2016 VCE exam guide — Literature: Align your skills with your effort

A good starting point is to familiarise yourself with the examination format, previous examination reports and the examination criteria and descriptors for the awarding of marks.

Here I will consider a few of the main questions students ask about how to prepare.

What are the essentials?

Know the requirements of the examination.

The examination is two hours long with 15 minutes reading time.

You need to write two analytical essays during this time on two different types of texts.

If you write on two texts of the same type, you will be awarded zero marks.

Get the timing right.

Many students do not do as well on the second essay as they do on the first, so you should plan your time and write for one hour on each text.

You should, as part of this planning, allot a certain proportion of time to marking up the passages.

Characteristically students spend between five and ten minutes doing this. It is a good idea to read the passages so that you finish reading the text you want to write on, immediately before writing.

Then go straight onto marking the passages for that text.

Perhaps have a colour code for highlighting, worked out in advance. If your interpretation has three main strands always use the same colour highlighter for each strand.

Then your marking of passages will be quick and efficient, as you will see at a glance how much weight each element has in the passages.

While introductions are useful (though not mandatory in Literature), do not waste time on lengthy introductions.

Assessors are often wary of pre-prepared introductions which run the risk of not focusing on the passages.

If you do not receive the passages you hoped for in the examination, remember that you can read and interpret and that is what is required in this examination.

Trust the insights and skills you have built up over the years and make the most of them.

How can I do well in this examination?

There are three major areas of skill to focus on in this course: interpretative skills, close working skills and the ability to write expressively.

I will draw on the descriptor for the top band of marks to indicate what you are working towards in each case. Interpretations need to be plausible and relevant.

A plausible interpretation is one which is in keeping with the tone, tenor and style of the text. It does not stretch characters out of shape when analysing motives and uses apt and relevant evidence to show where it is grounded.

Interpretations should also be complex and perceptive. This means they pay attention to the complications and layers of meaning within the text.

They address the undercurrents where appropriate and show that characters can be contradictory and ambivalent.

These interpretations should be supported by detailed evidence of close reading of the set passages.

They should, display a highly developed awareness of how textual features contribute to an interpretation based on thorough and detailed analysis.

This descriptor quite clearly ties close working inextricably to interpretation.

There is no benefit in just pointing out or listing the literary devices in passages.

You need to engage the assessors with these devices, showing why they matter in the text and what they bring to meaning.

You should also demonstrate a subtle sense of how views and values are suggested in the text. Some students mention views and values as an afterthought in their responses.

They might, for instance, assert that Jane Austen condemns vanity and social ambition.

To demonstrate this subtly, they should show how the tone and the texture of language and imagery privileges certain characters and views, and negatively portrays others.

Often graceful elegant language presents ideas positively and the language itself implicitly suggests where the writer stands on the issue.

Finally, to succeed, you need to ensure your language is highly expressive — this does not mean overwritten.

Above all, your language must be clear. But it should also contain a crisp and precise analytical vocabulary, an ability to demonstrate that you have ‘heard’ the tone of the original text and have engaged with its deeper impulses.

Just as for the writers of the texts, rendering your ideas attractively will place them in a positive light and commend them to your readers.

Some final tips

1. Know the texts in detail.

2. Respond to the passages on the paper, not the ones you hoped would be there.

3. Use many short sharp quotes, properly punctuated, not long quotes.

4. Ensure you provide a clear argument for your conclusion. Conclusions MUST be drawn from your analysis. Often you will have better insights implicit in your close working and analysis of the text than you recognise. Do not revert to a more general, less insightful overview in their conclusion.

5. Make your points in clear simple flowing language. Over-writing leads to stilted disengaged responses.

6. When (if) you cross out words/phrases, make sure you correct the grammar t and ensure that the new meaning fits.

7. Show you are literate. Punctuate titles!

8. Do not refer to writers by their first names.

9. Lead your reader gently through the way you read the passages helping them to enjoy and to engage with your interpretation.

10. Remember there is a reader. Communicate!

Mary Purcell teaches VCE Literature at Mac. Robertson Girls’ High School

EXAM DETAILS

Literature

When: November 4, 11.45am-2pm

Reading: 15 minutes

Writing: 2 hours

Worth: 50 per cent of study score