BlogStudyHSC Advanced English: The Ultimate Guide to Getting That Band 6!

HSC Advanced English: The Ultimate Guide to Getting That Band 6!

Book with fairy lights on top - HSC Advanced English Band 6 Guide

How do you get a Band 6 in Year 12 HSC Advanced English?

It may seem like the million dollar question, but luckily there IS an answer!

We’ve got the low-down on how to ace all the modules, plus study tips and tricks including how to analyse your texts, write essays and plenty of practice questions!

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get that Band 6!

Part 1: Developing Essential English Skills
Part 2: The Common Module
Part 3: Module A
Part 4: Module B
Part 5: Module C

Part 1: Developing Essential English Skills

Before we can dive into the HSC Advanced English modules, it’s important you have a strong foundation when it comes to writing an essay and analysing your texts.

How to Write a Band 6 HSC English Essay

When writing an essay, it’s important you know how to develop a strong argument that is supported by the best possible pieces of evidence with great analysis, all supported in a strong structure.

Obviously, this is much easier said than done! Although, that’s why we’ve created a guide to writing a Band 6 essay in HSC English that you can find below!

How to Write a Band 6 HSC English Essay

If you want to brush up on your thesis writing skills, that is, crafting a unique argument to any question, you may want to check out the article below:

How to Construct a Strong Thesis Statement in Your HSC English Essay

How to Analyse Your Text

The next key step is developing your analytical skills! This is pivotal as analysis will underpin anything and everything you write in English, from short answer responses in Paper 1 to your essays in Paper 2.

To have strong analytical skills, you need to be able to identify key ideas in a text and elaborate upon these, whilst finding literary techniques that will add meaning to your analysis.

For a recap on how to achieve this, you can check out our article to analysing texts like a pro below!

How to Quickly and Flawlessly Analyse HSC English Texts

Knowing Your Literary and Visual Techniques

The last step to building up your set of English skills is being able to identify literary and visual techniques.

You’ll find these in any text you study, including novels, poems, films, prose and even art!

For a quick brush-up on these devices, you can take a look at our mast list of literary and visual techniques:

The Ultimate HSC English Literary Techniques Cheat Sheet

For visual techniques, check out our master list below!

The Complete HSC English Visual Techniques Cheat Sheet

Now that you’ve nailed those essential English skills, we can dive into breaking down each of the Advanced English modules!

Part 2: The Guide to the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences 

Texts and Human Experiences is a common module for HSC Advanced and Standard, meaning EVERYONE has to take it!

It will likely be the first topic you study for HSC Advanced English in your first term of Year 12!

The Common Module is notably vague in its rubric so it’s important to be able to pin it down. Human experiences can encompass anything experienced by a human – huge, right?

Take a look at the Texts and Human Experiences rubric statement (we’ve highlighted some key parts to help you out!)

HSC Advanced English standard common mod

From this rubric, we can draw that the Common Module is focussed on how texts can represent individual and collective experiences and how language is used to shape these representations.

Through this module, you’ll be developing your skills using literary techniques, language concepts and different forms of media when writing responses.

For a more detailed breakdown of the common module, check out our guide to nailing the Common Module!

Guide to HSC English Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences

Related Texts

Although you won’t be tested on a related text in the external HSC exams, you WILL be tested internally (at school) on a related text as well as your prescribed text for the course!

But don’t freak out! We’ve got a great guide on how to choose your related text for you to check out!

Check out our top 5 related texts for the top 5 prescribed texts for the common module here. 

How to Find Related Texts for HSC English in 3 Steps

If you’re feeling a little unsure about how to analyse your related text, you can also get a refresher on how to do so with our article below!

How to Analyse Your Related Text for English

Multimodal Presentation

You may find that either in the Common Module, or another module, that you’re asked to give a multimodal presentation.

You might be thinking, what in the world is that?!

Not to fear! We’ve got the low-down on explaining exactly what a multimodal presentation is as well as how to ace one!

How to Ace Your Multimodal Presentation for HSC English

Common Module Practice Questions

It’s always a good idea to get some essay writing practice under your belt so you can identify your strengths and weaknesses.

You don’t want to be writing your essay for the first time in the exam, only to realise you don’t have enough analysis for a piece of evidence or know enough themes!

So, what better way than to write some practice essays?

Luckily for you, we’ve got 20 essay questions to help you prep for the Common Module!

20 Practice Questions for Year 12 HSC English: Texts and Human Experiences

Part 3: The Guide to Module A: Textual Conversations

Now that you’re sorted for the Common Module, let’s move on to HSC Advanced English Module A!

So, what does Textual Conversations actually mean?

Textual Conversations is a comparative study between two of your prescribed texts from the module and how they may share or re-imagine common issues, values and perspectives. 

Let’s take a look at the rubric!

HSC Advanced English mod a adv eng

This can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around, and that’s why we’ve covered everything you need to know in our Guide to Module A for HSC Advanced English!

The Ultimate Guide to Year 12 HSC English Module A: Textual Conversations

Module A Practice Questions

It may also be a good idea to practice nailing your analysis of those themes and ideas you learnt in class.

