. However, the final paragraph repeats the positive feelings as felt at the
beginning of the extract, reforming the broken bond.

• LINK - To conclude, Text one examines the complexity of the relationship between people and communities by
slowing how both positive and negative results can arise from such a bond.
 Explaining Evidence - tips
• Always explain in relation to the question – this also includes choosing the
right examples; if the Q asks you about values in a text, don’t explain a quote
that relates to a societal issue

• Explain the ‘obvious’ – never assume that it’s clear what the author’s intentions
are
+ Comprehension is assessing your ability to read, understand, and analyse – your
explanations are key to this
+ Texts can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways – claiming that an example “obviously”
conveys a certain meaning is assuming that everyone read the text the same way you did

• Aim for 2-3 sentences per example – if nothing else, sticking to this rule will
force you to spend more time on each quote/example; it’s your job to justify why
you have selected that particular example
RESPONDING
SECTION 2
1 HOUR
SOME CONCEPTS TO REVISE
FURTHER…
Values – Part One
• Values are what we deem important or – as the name implies – valuable

• Values are usually positive, but be careful with this: what you consider harmful may be
considered of value by someone else
+ Bank robbers value using their skill to steal from others; someone in power may value obedience
while someone without power may value having their voice heard; raccoons value rubbish and food
scraps; etc.

• The author of a text may promote their own value(s), or they may have various characters
with different/conflicting values in the same text
+ Baba and Afghan/American culture have conflicting values of religion, family, and education
+ Eldon Tyrell and Roy Batty (the replicants) have conflicting values of life, truth, and scientific
progress
+ Alec Hardy & (insert almost any character here) have conflicting values of family, religion,
community, tradition, marriage
Values – matching and describing
• What values (3x) can you identify for each of our studied texts below?

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly

Broadchurch by Chris Chibnall

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

“Hills Like White Elephants” by

Ernest Hemingway
Values – Part Two
• It isn’t enough to simply state the value in its simplest terms (i.e. truth)

• When explaining values, state them in detail in relation to that particular

author/character
+ Baba values tradition by emphasising the need for Amir to uphold to societal expectations

• How could we describe the value of community in Broadchurch?

• Could we describe the value of religion in 3 texts we’ve studied this year?
If so, how? How are they different?

• Once you’ve identified them, always look at what the text is saying by
promoting/challenging certain values; why are they being challenged/promoted at
all?
Attitudes – Part One
• Attitudes can be defined in two ways:
+ An opinion or viewpoint about a subject
+ A reaction to a subject
+ (“A subject” might be a person, group of people, event, and/or
a theme)

• Depending on what the Q is asking, you may refer to

the attitudes of a character, of the author, of the
text itself, of society, and/or of the reader/viewer
 Attitudes – Part Two
• Identifying an attitude can be tricky, because you have to be clear about:
+ Who has the attitude
+ Who/what that attitude is towards (this is important – attitudes do not exist on their own;
they are a reaction to/opinion about something else!)
+ What that attitude actually is (as a general rule, all attitudes are at least either positive
or negative – this is the bare minimum when identifying an attitude)
+ E.g. Ms. Zdravkovic has a positive attitude towards her students.

• Once you’ve identified the attitude, strengthen it with tone words: if it’s negative,
it might also be dismissive, critical, hateful, rebellious, etc; if it’s positive, it
might also be encouraging, trusting, considerate, optimistic, etc
+ E.g. Ms. Zdravkovic has a considerate attitude towards her students and the fact that each of
them have multiple exams to study for this week.
 Attitudes – Part Three
• As with values, look at how the text treats the attitudes
• Can you identify:
+ Victor’s attitude towards his creation?
+ Donnie Darko’s attitude towards the adult world and its hypocrisy?
+ The townspeople’s attitudes towards the accused in Broadchurch? In “The Lottery”?
+ The American man’s attitude towards his girlfriend and her pregnancy in “Hills Like White
Elephants?

• Choose one (or more) of these and tell me if the text itself critiques or endorses
that attitude; are these characters proven “right” or “wrong” by the end?
What might the text be trying to say through these attitudes?
Perspectives – Part One
• Each of us have our own values and our own attitudes towards the world and those
around us (it’s as if there’s a reason we study these concepts with fictional
characters!)

