i was so ass at eng, rank was horrid (cant remember exactly but i remember for trials i cried in class coz i got like 69% and my rank for that trial was in the bottom 50%)
anyway for the hsc I tried perfecting my essays and memorised a base general essay for every mod and I memorised a few extra quotes just in case, and for short answer (I was actually so ass i always failed that at school or got lower than avg) I kept on practicising with other school/trial/hsc papers and would cmpare my answer with the sample answer and see the difference/take note of what I was missing
I ended up getting an 85 so yeah not as great as what others have gotten here but I think it was way better than what I was expecting