What you need to know

Unseen sections (HSC/VCE-style) give you texts you have never read and ask short and extended questions, usually with the marks shown beside each one. Three skills decide the result: reading quickly for purpose, finding the technique that carries the idea, and writing an answer sized to the marks. None of these depends on luck or on having read widely; they come from a routine, practised until it is automatic. This guide gives you that routine.

• 1–2 marks: one or two sentences; one quotation; identify and explain briefly.
• 3 marks: idea, technique with evidence, effect; two to four sentences.
• 4–5 marks: two points, each with evidence and effect, linked.
• 6 marks or more: three points or a structured mini-essay with a clear line of argument.
• Always: marks are a rough guide to minutes. A 3-mark question deserves about three minutes, not ten.

If you do not understand the text

Stay with what you can see: tone, shifts, repeated words, sentence length, who is speaking. You can analyse how a text feels and moves without being certain what it means, and a confident answer about tone and structure will score better than a nervous guess at theme. If a word is unfamiliar, use its context; if a line is ambiguous, say so and offer the reading that fits the rest of the text. Markers reward a plausible, supported reading, not the single 'correct' one.

Check yourself

1. Why read the questions before the text?
2. A 2-mark question asks you to identify one technique and explain its effect. How long should your answer be?
3. What is the 'shift' in a text, and why mark it?
4. Rewrite as an answer rather than a summary: 'The poem is about a man walking on a beach remembering his daughter.'
5. For a visual text, name three things to read first.
6. You have ten minutes left and a 6-mark question unanswered. What should you do?

Answers: 1. So that you read with purpose, noticing the moments and techniques the questions will need, and so you know the mark values before you plan your time. 2. One or two sentences: name the technique, quote the words, state the effect. 3. The point where something changes: tone, tense, perspective, pace or the speaker's understanding. Questions about effect and meaning almost always turn on it. 4. e.g. 'The poem uses the beach's shifting tide as an image of memory, so that the father's walk becomes a search for a daughter who, like the water, keeps retreating.' 5. Any three of: the most salient element (where the eye goes first), the reading path, framing, gaze, vectors, colour, the relationship between image and text. 6. Plan for one minute (two or three points with evidence), write the answer in short, direct sentences for eight minutes, and leave one minute to add a closing sentence. Do not spend the time polishing earlier answers.