I have the worst English teacher this year. He doesn’t teach anything and just gives us work, and I feel like im falling behind, which could negatively impact my ATAR. Any suggestions on how I could improve? I’m not in VCE right now but in yr9. Specifically essay writing would be good

    dont worry about ur atar now, you still have 3 years lmfao

      MMHS alr. Só falling behind in yr9 prob won’t do much?

        no obviousy try not to fall behind but next year, maybe even yr 11 onwards for sure you should have meetings with teachers and take it more seriously

          MMHS

          MMHS ye ik. It’s just that our teacher this year is really bad. I’m getting good results but it’s only because he grades really easy. I’m teaching myself quite a bit because he keeps making us draw pictures of what we think the setting or characters look like, idk why. Thanks for the advice tho.

                markkk maybe get a really strict tutor? Like their standards are WAYYYY up.

                  markkk Oh dear! What a frustrating situation!

                  Like the other posters pointed out - you're only in Year 9 so you've got plenty of time before you get to Year 12.

                  In the meantime, if you're really worried about essay writing, I suggest you look at these areas: vocabulary, expression and analysis. Tutoring is expensive and I wouldn't suggest it for a Year 9 unless you're really flunking or if you think you'd really enjoy it (and you've got the funds). I've broken the 3 things down below for you:

                  • Vocabulary: as you progress through high school, you'll be expected to show greater mastery over your vocabulary. This is a pretty easy thing work on by yourself - just set yourself a realistic target (eg 3 new words a week). My suggestion is to spread it out across different word classes so you're not only learning new nouns; make sure you get some verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc. too. The other thing about vocabulary is that first you need to know what it means, and then you need to know how to use it. Use AI to give you multiple sentences with your new word in it so you can see it in action from multiple angles, and then try it yourself.

                  • Expression: Towards the end of high school we expect greater efficiency, clarity and accuracy in your writing. Look at your writing now, sentence by sentence, and see if you can rewrite it with 30% fewer words. What can you cut out? What is not serving your message? What are you repeating? If you can cut down the unnecessary stuff, you'll make more space for...

                  • Analysis: Our favourite questions to ask students are 'what did you mean by that?' and 'how does this evidence prove your point?' Most students struggle with this because it's really hard to explain what seems bloody obvious to you. But ask yourself this question regularly and insert your responses where appropriate is a great way to build those analytical muscles.

                  I hope that was helpful!

                      Write a Reply...