Need to improve english!

LOVE A GOOD MASS

I feeo lost when it comes to english right now. I studied quite a bit for english and i felt like i achieved quite an indepth analysis in my essays in the exam. Placing in quotes that she has marked as too long, so its not a case of not knowing the material. I got 58% in my mocks and i really feel i can get higher, but im lost in how i can improve. When i ask her, i only get vague generic responses. So im just looking for any useful tips to improve my english essays.

kingcobra

Maybe improving your vocabulary could help? Get yourself a thesaurus (or thesaurus.com and so whenever you come across a word you feel like you could elaborate on, such as "excellent," whip out the thesaurus and it'll give you words like "exemplary," "exquisite," "superlative" or "incomparable" and this makes your essays more noticeable and descriptive, even by just changing one word. Don't overdo it by filling your essays with tonnes of complicated words but a few interesting words per paragraph would do just nicely. However DO NOT forget who you are addressing so keep your language direct, relevant and straight to the point.

chocolatechips

Do not take all of your mocks point to heart, especially with subjects like English! It really depends on the examiner. I got around 50% in my English mocks, did no more work than pay attention in class from then up to the LC, got an A1 in the actual thing.

Most people go up from the mocks so just relax!

spurious

Is English your native language OP?

shootie

In a similar boat.

My teachers tell me that my problem is that my writing tends to be more narrative than analytic and thus impacts my mark despite me spending countless hours learning material and quotes. Not sure if you have a similar problem, but make sure you're actually answering the question rather than just writing a story/everything you know about the subject the question is on. Not sure if it relates to you at all.

LOVE A GOOD MASS

spurious wrote: »

Is English your native language OP?

Yeah, born and raised so grammar hsould not be an issue

LOVE A GOOD MASS

chocolatechips wrote: »

Do not take all of your mocks point to heart, especially with subjects like English! It really depends on the examiner. I got around 50% in my English mocks, did no more work than pay attention in class from then up to the LC, got an A1 in the actual thing.

Most people go up from the mocks so just relax!

Thats a massive reassurance! Im capable of an A1 for sure, but it never shows in my results in english:rolleyes: I believe shes overly aggresive with her marking. Ah sure well see how it goes.

spurious

LOVE A GOOD MASS wrote: »

Yeah, born and raised so grammar hsould not be an issue

No, but you use some unusual turns of phrase, for example in your first post, (ignoring the lack of capitals and punctuation which I presume is because of a phone) "i felt like i achieved quite an indepth analysis in my essays in the exam" - is an analysis 'achieved'? That sounded very odd to me and was what prompted me to ask.

The main problem people have in all exams (at all levels) is not answering the question, not knowing the difference between discuss, illustrate, compare, contrast etc..

ray2012

LOVE A GOOD MASS wrote: »

I feeo lost when it comes to english right now. I studied quite a bit for english and i felt like i achieved quite an indepth analysis in my essays in the exam. Placing in quotes that she has marked as too long, so its not a case of not knowing the material. I got 58% in my mocks and i really feel i can get higher, but im lost in how i can improve. When i ask her, i only get vague generic responses. So im just looking for any useful tips to improve my english essays.

Personally, I think it's better to quote 2 or 3 words, than a full sentence (especially for poetry). It shows that you can engage well with the poem and that you seem more comfortable answering the question on that poet. Often it's the weaker English students who go for the long quotes (maybe 2/3 full lines) and write it in their answers, as in their view 'a quote is a quote', but it shows a major lack of engagement in my opinion.

I'm not sure with what you're comfortable with writing, but for me, I find my answers for poetry, for example, much better when I incorporate the quotes into my answer.

An example :

DO : William Shakespeare finds it extremely difficult to express his love for his friend, as he compares himself to an ''unperfect actor'' on the stage. He instead pleads for his poetry to ''be then the eloquence'' and to speak the ''dumb presagers'' of his ''speaking breast''

Don't : William Shakespeare finds it extremely difficult to express his love for his friend - ''As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put besides his part''. He instead pleads for his poetry to show his love for this friend - ''O! let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense''.

That is just an example, and I think it shows how much better the answer itself flows and seems natural when including the quote in your answer, and by using just 1 or 2 words even as your backup.