The best way to do that is of course, writing a practice essay!

We’ve got 20 fantastic essay questions for you to attempt once you’ve nailed the module below!

20 Practice Essay Questions for Year 12 HSC English Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations

Part 4: The Guide to Module B: Critical Study of Literature 

How do you closely study a piece of literature?

And how can that make up an ENTIRE HSC Advanced English module?

In Module B you need to be able to form a personal and intellectual response to your text through analysing its construction, content and language.

Let’s take a look at the rubric!

Basically, what this all means is that you need to develop and strong understand and appreciation for your text to write about it well!

But how exactly do you do this?

Luckily for you, we have this great guide that lays all the ground work for getting a Band 6 in Module B below!

The Guide to Year 12 HSC English Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Module B Practice Questions

As this module is a close study, you’ll most likely get a text-specific essay question in the exam. Understand how to answer these questions by knowing what each key verb means.

Luckily for you, we’ve created text specific practice questions to the most popular prescribed texts for Advanced English Module B!

Text Specific Practice Questions for Year 12 HSC Advanced English Module B: Critical Study of Texts

Part 5: The Guide to Module C: The Craft of Writing

Module C: The Craft of Writing is a completely new module that has come with the new syllabus changes.

It is concerned with learning how to write skilfully and confidently in different text types, as writing will be an essential life skill!

Let’s take a look at the rubric!

Module C now entails learning how to write persuasive, imaginative and discursive writing pieces that are inspired from two prescribed texts from Mod C or even a text from any other Module!

It can be confusing to wrap your head around, or even daunting to learn new text types, but luckily we’ve got our Band 6 guide to nailing Mod C which you can find below!

The Step-By-Step Guide to Year 12 HSC English Module C: The Craft of Writing

Discursive Writing

One of the new text types you’ll be introduced to in this module is called discursive writing.

NESA defines discursive writing as, “Texts whose primary focus is to explore an idea or variety of topics. These texts involve the discussion of an idea(s) or opinion(s) without the direct intention of persuading the reader, listener or viewer to adopt any single point of view”

Such examples of discursive writing can be creative non-fiction, travel blogs, discussion essays, speeches and personal essays, amongst others.

It can be daunting to try new text types, but you don’t have to do it alone!

Luckily, we’ve created the ultimate guide to breaking down the basics of discursive writing and how to achieve a Band 6 worthy discursive writing piece!

How to Write a Band 6 Discursive Writing Piece for HSC English Module C

Creative Writing

Another one of the text types you’re probably more familiar with is creative writing, or ‘imaginative writing’.

Depending on your opinion, this may be your absolute favourite or absolute nightmare of a text type — but it doesn’t have to be!

We’ve got a bunch of articles on how to write a killer creative writing piece.

First thing’s first, before you start writing you’ll need to decide on a narrative type i.e. monologue, letter, diary entry etc see what best suits your stimulus – you can read more about all of that below!

How to Pick a Narrative Type for Your HSC Module C Creative Writing Piece

Next, you’ll need to choose a setting, but where do you even begin? To help you answer that question, we’ve got a great article on developing your setting.

How to Develop A Setting for Your HSC English Creative Piece

Okay, so you’ve got a setting, but what about your characters? Fear not, we haven’t forgotten! Read up on how to develop complex and interesting characters!

How to Develop A Kickass Character

Now that you’ve got your character, you can probably decide whose perspective to write the story from – will it be a narrator, or your protagonist? To help you make a decision, you can have a read over this article below!

How to Choose a Point of View For Your HSC Creative Writing Piece

You’ve got all the basics now – but what about the story line? If you need some help building up your story, check out this great article we’ve got on how to do so!

How to Develop Your HSC English Module C Creative Writing Idea

Okay you’re nearly there now! Proofreading and editing – it’s essential, so don’t skip it! Learn how to edit like a pro below:

How to Edit and Proofread Your HSC Creative Writing Piece

And now you’re all set!

Reflective Statement

As well as nailing those different text types, you’ll also be required to write a ‘reflective statement’ after you’ve written your piece.

The reflective statement is a completely new part of HSC English that assesses how your creative decisions in your pieces were drawn from your prescribed text.

If you need a bit of a hand nailing your reflective statement, you can check out our guide on how to write one! We’ve even got a scaffold you can download, so head to the link below:

How to Write a Reflective Statement For Module C: Craft of Writing

Module C Practice Questions

If you’re feeling ready to start some writing practice, you can check out a list of 20 questions we’ve created for Module C!

Practice Questions for HSC English Module C: The Craft of Writing 

And that wraps up our guide to the Year 12 HSC Advanced English modules! Good luck!

If you’re looking to achieve a Band 6 in your other subjects, check out our guides below:

Looking for some extra help with your HSC studies?

We pride ourselves on our inspirational HSC coaches and mentors!

We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home, online or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor get in touch today! 

Give us a ring on 1300 267 888, email us at [email protected] or check us out on TikTok!

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