THE ENGLISH SCHOLARSHIP EXAM 2014 REQUIREMENTS

PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION - WHAT TO EXPECT - TIPS AND ADVICE - WHAT RESPONSES MIGHT LOOK LIKE

WHAT IS THE SCHOLARSHIP EXAM? - A MONETARY AWARD - NO CREDITS - NOT A QUALIFICATION - CHALLENGING STANDARDS - MOST ABLE STUDENTS IN EACH SUBJECT :

STUDENTS MUST BE ABLE TO OUTCOME DESCRIPTION THE STUDENT WILL USE THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH TO RESPOND CRITICALLY BY MEANS OF EXTENDED, COHERENT AND INFORMED DISCUSSION. SCHOLARSHIP PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTOR THE STUDENT WILL DEMONSTRATE ASPECTS OF HIGH LEVEL: ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL THINKING INTEGRATION, SYNTHESIS, AND APPLICATION OF HIGHLY DEVELOPED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND UNDERSTANDING TO COMPLEX SITUATIONS LOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, PRECISION AND CLARITY OF IDEAS. OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTOR IN ADDITION TO THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SCHOLARSHIP, THE STUDENT WILL ALSO DEMONSTRATE, IN A SUSTAINED MANNER, ASPECTS OF: PERCEPTION AND INSIGHT SOPHISTICATED INTEGRATION AND ABSTRACTION INDEPENDENT REFLECTION AND EXTRAPOLATION CONVINCING COMMUNICATION.

How the paper is marked: - Constant checks within the marking team - 4 Performance Descriptors - Each essay is out of 8 points - The top two PDs gain Scholarship Your record of Scholarship results will show: - The PD which best fitted your paper - The ‘cut off’

Demanding text and questions - It is not necessarily the complexity of the text but how students respond that makes it demanding.

There are 3 grades for Scholarship: Not Achieved (A), Scholarship (S) and Outstanding Scholarship (O) An exam at the end of the year that is seen to be the highest level a secondary school student can achieve Only about 2-3% of all students entered for NCEA Level 3 will achieve Scholarship; fewer than 1% will achieve Outstanding Scholarship

WHAT SKILLS SHOULD YOU HAVE? High level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation, and Ability to integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding and ideas to complex situations. Comprehensive content knowledge; Effective communication; Original or sophisticated solutions, performances or approaches; Critical evaluation; Flexible thinking in unfamiliar/unexpected contexts.

SECTION A CLOSE READING OF UNFAMILIAR TEXTS – A TECHNICAL COMPARISON OF TWO WRITTEN TEXTS, ONE POETRY, ONE PROSE, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON CONTENT AND CRAFTING.

Section A - Tips for success: - Use the guidelines in the question - Include wider discussion of the themes/ideas too. - Avoid listing technique and effect ; look holistically at each piece - Read the introductory paragraph - Keep answer balanced across both texts

Section B Response to Literature and Language - A response to literature / language which you have studied. - If you choose short texts, it must involve at least two. - Genre-based questions - Do not repeat material across Sections B and C

Section C Exploring Issues in Literature and Language - an exploration of issues in literature / language studied -Thesis driven – Not text driven