⭐ Top exam Tip #4: ⭐

*Timing isn’t everything, but it IS important!*

Have an idea of how you are going to allocate your limited time to the various assessment tasks on the paper. In general, for most exams, the advice is to follow the ‘mark-a-minute’ rule, that is, allow yourself one minute for each mark the question is worth. Three marks = three minutes, for example. With English, however, time for reading the stimulus texts is built into the overall time available.

I’ve included a guide on how long to spend on each assessment task below, but you can adjust timings as needed or ‘borrow’ time from the short-answer and/or comprehension questions to use for the extended response task. My middle daughter used to devote considerably more than the suggested time to the extended response task and then fly through the comprehension and short-answer one-markers last. 😉

Note the marks available for each task and allocate time to each question accordingly. The marks available also indicate how much is expected – for instance, if a question is worth three marks, this means candidates are usually expected to make three possible points.

Paper 1 Timing Advice

Text A 15/80 marks – approximately 25 minutes

Text B 15/80 marks – approximately 25 minutes Text C 50/80 marks – approximately 1 hour 10 minutes More detailed breakdown:

Q1 – short answers (text A) 15 marks approx 22.5 mins

Q1 – summary (text B 15 marks approx 22.5 mins

Q2 – short answers (text C) 10 marks approx 15 mins

Q2 – Language analysis task (text C) 15 marks approx 22.5mins

Q3 – Extended response writing task (text C) 25 marks approx 37.5 mins

Paper 2 Timing Advice

Question 1 Directed writing task 40/80 marks – approximately 1 hour

Question 2 (or 3,4,5) descriptive or narrative composition 40/80 marks – approximately 1 hour

• Remember to keep an eye on the time in the exam. (As a side note, watches are no longer allowed, so make sure to tell your young person to let the invigilator know if they can’t see the clock).
• Don’t allow yourself to get bogged down with a question: know when to move on as the time spent/marks earned trade-off might not be worth it.