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Tuesday 16 October 2012

English 2hard for base players



IN Australia, thousands  of  New South Wales high-school graduating students took their first HSC exam in English. Their results will determine their options for tertiary study.
It was all too easy for the semi-quality newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald to come up with a story on a too-hard English exam.



The article quotes  Babs Helleman, head of English at the King's School, Parramatta. which is a wealthy Australian private school.
She said the questions were too tough for a typical student and included: "Analyse how imagery is used to capture the author's intense experience returning to his hometown"   

Wow! That sounds pretty much a meat-and-potatoes literary question to me and another teacher agrees with me.

Jennifer Taylor, head of English at selective high school North Sydney Girls High, said she felt the exam was challenging but fair.
"Every student could access that paper," she said. "Its focus was very clearly in the rubrik."


WTF does that mean? I looked up rubrik in the dictionary and was none the wiser. If was sitting an English  exam, I would hope  Ms Taylor did not set it as she fails to speak the same language as  I. Ah well, they probably would not let me into
selective North Sydney Girls' High, anyway.

There is imagery and analogy in my forthcoming novel Iraqi Icicle but I am not sure whether it has a rubrik . In an exam, I would probably write rubrik is Aussie rhyming  slang for  prick. I suspect that is a Fail.
Ah well, best stick to writing stuff and only analyse when forced.

Good luck in the rest of your exams, this week, NSW HSC students.

VERY sad tale on the arrest of the Vines lead singer Craig Nicholls.


Two years ago, Alise225 wrote: This is the 1 song that makes me calm enough to go to sleep and get some peace of mind during the exam period.  (For that Alise, we are promoting you; from now on, in our book, you are Alise77.)




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