How did I manage to get an A+ for English in my SPM (Sijil Pendidikan Malaysia) when I always get C(s) during my sem-examination?

Well, for starters my grammar sucks and I know that fact pretty well. Even though my English result for PMR was an A, but that did not mean that my writing skill was good enough to meet the standard of SPM level and I was right, I did not score well during my first semester for my English during form 4. My teacher was not pleased with my result, she expected me to get at least an A- but I failed to give her what she wanted.
So, I went to see my old English teacher for advices. I then told her about my situation. When I had finish explaining, she looked at me straight in the eyes and asked "Have you been reading English books Idiey?"
I nodded. Because I did read fictions, but they were mostly written by American authors.
"What kind of books?" She narrowed her brows.
"Fictions Madam," I said simply.
"Okay. but make sure to read books that are written in English, not American-English" She advised.
So, I took her advice and started to read English books.
Other than reading English books, I started to write my own stories when my senior introduced
Wattpad to me around August 2014.
In my opinion, what really improved my writing skills was because of Wattpad. Why? Simply because when you are addicted to writing, plus readers giving you positive comments, you will not have the slightest thought of stopping. You will realize that, it is rather enjoying. So when I officially declare
Wattpading as a hobby, I began to write chapters by chapters of my fanfiction every single day. In the end, I manage to finish my story with an amount of 20 chapters with 1,000+ words each. It was not an impressive achievement but the result of my effort was worth it. I got an A plus for my SPM and that clearly proves that Wattpading is a good method to improve one's English writing skills.
Therefore, rather than wasting your time to read/memorize boring essays and fall asleep while doing so. You should :
- Read any kinds of fictions, non-fictions, magazines and other interesting books instead.
- Create a wattpad account
- Read wattpad stories (because they are free, and more interesting)
- Try to write your own short stories
- Try to keep your commitment
- Learn at least one idioms and two bombastic words a day.
But to those who are going to sit for their exam tomorrow, here are some tips for you:
- Read a short story
- Memorize it from A-Z
- Re-write it on a piece of paper two times
- Tomorrow, pick the question of writing a story
- Just change a bit of the details when you're writing your essay
So I hope this article helps you to get your A. All the best!