How to ace any HSC English Short Answer Exam (tips from a James Ruse graduate)

The HSC English exam consists of multiple sections, requiring students to write essays, a creative, and short answer responses to unseen texts. All too often students focus on perfecting their pre-planned essays and creatives, while neglecting their practice of constructing short answer responses to unseen texts, owing to the fact that preparation for “unseen texts,” seem daunting. However, it is of utmost importance that students enter their English exams with a strategy to tackle these short answer questions. Furthermore, comprehension exams are tested even from Year 7, making it an essential skill to learn. So how exactly should you prepare for a 20 mark section, with a working time of only 45 minutes? 

Maximum efficiency is key, to get the most marks for your time.

The following steps are a set of guidelines that you should strive to follow.

1. Identify the keywords in the question

Firstly, it is essential to identify the keywords in the question, as these will denote what concepts the marker specifically wants you to discuss in your response. For example, the keywords in this question from the 2019 HSC English Advanced Paper 1 would be “explain”, “represents,” and “intense moment.”

Once you have identified this, you should structure your argument around these keywords, focusing on the concept of intense moments. As you identify these words, you should also think of synonyms or ways to rephrase these words as you should be including these all throughout your analysis and striving to avoid sounding repetitive.

• Identify the number of marks in the question

Marks are an extremely important indicator of how much you are required to write – an issue that is relevant in short answer exams as students tend to overwrite when there is no need to, affecting the efficiency of their time allocated to each question. As a general rule of thumb, 1 mark is awarded for each evidence + explanation (EE) provided as long as the evidence contains a technique, and the explanation answers the question sufficiently (pro-tip: make sure you include the keywords/synonyms of them from the question to ensure this mark). Hence, for questions referring to a single text such as the one above, 2 marks are awarded for 2 EEs, 3 marks for 3 EEs, and so on. However, for questions on a single text worth 5 or more marks such as this one from the 2020 HSC English Advanced Paper 1, the structure becomes more flexible, where you can either write 5 EEs with a mark awarded for each sentence, or you could only include 4 pieces of evidence, but with more detailed explanations, which span more than a sentence.

However, for questions requiring you to discuss two texts within 5 marks, such as this one from the 2020 HSC English Advanced Paper 1, the structure will vary. Depending on the amount of writing space provided e.g. if it’s just one big page, then you should write one big body paragraph with the first half of the paragraph on one text, and the second half of the paragraph on the other text – providing a total of 5 EEs and linking the two texts within the single paragraph.

However, if more space is provided, a mini essay structure is recommended which we teach here at JP English.

• Read the text and answer the question.

Finally, after performing the first two steps in this structured approach, it’s time to read the text! While reading the text, make sure you keep in mind potential quotes you can use as evidence, and identify any techniques possible, as only quotes with a technique will count as sufficient evidence. Furthermore, keep the keywords in mind as you read the text, and identify any quotes with techniques that you could possibly provide an explanation to, which answers the question.

And that wraps up this guide on how to provide a response to short answer questions! Just remember, short answer questions are an easy way to pick up marks in your HSC English exam. Don’t stress under the time pressure, keep your answers structured and logical, and as long as you’re able to provide evidence (quotes with techniques) and explanations which answer the question (include the keywords in the question!), this section of the English paper is a lot less daunting than it seems.

At JP English Specialist Tuition, we have exam preparation modules where students are provided with full length comprehension exams. Our english tutors also provide sample answers written by state rankers so students are able to see what exactly is needed to achieve full marks.