English Essay Memorisers!!! (1 Viewer)

[salut:-)]

haha this thread makes me laugh. I guess i should be fairly proud of not ever, ever memorising an english essay, including the HSC, and getting 97.

what is the fucking NEED to memorise? what happened to actually THINKING??? its only a matter of looking at a text and being able to see links.

i fucking hated english all of my highschool life, i barely survived the HSC english advanced classes, did not do any english extensions, and then i see people who got low 90s in advanced get high 40s in extensions, and that makes me sad because i know i would have nailed the "extensions". ah well, like someone said, the HSC is a game, and i played that part of it wrong.

by the way, english is my 3rd language. booyah.

What is your problem? Have you ever thought that everyone has their own styles and ways of learning? So the majority of people on this thread preferred to go into the exam room prepared with a super essay which enabled them to be comfortable with the question and mould an easy answer. I think, seriously, that their way is better than yours. They did their THINKING at home - made a serious plan and outline, rather than wasting time finding LINKS.

To memorise a super essay, one needs to be able to study their texts very well, actually BOTHER to write essays again and again, so as to MAKE a perfect one, and then, by doing several exam questions, know how to mould each to what's being asked. You're not the only one who 'barely survived'. You may have a natural flair (English doesn't need to be a third, fourth or thirty seventh language to be good at), but these people worked thier asses off with what they had.

Its your loss that you didnt do the extensions, boohoo. You don't know that you would have nailed them - but guess what, they did. Even with their 'low nineties' in advanced.

Its your loss, so dont complain.


To the threadstarter, I got 95 and I'm fairly proud of working hard and making super essays before hand.

 

[Carnivour]

haha fair enough Salut. im the first to admit im dissapointed i didnt chose subjects that were my forte, so obviously its my loss. notice how in my post i actually said that? no point attacking something i already stated.

my problem, as you have so kindly put it, is i strongly do not agree with the practice of memorising essays because i detest the spoon feeding/regurgitation backbone of the HSC. It does not actually allow for your mind to develop and only fosters this kind of rigid memorisation.

as for wasting my time in an exam? well, jeez, looks like some good old thinking on the spot rather than spending 2 months at home writing a SUPER essay wasted that much time for me, no? perhaps you would like to spend a little time processing my logic here?

btw Salut, did you ever stop to think why they have two separate methods of assesment? ie assesment and exam? because exam is the only way they can gauge the raw potential of your mind where you dont have books or other essays, or parents or some other outside influence to guide you in your SUPER essay writing. once you are locked in an exam room you only have your pen, your mind and the question in front of you to formulate the SUPER essay. sure, you can memorise, but thats most definetely not a testament to an agile mind. but you know, whatever, im sick of arguing this issue, so please, be content in your achievements.

 

[tinklepot]

Why think when you can memorise - the HSC is formulaic and mediocre, if you want to maximise marks memorising is the way to go.

 

[_dhj_]

One should combine the best of both worlds. Memorised essays are useful for topics you don't care much about. Spontaneous essays often purvey a critical "voice" that sets them apart as the most articulate and analytical responses and they are best deployed for topics you enjoy or are particularly good at.

 

[lourai*87]

I didnt memorise word for word but we had som any class essay tests and the midcourse and trial as well...so it is only expected that after writing basically the same stuff for months it will be imprinted on your brain (ie some sort of memory).

Having said that, if memorising a whole essay you run the risk of not being able to addapt to an unexpected question. So i memorised the basic content of my essays, uses similar ideas and structures and fitted it to the question in the exam - it wasnt regurgiation nor was it "oh shit what do i write"..a nice happy meduim.

exam mark 89.

 

[Libbster]

i just want to know one thing, why is english memorising so "wrong?" i've seen so many posts on here such as "as if u'd memorise, memorising is shit etc etc" Why is it supposedly bad if it allows people who aren't comfortable with spontaneous writing to get good marks?