• Those attitudes and values are informed by our individual perspectives. This
includes: who we are, what group(s) we belong to, where we’re from, our social
status/occupation, etc.

• Seeing the world from someone else’s perspective is how we enrich and expand our
own view of the world

• With perspectives in English, we typically talk about them in two ways:

+ The perspective of a character in the text
+ The perspective of an audience reading/viewing the text (ideological perspectives)
Perspectives – Part Two
• For a character’s perspective (OFFERED):
+ What is their age, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality,
occupation, etc?
+ What do they value? What are their attitudes?
+ What can we learn by looking at the world/others from their perspective?

• Your turn:
+ Where does Victor’s educated perspective come from? (context, values,
attitudes, etc)
+ Where does Donnie’s nihilistic perspective come from?
+ What about Alec Hardy’s?
Perspectives – Part Two, cont’d
• For an audience perspective (APPLIED):
+ Is the audience from the same or different context as the text?
+ If possible (and if you’re prepared to do so), apply an ideological perspective
(we also call these lenses or readings): feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytical,
etc.

• Your turn:
+ Which text(s) could you look at from a feminist perspective? What about a
Marxist perspective?
+ Which text(s) might be interpreted differently by an audience from a different
context?
Perspectives – Part Three
• Now what? You’ve identified a perspective, but how do you write about it?

• You can describe character’s perspectives with adjectives (Victor’s enlightened and
scientific perspective, Alec’s sceptical perspective, etc) or by describing a group
the character belongs to (the Monster’s marginalised perspective, the silenced
perspective of women etc)

• The rest depends on what the question asks: some Qs may ask you to consider if a text
offered a “new” or “alternate” perspective; some Qs might ask how a perspective was
“constructed” or “offered” by the text.

• Usually, though, you’ll want to discuss what message or information we can gain from a
particular perspective.
Time Management
• Have a plan – though it’s difficult to do for the Comprehension Section, for Composing &
Responding you can go into the exam with a general idea of what you might write about:
+ Responding: which text(s) will you focus on? What are the main theme/issues/ideas from this text?
How has the author presented or written this text that is purposeful/creative?
+ Composing: will you write an imaginative, interpretive, or persuasive text? What general ideas for
this text type can you brainstorm now – before the exam?

• **a note on having a plan:

Do not prewrite an entire essay and force it to answer a specific question. Don’t
prewrite a memoir or short story and force it to address a specific prompt. Having a
plan means knowing – in broad strokes – what you can write about, not memorising
something that earned you good marks earlier in the year

• 5 minutes of planning – force yourself to stop and plan before you start writing for all
three sections; a little bit of planning can go a long, long way!
COMPOSING
SECTION 3
1 HOUR

• The Composing section asks for an imaginative,

persuasive, or interpretive text.
• Write what you write best, but my advice would be: if
you don’t feel confident writing a short story, write
a memoir. Memoirs come from your own experience, and
are therefore more earnest, more genuine, and more
well-written than a basic persuasive essay.
 Time Management – figure out your order
now:
• You have a set amount of time to sit the English exam. You also have the
freedom to start, pause, and switch between sections at will.
• Form a plan now.
+ Will you start the easiest (for you) first and leave the more difficult sections
for later?
+ Will you start the more difficult (for you) first and leave the easier sections
for later?
+ Not a trick question: do what works for you! But have a plan before you go in

• Try not to switch in the middle – finish a section completely before you
move onto the next
Breathe 
• You’ve got this! This is your second exam this year – you know what to expect and you’re
wiser now

• The Responding section is worth the most: make sure you revise a text(s) we studied this
year

• The Comprehending section involves unseen texts, but revising your literary terms and
how to discuss them will help you for both this and the Responding sections

• The Composing section asks for an imaginative, persuasive, or interpretive text. Write
what you write best, but my advice would be: if you don’t feel confident writing a short
story, write a memoir. Memoirs come from your own experience, and are therefore more
earnest, more genuine, and more well-written than a basic persuasive essay.

• I’m in your corner every step of the way: obviously it’s my job, but I genuinely want
each of you to knock this one out of the park. I’m here to answer questions and – when
possible – offer my time to help you how I can. 