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Memorising Essays (3 Viewers)

black_kat_meow

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Yeah, maybe "not bad", but you're not going to be able to reach those top marks unless you actually use your brain on the day, god forbid.
 

selablad

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Aplus said:
Generic essays aren't bad if they're flexible enough to be adapted to lots of questions.
What about just memorising generic sentences, or even just phrases? You could then arrange them to suit the question, changing a few words here and there, so you could have the benefits of memorising (ie having smart-sounding sentences) while also having the benefits of not memorising (ie actually answering the question).
 

Aplus

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You don't memorise the essay anyway. You memorise the structure of the essay.
 

emytaylor164

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remember when they mark your essay they will know that you have pre-prepared it. Not just that what if it is not an essay for my half yearly it was a speech.
 

Aerath

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sikhman said:
well for english, we got given the topic 3 days before.....so it helps memorising an essay in that case :)
Hmmm, that's nice. I don't ever recall when we've been given the topic to the exam, prior to actually sitting it.
 

Aplus

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Aerath said:
Hmmm, that's nice. I don't ever recall when we've been given the topic to the exam, prior to actually sitting it.
You have your texts, and you probably know what module you're doing. You can work out the possible questions.
 

Xpl0siv3

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How is understanding your text going to help you score a band 5 or 6?
You would have to memerise something, quotes, techniques used a thesis and things like that. Just understanding the text won't mean you can remember everything and suddenly be capable of achieveing a band 5 or 6.
 

selablad

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Xpl0siv3 said:
How is understanding your text going to help you score a band 5 or 6?
You would have to memerise something, quotes, techniques used a thesis and things like that. Just understanding the text won't mean you can remember everything and suddenly be capable of achieveing a band 5 or 6.
But if you understand it completely, then you don't really need to memorise stuff (a few quotes maybe), because you can show a deep understanding of the text and the topic that goes beyond simple memorisation. And once you have that, you can write about anything related to the topic - you're not limited to just what you've memorised.
 

Aplus

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Understanding = Themes, contexts, values
 

nerdsforever

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If the marker finds that you memorised an essay, will you get marked down for that?
 

tigerian

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nerdsforever said:
If the marker finds that you memorised an essay, will you get marked down for that?
As a marker I would say absolutely because you have memorised an essay rather than shown your analytical skills . Also it is not difficult to identify a memorised essay.

I would strongly urge you not to memorise essays just remember the points you need to make and the examples you intend to use.
 

selablad

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nerdsforever said:
If the marker finds that you memorised an essay, will you get marked down for that?
If they found out because your essay was totally inappropriate, then yes, because you haven't answered the question. But not directly for memorising it.
 

Mr.Cassimatis

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best way to memorise is divide 1 sentence at a time read it out aloud, read it in your mind, write it down, hand written or typed, it doesnt matter either way sinks in your mind, and write/type it about 6 plus times until you can close your eyes and do it or without looking and then attempt the paragraph.

I had Paper 1 today, and i memorised my Area of study in about 3 hours 1050 words,,

now im shitting it with Paper 2
 

Doctor Jolly

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Honestly, don't ever memorise essays. It's a pointless job and a waste of brain space. Okay, maybe keep some good sentences that make you sound pro, but no more than that. An essay is designed to show the examiner how much you can pin down from what you've learnt in 40mins and apply it to the question, not how well you can memorise.
 

boirefish

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lionking1191 said:
900 words is easy to memorise..especially if you wrote it yourself
agreed :)....but its no one-minute task.

a day or two should be sufficient.

its writing all the stuff in 40 minutes that gets me :p
bah. gotta write faster!!
 

-may-cat-

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boirefish said:
agreed :)....but its no one-minute task.

a day or two should be sufficient.

its writing all the stuff in 40 minutes that gets me :p
bah. gotta write faster!!
God it shits me when my teachers are like "you have got to be hitting 5 pages in 40 minutes! any less is not acceptable!!!" Then i go off and kill my wrist, finally managing to fit that extra page in, then their like, "look at your handwriting! it must be neater!!!"

you just cant win!
 

Celestial Kitty

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I write essays longer and what i find VERY useful is reading it over once, highlighting direct quotes and ideas that link into each other.
 

lyounamu

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If you don't know what the essay questions are, how do you memorise essays?
 

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