Remembering english essay word-for-word (1 Viewer)

[The_Chosen_One]

What is the best technique past HSC students have used to remember your english HSC word-for-word?

Also, is it easy or hard remembering word-for-word?

 

[slyhunter]

it's better to remember the key points of what you want to talk about including thesis, quotes and explanation that can be easily adaptable to the question.

no use remembering an essay if it doesn't answer the question

 

[mirakon]

What is the best technique past HSC students have used to remember your english HSC word-for-word?

Also, is it easy or hard remembering word-for-word?

best technique for remembering an essay....

don't do it.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

but isnt it hard to make a new essay within the exam room??
can't you just remember the whole essay... n adapt it to the new question...??

 

[slyhunter]

like i said not the whole thing, just adaptable key points

 

[sinophile]

but isnt it hard to make a new essay within the exam room??
can't you just remember the whole essay... n adapt it to the new question...??

Don't memorise your essays mate. Your essay has almost zero chance of being relevant to the exam question they give you, so you'll end up either being forced to make a new one anyway, memorise an extremely vague essay, or write your essay down as is. Note for the last bit, teachers fuckin' hate it when students ignore the exam question and just write their memorised essay down.

The other extreme to memorising a whole essay is making everything up on the spot. It'll probably be highly relevant to the question, but you risk writing a poor quality essay since you have to waste time thinking.

Instead I propose you go the middle ground and memorise a paragraph for each of your 'key ideas' or 'key techniques', and pick and assemble these paragraphs together in the exam room to form an essay. Think of it as pre-building all the walls of a house so that they can quickly and easily be connected to make a great looking house.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

No, sir. You can easily adapt a well structured essay and mold into any given question if you are remotely proficient at the English language. It's not like it's a totally different theme all together.

Sir you are right... Its better to remember a whole essay, because making a decent essay in 40min is hard enough... remembering an essay with a general thesis can adapt any question...

Lets just say you lose nothing if you remember a whole essay.. you have both an essay and 'key ideas' covered... the only thing required is effort

 

[isenseven]

You don't want to necessarily remember your whole essay word for word. As slyhunter said, try to remember the adaptable concepts of the text and quotes. For example, in my half yearly AoS essay I had most of it "memorised" but when a part of that essay didn't suite the question i brought in a female character which suited the question perfectly and I was able to do so by remembering quotes which related to this character and not restricting myself to my "memorised essay". However, you seem pretty transfixed on memorising your whole essay.

 

[isenseven]

Instead I propose you go the middle ground and memorise a paragraph for each of your 'key ideas' or 'key techniques', and pick and assemble these paragraphs together in the exam room to form an essay. Think of it as pre-building all the walls of a house so that they can quickly and easily be connected to make a great looking house.

Perfect!

 

[aphorae]

Agreed ibbi00.

I ranked top 10 out of 200 for two english adv essay assessments (top 20 school). All I did for studying both times was write one super essay (long and generic - make sure it includes all the important quotes and events/ideas etc.), memorised it almost word for word the night before and adapted it to the question on the day. Didn't do any other practice essays throughout the term so yeah... the reason I lost a mark both times is because I ran out of time both times so 'not enough detail in final point' lol.

I think the reason I memorise my essays is mainly because I find it so hard to find the perfect wording in such a short time, especially since I don't practice throughout the term, so I'd rather prepare sophisticated sentences, terminology, expression and progression of ideas beforehand.

Like everyone says, it's important to adapt it. For intros, I keep a generic first statement then refer to the question directly. But if you keep using key terms/synonyms from the question throughout the body while making sure they're actually relevant to your analysis, you should be fine with adapting it.

 

[powlmao]

What is the best technique past HSC students have used to remember your english HSC word-for-word?

Also, is it easy or hard remembering word-for-word?

I do it by recording it and listening to it as i sleep

 

[b00m]

heh i always memorised my essays and adapted, worked well for me tbh and the 3 guys ranked directly on top of me who got 96-97 for english adv. I spent so much time perfecting my essays that i felt it was a crime not to memorise them

Funnily enough i also found it easier to memorise word for word rather than the general idea/techniques.

