Memorising Essays (1 Viewer)

[king chopper]

Its well known that most people memorise their english essays and it does usually work.
But, just wondering if memorising an essay could work for legal studies, business or economics?

 

[asadass]

Not really, because there are so many different topics that an extended response could be on. It's better to memorise essay plans or just know your stuff.

 

[Nooblet94]

Not really, because there are so many different topics that an extended response could be on. It's better to memorise essay plans or just know your stuff.

This.
Most of the people that I've spoken to that have done well in English have gone into their exams with plans for individual paragraphs and then using only the paragraphs that are relevant. That being said, the girl who topped the grade and got an HSC mark of 96-97 (iirc) said she basically memorised all of her essays, although she did get screwed over in trials for module b (she was complaining about only getting 18/20).

 

[ibbybiby]

Eco, I think it can work. After all there are only so many questions they can ask.

 

[someth1ng]

It's better to memorise essay plans or just know your stuff.

This is probably true. My friend that got Band 6 in Standard English (top ~50) said that he did NOT memorise his essay but rather remembered quotes and planned for particular paragraphs.

 

[OzKo]

This is probably true. My friend that got Band 6 in Standard English (top ~50) said that he did NOT memorise his essay but rather remembered quotes and planned for particular paragraphs.

This is the same strategy I used for English Advanced.

In my opinion, this is a better strategy compared to straight memorisation because it affords you the flexibility to mould your response to a particular viewpoint. If you are simply recalling an essay you wrote earlier, then there is a good chance you won't answer the question.

 

[LightXT]

I can't speak about Legal and Biz, but memorising essays for Eco is just STUPID. There are up to 20 possible essay questions that they could ask and trying to memorise for all of them isn't practical. For the people who memorised essays for English (in my year), most of them stuck to what they memorised but simply changed their topic sentences to address the question. Since most English questions are pretty generic, most memorised essays can easily be "tweaked" to suit the question. It seems to have worked for them, because we had 118 Band 6s in English last year (and ranked 3rd in the state for the subject).

 

[enoilgam]

Its well known that most people memorise their english essays and it does usually work.
But, just wondering if memorising an essay could work for legal studies, business or economics?

With english, most students who memorise essays dont memorise them word for word. What they do is memorise body paragraphs and add in an intro and conclusion as well as topic/linking sentences on the day. This allows you to better mould your response to the question as opposed to regurgitating a whole essay. For legal business and economics, memorising essays is way less effective, even if you just memorise body paragraphs. In these subjects, the questions are usually limited to a specific topic, and if your essay doesnt match then you have a problem (for example, if you memorise a question on monetary policy in economics, and the exam asks about structural change, then your memorised response is useless). Also, Even if your pre-prepared response is from the same topic as a question on the exam, it will still be difficult to mold your response unless the questions are asking you to do virtually the same thing.

In english however, they are much more limited in what they can ask, and most of the questions are open to various interpretations so you can more easily mould a pre-prepared response to the question.

 

[loaves]

Definitely possible to memorise a broad essay for legal options essays, but you'll need to have enough extra knowledge that you can add to fit the question. (That's what I did.)

For eco, it's probably possible to memorise essay PLANS for each point, but I wouldn't suggest memorising actual essays unless you want to learn about 30 000 words.

 

[powlmao]

Speaking from a person who does legal, economics and business you can't remember essays.


The questions are just too unique.

The questions aren't broad enough for you to remember a band 6 essay.

It only works for english

 

[D94]

With english, most students who memorise essays dont memorise them word for word. What they do is memorise body paragraphs and add in an intro and conclusion as well as topic/linking sentences on the day. This allows you to better mould your response to the question as opposed to regurgitating a whole essay.

[...]

In english however, they are much more limited in what they can ask, and most of the questions are open to various interpretations so you can more easily mould a pre-prepared response to the question.

^This.

I pretty much memorized the quotes, techniques, ideas etc., but they were in essay format, so I could just insert in relevant sections into my HSC exam essays. Most of the time, those sections will be the same for each unique essay you write because that's the evidence for your thesis.