NCEA Level 2 English Start of Year General Guide
Do lots of reading to enhance your thinking, analyzing and writing skills. Because this year, you are 'likely' to sit either 2.8 Info Literacy standard, 2.9 Personal Responses and/or 2.4 Writing Portfolio.
In the 2.8 you will be required to do research across different sites/sources for information and evaluating them, etc.
In your 2.9 Personal Responses, you will be reading and personally responding to 6 texts (2.9 takes all year to do it). Pick books/texts that you're knowledgeable at, passionate at, and/or that can resonate with you, so it makes understanding easier. Or if you want/can, you could also pick more challenging texts so you could see how you go along with it.
In the 2.4, you must have NO spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors if you really want a pass. This is worth 6 credits and contributes to your UE Writing credits - because it does contribute to getting your UE by just passing it, it is most likely schools would do it. One way I would suggest preparing for this is, practice your writing skills during the year, try to write formally instead of non-formally so once you're in a habit of doing them, you're ready for the assessment. This one involves thorough proofreading for errors / make sure what you talk about in it makes sense and if it's not understandable you must explain it/make it clear. Structuring is also vital. This is one of the hardest standards unless if you're really good at these.
And for externals, practice writing essays too/unpacking essay questions/planning your essay, etc. Read/Understand questions carefully before you answer them - just to avoid careless mistakes. I got an M in my 2.2 essay external despite English is my weakest subject so the externals are my strength. But also practice with essays during the year if you can (so you are well prepared for end of year exams)
I'm not 100% sure though if you're doing all or either of these standards. If you have any questions or need me to clarify something, feel free to get in touch. Hope these helps and have an awesome year!!!