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From C+ to raw 40: How Matrix teacher James turned his biggest fear (writing essays for the VCE English exam) into his biggest achievement.
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Like many students, James struggled with VCE English, battling self-doubt and anxieties around it. So, how did he overcome his struggles with the VCE English exam to get a raw study score of 40? And how can you do the same?
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Name: James Bu
School: Melbourne High School
ATAR: 98.05
University: Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours), Monash University
It’s genuinely not an exaggeration when I say that achieving a raw study score of 40 in VCE English is one of my proudest achievements. That sentence might sound a bit sad… maybe it is. But, I continue to use some of the learnings and confidence I gained from that experience today.
I was never a great English student. I wasn’t horrible either. Now, I did cop a few Ds and Es in my time, most frighteningly on my year 10 report; I once cried instead of standing up and delivering an assessed speech. But over the course of my pre-year 12 high school life, I was a solid C plus student.
VCE English was a whole other beast and stressed me out. After all, as a “core four” subject…C pluses weren’t going to get me to the promised land. Even B pluses wouldn’t.
I needed to completely level up my ability to read, analyse, and write.
I still remember sleepless nights because of anxieties around VCE, and English specifically, festering…it’s not fun being woken up on the bus by your head bumping into the railing, I’ll tell you that for nothing!
That fear of English…that fear of the word “essay”. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you know those feelings well. Those feelings had to be overcome for me to succeed in VCE English. And it wasn’t easy, but it happened. And it can happen to you, too. Keep your head up and read my tips.
All I can remember about writing essays in high school was scrambling to get to the word limit. I’d write one line for each letter in the TEEL (Topic, Evidence, Explanation, Link) acronym, then spend night after night stressing about how I would flesh that out into the quality body paragraphs my mates could churn out. That fear, that uncertainty on what to do, and that ensuing lack of confidence…it plagued me for most of my high school life.
Honestly, the first time I truly thought “I’ve got this” was the day of the Year 12 English exam.
I’d strolled into my teacher’s office to get my dictionary approved, and unprompted, my teacher sai, d “You’ve got this. You’re a superstar, James.”
I went into the English exam pretty relaxed. The surrounding teeth chattering and foot-tapping rolled off me like a drop of water rolling off a leaf’s waxy cuticle (sorry, I’m a Matrix Biology teacher by trade now, I had to).
But that wasn’t an instantaneous thing.
Have you ever heard the quote “You work all your life to become an overnight success?” It’s so true… and whilst attaining a raw 40 in VCE English might be an insignificant success to someone winning a gold medal, or blowing up and signing a record label… to me, that quote applies to any level of success.
Here’s what helped me go from a solid C+ to a raw 40 in VCE English.
For me, that journey of finding belief as a writer involved lots and lots of writing. I started going to Year 12 English tutoring, which forced me to write essays regularly.
Now, term 1? I was still on my knees each time I got a sub-optimal practice essay score back. Even though my writing was already starting to improve, my confidence and belief were much slower to heal.
I started stacking reps, writing more, and trying new vocabulary and techniques.
Sometimes I’d FAIL at using big words to learn their correct context (I remember using the word “indubitably” wrong because I saw it in a basketball commercial… thanks, Kawhi Leonard).
But I learnt from those mistakes and those scores slowly started to improve.
Across the middle part of the year, those C pluses started trending up towards B pluses. I was still disappointed initially when I got my SACs back, but writing had become less difficult. With every essay practice, I was adding more tools to the kit.
A step-by-step guide to writing exceptional textual analysis essays for VCE English. 
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Once that first A on a SAC came back in term 3, I felt more motivated to write. I probably wrote two times, three times as much per week as I did after that, and I was already writing weekly before that. As a result, my improvement skyrocketed.
Success isn’t instant dopamine; that’s something you only get on social media. Real-life improvement isn’t like that. Real life is a lot of struggles; sometimes taking even FURTHER hits to your confidence, before it gets better. But with hard, intentional work, your confidence does get better. And once you have confidence and belief? It’s a different ballgame, and it’s in your favour.
If writing a whole essay feels impossible, start with one paragraph a week.
Signing up for tutoring helped keep me accountable, but one thing that really helped was starting out by writing single paragraphs.
A lot of the most important skills (vocabulary use, grammar, single paragraph structure, argument construction) are just as effectively practised in single paragraphs. It’s also easier to embrace the grind and write consistently when the tasks are less daunting at the start.
One paragraph every week is wayyyyyy better than only cramming practice essays once your SAC is days away.
Build yourself up over time. Go from single paragraphs to multiple paragraphs, then to full essays.
It took me until mid-Year 12 until I could consistently write full essays in a single sitting. It’s not ideal to be writing single paragraphs when some of your classmates are writing full paragraphs, but you have to start somewhere!
Once you get feedback on your writing, note down exactly what your teacher or tutor said you could improve. Next time you write, focus and work on fixing those specific areas.
Without identifying + targeting + actioning areas for improvement, your improvement will be a lot slower.
Getting a low mark doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Tell yourself that a sub-optimal SAC score is a chance to learn what areas need further practice, rather than a trigger for a crash-out.
I didn’t know this in high school, but the more you see the room for improvement in a “negative” experience, the less extreme your emotions, the easier it is to move forward.
You’re going to suffer setbacks in VCE English; setbacks aren’t going to determine your eventual score. It’s your ability to accept setbacks, take the positives out of them and move forward that matters.
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Remember, to prepare for the VCE English exam, improvement doesn’t happen overnight. It’s slow. Expect to fail and take a few hits to your confidence. But I promise, you need to go through this before it gets better. Stay consistent and open to learning – you’ll get there.
Once you believe in yourself as a writer, everything changes.
Written by Guest Author
We have regular contributions to our blog from our Tutor Team and high performing Matrix Students. Come back regularly for these guest posts to learn their study hacks and insights!
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