 

[tinklepot]

I guess it's because memorisation disallows spontaneity of thought, and so really in responding to a question you're not using information you gathered throughout the year, nor your knowledge of the text as a whole (as the HSC examiners would hope it was studied) - rather you are relying solely upon parts of information cut out of texts and put into a single generic essay. HSC organisers (and a surprising number of BOSers who condemn memorisation) would obviously prefer the former to occur - the true test of an understanding of a text.

My response to this is that given the ENTIRELY FORMULAIC AND MEDIOCRE nature of the HSC, I thought the obvious route (providing you can pull it off - that's a different matter) would be to memorise so called generic essays and adapt them by weaving terms of the question throughout...clearly if you can pull this off, you're syntax and everything already perfect (which is hard to achieve thinking spontaneously given 40mins per essay), you're bound to maximise marks.

There's no need to be ''honour-bound'' and do things the ''right way'' (ie: no memorisation) for HSC English. It's all about marks in the end, and memorisation is you're pathway to success (given the HSC's fundamental nature).

 

[Captain Gh3y]

But there's nothing intelligent about the Advanced English course, for each Module/AoS there's basically the same ideas and format used in every essay you ever write, maybe changed into an interview or a feature article or something, but still.

In the end there's little difference between memorising and understanding; the memorisers are those who think "yep, this is bullshit" and recite it, the understanders are those who think "omg this is so deep and meaningful" and actually waste the brainpower it takes to think about the useless english course, and come to the exact same conclusions and ideas (because there's such a limited number you can use) that the memorisers recite without wasting time thinking about.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

 

[Sarah_Lou]

i got 90 for both eng adv and ext 1 with practically memorised essays!

 

[ameh]

I made up my related material on the spot for Powerplay and managed a band 5.

 

[Carnivour]

But there's nothing intelligent about the Advanced English course, for each Module/AoS there's basically the same ideas and format used in every essay you ever write, maybe changed into an interview or a feature article or something, but still.

In the end there's little difference between memorising and understanding; the memorisers are those who think "yep, this is bullshit" and recite it, the understanders are those who think "omg this is so deep and meaningful" and actually waste the brainpower it takes to think about the useless english course, and come to the exact same conclusions and ideas (because there's such a limited number you can use) that the memorisers recite without wasting time thinking about.

wow, what the fuck is wrong with your logic also???
thinking in an exam - 2 hours.
memorising essays - at least a couple of hours writing the perfect essay x4 (AOS and 3 modules) plus a couple of hours memorising each essay plus the couple of hours of each exam
are you guys as stupid as you sound

and please note how im my first post i said that i hated english, and any post i have made in any english forum is a testament to that - its absolute bullshit, you can say anything provided its sophisticated and meaningfull. so why waste your time memorising the bullshit where you can just think on the spot when you have to and actually make something of it that is beneficial to you. beats me why that isnt obvious to everyone, but like i said, whatever. i got 97 by this logic and im more than happy.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

wow, what the fuck is wrong with your logic also???
thinking in an exam - 2 hours.
memorising essays - at least a couple of hours writing the perfect essay x4 (AOS and 3 modules) plus a couple of hours memorising each essay plus the couple of hours of each exam
are you guys as stupid as you sound

and please note how im my first post i said that i hated english, and any post i have made in any english forum is a testament to that - its absolute bullshit, you can say anything provided its sophisticated and meaningfull. so why waste your time memorising the bullshit where you can just think on the spot when you have to and actually make something of it that is beneficial to you. beats me why that isnt obvious to everyone, but like i said, whatever. i got 97 by this logic and im more than happy.

That somebody as dimwitted as yourself could get that is just a reflection of how pathetic the HSC really is.

Clearly if you'd done no work at all whatsoever on the texts prior to entering the exam you'd have no idea what sort of things to make up in the exam, you wouldn't be able to "Think" in the exam because you'd have no idea what to think about.

Now, if you were able to come up with your essay in the exam then you must have studied at some point and actually given some consideration to the subject matter of English Advanced.

