Hey, not an advanced student but I have talked quite extensively with high ranking advanced students at my school and have worked a bit to mimic the writing styles used in advanced to get higher marks, and what often comes up is looking at past responses and essays from top ranking students, and noting how they tend to write and the structures that tend to score, I remember looking at https://boredofstudies.org/threads/free-english-advanced-essays.351807, as the essays Sida wrote tend to have a very uniform structure and score quite well. Boosted my marks by a ton, and after struggling for over three years I now have teachers asking why I didn't go through advanced.
Inspired ED also has some day long workshops talking about how to boost marks, they covered the more intricate aspects of how the short response sections are marked, which some schools don't properly explain.
Here are some of the notes I took from that day, I was in the Standard workshop, but the basics are pretty similar across the board.
Reading Time
Note the marks for each question
Try short response first
Read question and highlight key descriptors, break down descriptors, topic, and key ideas
Answering Section 1
Read the question before the text, find key ideas relating to the question.
Know the verbs used for questions in short response
Identify the topic of the question
Look for obvious and common features
Look for quotes that show the key ideas and topic from the question.
Only discuss points relevant to the question
Analysis must fit the question, include explanation of how the quote relates to the question
Quotes do not explain themselves
Extended Response – Section 1
Will normally be one of the last questions
Write a mini essay, using an introduction, body paragraph and conclusion
Use standard essay structure for paragraphs
May require comparing, contrasting or evaluating one or more texts. Use language that acknowledges the essay verb
2 Mark question
One and one – one textual evidence and one explanation of why it answers the question
3 mark question
Two and two – two textual evidence and two explanations of choices
4 mark question
Three and three – three textual evidence and three explanations
5 mark question
One third of an essay – needs development and structure, usually a 3-4 mark response with a judgement of effectiveness at the end
6 mark question
Further discussion of the texts and justification of your argument
7-8 mark question (One or TWO texts)
Mini intro
Answer the question (thesis)
Outline how this relates to the question
Body paragraph (up to two, keep short)
Topic sentence for idea 1
2-3 example and analysis sentences
Mini conclusion
Link points back to the question and summarize main ideas
Answering Section 2
Essays are marked on
Concept – the big ideas of the text, topics and thesis are relevant, using the rubric
Evidence – techniques, quotes and analysis
Looking for evidence from across the text, a variety of different technique varieties
Structure – organized, cohesive structure, sophisticated language
They also spent quite a bit of time focusing on what makes a band 6 essay, and here are the notes I took from that
Band 6 Essays will have
Detailed introductions
Concept based topic sentences, addressing key concepts from the rubric and the question
Well selected, textual evidence – from across all parts of the text to develop topics
Fancy words
Answer the question specifically (embed the question in your thesis and unpack the meaning/answer)
Synthesis – to question, to rubric word, the thesis
Of course, this will vary a bit but mimicking how advanced students write has significantly boosted the marks that I have been receiving, so something is working in there at least, and should hopefully work for you. You can also find predictions for the next questions during the HSC, where people will look at the typical patterns of how questions are structured from year to year and will try and predict the likely topics, I'll update this tomorrow after the first exam with how well that worked out, but being able to effectively write a good essay on the fly by knowing your text well enough to make stuff up on the spot is a great talent.
All it takes is a bad question, poor predictions, or relying too much on confidence in a purpose built essay without the ability to drastically change it to make a prepared essay useless. That mistake forced a large portion of my year group to drop advanced since their grade tanked, then they all did it again in standard. None of those students were bad at the subject, just relied too much on making essays beforehand to rewrite in the exam.
