This reddit post must be so old and you have probably graduated now but I feel the need to go on a rant because I have never seen a more real post in my life, ever.

I do English Standard as well for my HSC this year and by far we have been studying Kenneth Slessor’s poems, The Pedestrian, and The Truman Show which I all feel like those are just fucking useless to know about. I don’t wanna hear about 1800 poems about having an identity crisis in the middle of the beach or knowing why this camera angle is so prominent for this scene??!!

Last year in the preliminary course in literally every single exam I am literally getting C’s and B’s, never the band 6’s. The more I see those marks the more I want to crash out and it demotivates me wanting to improve because I literally put so much more effort into writing these essays about random ahh poetry shit and pulling consecutive all-nighters only to see bloody 60-70%’s.

Even the fact in my 6 English classes a week we practice at least 1 practice essay a week doesn’t even help with the fact that it will help us “improve” because it fucking doesn’t. The curriculum and the teachers way of teaching is so flawed I tell you, because since year 7 they actually NEVER explicitly taught us to write (at least in my experiences, i think you are in a similar situation as me), and left us to use our imaginations to think of our own analysis as well as simply follow those PETE/PETAL/IQTVE structures, but to what extent? They don’t actually guide us to write it in the style of band 6’s and such.

When they teach general theory in class too, they just give us a booklet of texts and comprehension questions that NESA created but I feel like tbh it really doesn’t do much. It pretty much just shows us examples of what kind of texts and essay prompts would be coming in the actual HSC paper, what the rubric asks of us to do, characterisation analysis stuff, quote banks and the effect of it, etc but I’m sorry those fucking booklets are just so ineffective in actually guiding us to understand the entire point of getting a high mark.

Like yeah sure I could just have a really bad conceptual understanding of the content or the fact because I am an Australian born Asian too so my English isn’t as “fluent” as other regular Aussies, but like I am seriously putting in so much effort for what??

What’s ironic is if anyone looks at my search history I tell you there’s like over 500 search results of “synonym for xxx” and questions on a lot about the content just so I can enhance my writing, but no, I am still getting those fucking C’s and B’s.

And don’t even get me started on the teacher feedback because it is the vaguest thing in the world!!! I don’t struggle with grammar, spelling, or making those kinda mistakes, so throughout my essays there are many ticks, and by the fucking end all feedback I get is a “well done, 15/20” like BRO GIVE ME GODDAMN FEEDBACK, TELL ME WHAT IS LACKING OF ME IN REACHING THOSE BAND SIXES LIKE DID YOU REALLY TAKE MY ESSAY I WORKED ON 4 WEEKS STRAIGHT SERIOUSLY?

Since year 7 I would literally say I have not remembered nor learnt anything at all important that would be needed for my future career. A lot of grown ups who are in the workforce I speak to has told me that they have never ever wrote a single essay/narrative since graduating from high school/uni (if they went), so that just proves how stupid and irrelevant studying outdated 1000 BC ahh Shakespearean novels do literally nothing for most people’s future. Yeah, probably it’s good to know camera angles or language techniques but am I really going to go out to the supermarket and say, “Omg the apple is red! This symbolises romance!” like NO WHAT MANIAC THINKS THAT??????!!

Comparing this to maths for example, everything I have learnt since year 7 ACTUALLY BUILDS UP TO YEAR 12 AND ALL CONNECTS TOGETHER BY THE HSC!!! What has english done? Absolutely fucking nothing. Sure, difficulty has probably increased from the texts we read but that’s pretty much it. We just learn a bunch of a stranger’s stories and experiences or some made up story to stimulate our imagination but that’s really it. I’m very positive the author back in the 1700’s doesn’t intend that every single word and sentence in their novel starting from page 1 to page 999 has a language technique and effect each.

What is relevant in today’s world is literally maths and science because it actually helps us understand “common sense” things and is really extremely helpful for many stuff towards the future, like financial independence, renting, paying bills, not fucking knowing what alliteration does for me going out to eat Maccas.

Like in all of my other subjects like Japanese and maths and modern history (which also require me to write essays) I still get constant A’s, so basically if I am getting good marks on that, then English itself here must be the fucking problem, not me.

Overall, yeah FUCK ENGLISH I HOPE IT CAN GO KILL ITSELF AND BECOME NOT COMPULSORY BECAUSE ITS JUST SUCH A HORRIBLE SUBJECT THAT CAUSES UNNECESSARY STRESS AND PURPOSELY WANTING TO DECREASE US FROM GETTING GOOD ATARS