A memoriser by the definition assumed in my previous post is someone who does not give a fuck about the content of the English Advanced course and commits an essay to memory (an essay written by a tutor or downloaded from Bored, not one you made up yourself because that requires knowing something about the course) that can be adapted somewhat to fit the range of questions one may be asked in the exam.

I didn't write the perfect essay to memorise; I didn't write ANY essays all year. I did nothing. I knew nothing about my texts prior to year 12, I know nothing about them now. I read none of them, and slept through the film texts.

It is not possible to make up an essay in the exam having done this.

 

[elisabeth]

Ah Carnivour, get the crap over it already. If not memorising works for you, yay, you got a great mark and you should be stoked. However, clearly memorising works for most people and by that I mean (for the most part) people learn their shit by doing so many practise essays that you're writing the same thing over and over and it sinks in. So you recite the same stuff again in the exam. Big deal.

It's not even working the system, it's just a different style of studying. I don't walk into a bio exam thinking 'Oh yeah, I know about scientific principles, I'll use my logic and common sense to answer the exam". I walk in knowing and understanding my dot points, with examples for each, I'm not gonna make up new ones on the day in the exam so I can feel like an exam purist.

 

[jennylim]

memorised english essays for both adv and ext 1: got 93 and 47.

i might add i memorised essays in modern history and got 97...then again, i could only memorise germany + conflict in pacific + 1st leni....the other 40 marks had to be winged in the exam.

 

[Carnivour]

That somebody as dimwitted as yourself could get that is just a reflection of how pathetic the HSC really is.

Clearly if you'd done no work at all whatsoever on the texts prior to entering the exam you'd have no idea what sort of things to make up in the exam, you wouldn't be able to "Think" in the exam because you'd have no idea what to think about.

Now, if you were able to come up with your essay in the exam then you must have studied at some point and actually given some consideration to the subject matter of English Advanced.

A memoriser by the definition assumed in my previous post is someone who does not give a fuck about the content of the English Advanced course and commits an essay to memory (an essay written by a tutor or downloaded from Bored, not one you made up yourself because that requires knowing something about the course) that can be adapted somewhat to fit the range of questions one may be asked in the exam.

I didn't write the perfect essay to memorise; I didn't write ANY essays all year. I did nothing. I knew nothing about my texts prior to year 12, I know nothing about them now. I read none of them, and slept through the film texts.

It is not possible to make up an essay in the exam having done this.

out of curiousity, to everyone else that has posted in this thread, is this YOUR definition of a memoriser? if this is (which i have great doubts about, but nonetheless) HOLY CRAP do you people have absolutely no integrity whatsoever? plagiarism should not be paraded around like some sort of flag, its the root of all decay of education since there ever was such a thing! im not any sort of exam puritan, this is a concept any person should understand. you cant just say that the HSC is pathetic, then go on to blame it as the reason why you plagiarise! its people like you who perpetuate it and make it pathetic, so YOU fuck up about it.

and congratulations on doing nothing in year 12 english - i did a little more than you in that i read and watched my texts and films. i enjoyed some of them and i hated others. now, im not entirely sure about other people, but when i read a book i absorb it and think about it - if this is what you classify as wasting time then.....yeah. i have no words.

i thoroughly, thoroughly hate the content of the English syllabus - I hate what they do to texts, and the mincemeat that is expected from us. Therefore i have argued year-long on this forum (long before i sat the hsc exam or recieved any marks) that a compulsory English course should be made much more skills orientered than the post-modernistic content based as it is now, specifically to avoid memorisation which does not allow for creativity and spontanaeity, does not encourage an agile mind, rather a robotistic regurgitation of a single essay you had previously written.

and for the record elisabeth, i can argue something as much as want when i believe in something as strongly as this. im most definetely not the only one who criticises this aspect of the HSC, and this was the first page that came up when I typed in "criticism of the HSC" in to Google:

Criticisms
The HSC has been criticised for placing so much weight on the final exam, thus causing excessive stress to students and favouring those who cram for exams at the expense of those who work steadily throughout but do not cope well with pressure, even though 50% of the students mark is based on in-school assesments which are subsequently modified according to the schools performance in an exam. There is also criticism that the HSC is oriented heavily towards memorised facts rather than applied skills, meaning that the student finishes with no real understanding of the subject.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_School_Certificate

sure, they are talking about understanding a subject which doesnt necessarily apply to english as it is at the moment, but the idea regarding memorisation stands across the broader range of subjects.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

Awright, I plagiarised that definition of memorising too. Fine.