=> Best way to memorise (imo): Look at sentence, block sentence, recite out loud under ur breath. Once you've done that, do that with the next whilst also reciting the previous sentence(s) without looking

also, remember. An essay is easily adapted as long as as the topic sentences, a couple of supporting sentences in every paragraph, and the concluding sentences relate and link to the question.. pretty simple really

 

[Lau93]

It's best not to remember the WHOLE essay off by heart. What I did was I had a whole lot of good phrases that worked really nicely for that particular module (made it sound more sophisticated etc.) and little sentences that contributed well to my thesis. I never made up an entire essay (successfully) in exam conditions, but if you go into an exam with little parts memorised, and lots of practice adapting to the question, you'll be fine

 

[b00m]

It's best not to remember the WHOLE essay off by heart. What I did was I had a whole lot of good phrases that worked really nicely for that particular module (made it sound more sophisticated etc.) and little sentences that contributed well to my thesis. I never made up an entire essay (successfully) in exam conditions, but if you go into an exam with little parts memorised, and lots of practice adapting to the question, you'll be fine

in the end, what's best is subjective and comes down to what you're most comfortable with or are willing to do. Not one method of study or preparation is guaranteed to work with everyone.

 

[Tacitus]

Remembering an essay word-for-word is a guaranteed B-range mark. Because your answer, purely by virtue of being rote-learnt ahead of time, is going to be sophisticated and verbose enough to satisfy half the marking criteria, it will get pushed up to a B. Because your answer, purely by being rote-learnt ahead of time, is not going to have a hope in hell of being directly relevant to ANY question (beyond an absolute gift) given to you on the day, it will get dragged down to a B.

If you hate the two-unit course and are happy to come away with that mark, then go for it. If you're looking to max out your ATAR, then you'd be much better off trying a different tack.

I don't really expect this point to change your mind because you look like you've made it up already, but memorizing extended responses to the letter is a terribly, terribly inefficient way to study for English and will cause you an awful lot of anxiety - as it gives you no margin for error or chance to improvise. Also, as artificial and contrived as the course is, it is in the end a great opportunity to enhance your critical thinking and relating skills which your study techniques don't foster at all.

 

[4025808]

Yeah I wouldn't memorize the full essay word for word because you don't exactly know what the question is. I would only memorize parts of the body that I write, and spend time writing introductions and linking sentences so that it won't look as if I memorized an essay off heart, in which you shouldn't really do it because it's a waste of memory (unless if the question was given to you)

 

[b00m]

Remembering an essay word-for-word is a guaranteed B-range mark. Because your answer, purely by virtue of being rote-learnt ahead of time, is going to be sophisticated and verbose enough to satisfy half the marking criteria, it will get pushed up to a B. Because your answer, purely by being rote-learnt ahead of time, is not going to have a hope in hell of being directly relevant to ANY question (beyond an absolute gift) given to you on the day, it will get dragged down to a B.

If you hate the two-unit course and are happy to come away with that mark, then go for it. If you're looking to max out your ATAR, then you'd be much better off trying a different tack.

I don't really expect this point to change your mind because you look like you've made it up already, but memorizing extended responses to the letter is a terribly, terribly inefficient way to study for English and will cause you an awful lot of anxiety - as it gives you no margin for error or chance to improvise. Also, as artificial and contrived as the course is, it is in the end a great opportunity to enhance your critical thinking and relating skills which your study techniques don't foster at all.

I can't say i agree. Like i said in the posts before three of my friends memorised their essays word for word, yes, word for word in last year's exams and got their respective marks of 96, 96 and 97. The chances of students getting questions similar to their prepared responses is actually very high.. all my essays in the trials and the hsc were pretty much the questions from the syllabus.. lol

Chances of you getting a letter? quite damn low,

I'm sorry i don't agree with you, but the current english hsc syllabus allows you to do exactly that - memorise. And students should capitalise on that imo..

 

[slyhunter]

I can't say i agree. Like i said in the posts before three of my friends memorised their essays word for word, yes, word for word in last year's exams and got their respective marks of 96, 96 and 97. The chances of students getting questions similar to their prepared responses is actually very high.. all my essays in the trials and the hsc were pretty much the questions from the syllabus.. lol

Chances of you getting a letter? quite damn low,

I'm sorry i don't agree with you, but the current english hsc syllabus allows you to do exactly that - memorise. And students should capitalise on that imo..

it works.