How to memorise English essays? (1 Viewer)

[Bobbo1]

Ok, i know some of you are going to whinge about not preparing a rote learnt essay, but our advanced english course is exactly that. Teachers are going to tell us not to rote learn but after they finish marking they want fluent, sophisticated language etc (which can only be done by preparing before hand)

Any useful suggestions will be much appreciated!

 

[scarybunny]

Can you seriously not think of sophisticated, fluent language off the top of your head? Your brain goes faster than your pen, so your mind is always one step ahead of your writing.

The only way to rote learn is to read and write your essay dozens of times. There are no tricks to it if you insist on pre-preparing an entire essay.

 

[Bobbo1]

trust me mate most people who get band 6, memorise most if not all of their essays.....

 

[scarybunny]

Better get writing, then.

 

[ahdil33]

obviously you don't memeorise it word for word though. that would be time consuming, and stupid.

You're going to need the mould your memorised essay to the question. Make sure your essays match the relevant syllabus area so whatever they ask, you can mould your essay to..

ya only really need to look over your essay, and memorise the quotes, techniques in order, really.

 

[ArtemisOrthia]

Can you seriously not think of sophisticated, fluent language off the top of your head? Your brain goes faster than your pen, so your mind is always one step ahead of your writing.

The only way to rote learn is to read and write your essay dozens of times. There are no tricks to it if you insist on pre-preparing an entire essay.

Agreed 100%.

It's a 'do at your own risk' to ROTE learn an essay and memorise it. The essay must also be generic enough to be easily manipulated to suit a variety of questions, otherwise you'll entirely miss the question target. This form of essay is hard to achieve, without knowing the questions, and it is usually best to have completed a variety of essays and remember the general structure and key points of the essay, rather than memorising one. The only way to ROTE learn essays and memorise it, is to re-write it several times, and to re-read it and etc. You'll want to remember the techniques and analysis rather than HOW you wrote it, which is what you seem to have difficulty with. And this is not the way to combat that issue, it's better to complete a variety of writing tasks and past papers and have them marked, and then look at them again and try to improve them.

I'd recommend doing several past papers and completing essays that examine several areas and approach the content differently rather than focusing on just one essay. To be honest it's not that hard to have a high vocabulary and the ability to structure a fluent and intelligent sentence in an exam, and you shouldn't need to memorise an essay to do so.

 

[scarybunny]

That's it, hey.

PRACTICE writing, no doubt. Get used to using sophisticated language. Get used to engaging deeply with the question (which, by the way, you can't do properly with a generic essay precisely BECAUSE it is generic). Get used to using your arsenal of techniques in ways that are appropriate to the specific question.

Practice, yes. Memorise an essay, no. Nobody is going to be impressed with your sophisticated language if you haven't properly engaged with the question. Language is worth relatively few marks compared to how you deal with the question.

 

[Hermes1]

you shouldnt memorise essays, you should memorise techniques, quotes and all the other relevant stuff and mould it to the question. if you memorise a generic essay, you could go into the exam room and just start writing it out without realising it has nothing to do with the actual question.

 

[4025808]

You should at least learn to adapt the memorized essay to the question, just like adapting a creative story into the stimulus (in which pretty much everyone would recommend doing). Look at past HSC questions and try to mould an essay based on those questions, imo.

 

[-may-cat-]

Without commenting on the advantages and disadvantages of using memorised essays in the HSC, this is how i memorise essays when i have to:

Break down the essay into longer style dot points, i usually have 3 dot points to a paragraph.

Memorise the dot points in groups of 3 (per paragraph). Write out the 1st dot point at least 3 times till you can write it by heart, then do the same with the second and the third. Then write out all three together off by heart. Repeat with the next set of 3.

When you finish, write out the full essay twice.

Using this method i can usually memorise a 1000 word essay in about 2 1/2 hours. Might work for you, might not *shrugs*

 

[jack93]

I have a couple of methods, one of them is to pace backwards and forward while you are reading or reciting (in you head) the essay, as this creates a tempo or momentum in recalling your essay, another thing I experimented with was to record my voice over an instrumental piece (which I already know pretty well,) and just keep playing little chunks repetitively. It doesn't work wonders but it helps, again because it gives you a tempo, and also don't be afraid to look down at your essay if you can't remember it because it will help you visualise it in the exam, highlight the things you forget, and create a couple of buzz words for you to remember the things you forget. I hope this helps, and to all the people who are like, "you're unsophisticated," give people a break, not everyone can write a 1200 word essay on the spot in 40 minutes, I certainly can't (I'm not Jesus!)

 

[jamesfirst]

Write the first line, then write the first and the second line, then write the 1st 2nd and 3rd line.


Continue this all the way to the end of the conclusion

 

[jamesfirst]

obviously you don't memeorise it word for word though. that would be time consuming, and stupid.

You're going to need the mould your memorised essay to the question. Make sure your essays match the relevant syllabus area so whatever they ask, you can mould your essay to..

ya only really need to look over your essay, and memorise the quotes, techniques in order, really.

My tutor memorised his essay word for word and got 99/100 for his HSC for ADV

He also did ext 2 eng and got a band 6 for that also.

 

[turbomedi343]

if there is anything ive learnt is that you SHOULD NEVER memorise essay understand the text, embrace them understand why the BOD is forcing you to learn this text and then answer the question given to you by using relevent info

 

[meilz92]

Only ethnics need to memorise essays lol

At my school we had one Asian and one indian and they both memorized their essays and nobody else did.

 

[Bobbo1]

i think some you guys have missed my point, when i mean memorise it is to ADAPT to a given question and not just regurgitate it out...

 

[Bobbo1]

My tutor memorised his essay word for word and got 99/100 for his HSC for ADV

He also did ext 2 eng and got a band 6 for that also.

yes, and most other successful students have also done this and ADAPTED to the question on the day...so they are basically not righting a first 'draft' but something which is polished

 

[meilz92]

Why don't you just do what I did

Make a table with 3 columns for each text. Column headings: quote, technique, explanation.
Much simpler + helps you understand text better and you can easily drop a top essay in the exam because you have encoded this in your memory more deeply because you actually understand the concept- far more reliable than recall memory.

 

[meilz92]

Why don't you just do what I did

Make a table with 3 columns for each text. Column headings: quote, technique, explanation.
Much simpler + helps you understand text better and you can easily drop a top essay in the exam because you have encoded this in your memory more deeply because you actually understand the concept- far more reliable than recall memory.

 

[Herbert Braun]

Or why don't you just stop being shitcunts, and actually understand your text well enough to not have to memorise anything