Why bother doing anything you don't want to? I got a good enough mark, UAI, etc. to do what I want this year, and got to spend time reading and studying things that were of interest or useful. Clearly I'm well aware that when one reads a book one thinks about it. I may have even done so myself after reading one.

 

[Pierotte]

Hahah carnivour u cant be serious.

Like u said before the HSC is a game.

For some people memorising gives them an advantage in that game.

I toyed with memorising vs spontaneous essays all year and pretty much got the same kinds of marks either way.

But in the end through assesments and exams you are being trained to refine your ideas and commit them to memory so they are easy to regurgitate in an exam.

Theres no such thing as a 100% new idea once u get into the exam room. Its simply putting non paper what has been drilled into you all year.

I say kudos to the memorisers, if the course allows for it go for it.

If they (BOS) didnt want people to memorise they would have stuck with the 1970's style HSC equivilant where one was given a previously unseen text and asked to analyze it on the spot, where there was no real way of preparing for it.

Well this isnt the case anymore.

I had huge chunks of some essays memorised word for word and i was alot less stressed for it.

All the chunks that i had memorised were simply some of my better ideas i had had in previous assesments, but i refined them. Nothing wrong with that.

Got in the low 90's.

Why r u so against it?

Get off your high horse. Nobody respects you more cuz u did ur essay on the spot. In the end its all about marks, and u do whatever u can to get them.

 

[Carnivour]

Hahah carnivour u cant be serious.

Like u said before the HSC is a game.

For some people memorising gives them an advantage in that game.

I toyed with memorising vs spontaneous essays all year and pretty much got the same kinds of marks either way.

But in the end through assesments and exams you are being trained to refine your ideas and commit them to memory so they are easy to regurgitate in an exam.

Theres no such thing as a 100% new idea once u get into the exam room. Its simply putting non paper what has been drilled into you all year.

I say kudos to the memorisers, if the course allows for it go for it.

If they (BOS) didnt want people to memorise they would have stuck with the 1970's style HSC equivilant where one was given a previously unseen text and asked to analyze it on the spot, where there was no real way of preparing for it.

Well this isnt the case anymore.

I had huge chunks of some essays memorised word for word and i was alot less stressed for it.

All the chunks that i had memorised were simply some of my better ideas i had had in previous assesments, but i refined them. Nothing wrong with that.

Got in the low 90's.

Why r u so against it?

Get off your high horse. Nobody respects you more cuz u did ur essay on the spot. In the end its all about marks, and u do whatever u can to get them.

oh look, whatever. im not looking for anyone's respect, im arguing against something i believe is inherently wrong using my results as evidence it works and why i think its more beneficial to do it that way. ive posted like 10 times each time explaining why i think its wrong, and if by that stage you still have to ask "Why r u so against it?" then theres obviously no point.

 

[Pierotte]

oh look, whatever. im not looking for anyone's respect, im arguing against something i believe is inherently wrong using my results as evidence it works and why i think its more beneficial to do it that way. ive posted like 10 times each time explaining why i think its wrong, and if by that stage you still have to ask "Why r u so against it?" then theres obviously no point.

Look not everyone is as smart as you. Ok??

What works for you DOESNT work for other people.

You obviously have a knack for languages.

Well different peoples strengths lie in different areas.

Wow!

Different strategies work for different people.

So Little Miss English-is-my-thrid-language-and-ha-ha-ha-i-can-speak-it-better-than-you keep in mind those that despise english, yet its compulsory for them to do it in their HSC. Why should their UAI suffer unnecessarily?

Its not wrong. So you should stop thinking it is.