Memorising 5 essays for the trials... (1 Viewer)

addikaye03

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youll never get a good mark if you memorise generic essays on the topic.
markers want to see you argue your case, not desperately try to fit a square peg in a round hole.
thats bullshit, i had a friend who rote learnt her essays, improved on them over the year, got better at adapting it to Q etc, HSC Mark: 97. I don't know bout you, but i would be happy with that
 

mesbaz

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im a little late. but i find that if u read each paragraph out loud a few times. like sentence by sentence it sticks. not ' quick ' but definitely productive :)
 

shell.q

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i started off writing esssays but then came to the conclsion, i dont know the question and it may not be wat i studied in the essays so i just wrote down points and am memorising the points i wrote down. i guess its different with belonging i memorised an essay but modules i just dont hink it would be sensible for me anyway
 

Efficient5

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Don't memorise word for word, but don't wing it either. Just have a few points and know them well, try to understand the text. Memorising word for word is useless because you always have to write an answer to that particular question so memorising would just make it too inflexible and harder for you to answer within 40min. Take my advice.
 

Absolutezero

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I had 8 + 2 creative. But, I didn't bother with memorisation. Just have a basic structure and you'll be fine.
 
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You need to look at the English Trial exams as an Apple.

It's red (read) and green (mean).

Take a bite out of it, and sure it will be good for you, but a little bit wont do much. Take multiple bites, and your body will thank you for it. It's full of nutrition.

But if you use an apple peeler, then you're scraping off marks. Just like memorising an exam. Sure sometimes its good to memorise (like sometimes its good to eat an apple without its skin), but when that question comes up that REQUIRES the apple skin you'll regret it.

Long story short -> memorising essays is ok, but you'll need to do more than just memorise ONE generic essay.
 

emilyo

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instead do practices essays,write up your own question cause there isnt any past papers to go from then give yourself 40 mins to re-create exam conditions

or if you're heart is set on memorisation reduce your essay into smaller manageable quotes and key ideas to then you remember the vital points and just fill in the rest in the exam, and these will trigger the rest of your essay also
 
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theundefined

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if i was to memorise essays my brain would blow up, lol your brain is limited to remebering 6 significant things (well thats what i noe), and the best way to remeber things, is to associate certain things with them. Besides writing up an essay and knowing it inside out, get someone to test you on the main points - on what you can remeber and youll get the points you know and the ones you dont. Then you can work out wats significant for you, then the way i would do it is, associate things with it. What i would do is, summarise my points in a sentence. Say i wer to do a random essay, and i had 3 main arguements, a monkey, a dog walking and a pig that flies over the moon. LOL i would summarise my essay to this line : I had a monkey that walked a dog everytime a pig flew over the moon. Then id memories a sentence for each essay, and as soon as i go in, i write those lines out to clear my mind, then i rember back to when i was summarising my points and then back to my essay, then back to my quotes etc. well thats my methodology give it a try if you want to test how your brain works.
 
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instead do practices essays,write up your own question cause there isnt any past papers to go from then give yourself 40 mins to re-create exam conditions

or if you're heart is set on memorisation reduce your essay into smaller manageable quotes and key ideas to then you remember the vital points and just fill in the rest in the exam, and these will trigger the rest of your essay also
Yess ^^^^
 

GGo9

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well i have:
cafs - 9 (yes that is not a joke)
SOR 1 - 2
english - 5 (including creative)
legal - 4

total of 20!
Wow good luck!
I thought mine was bad, but I only have english and modern history essays. lol
 
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for my trial exams i wrote all the key points, quotes, techniques and significant points/explanations on pieces of cardboard in coloured texta...for me the visual colours were easy for me to picture in my head and aided my memory. I opted for learning quotes techniques and the messages of the texts. I trust my essay writing ability enough to be able to formulate an essay that directly answers the specific exam question in the exam using the quotes, techniques and points i have learnt.
 

absorber

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it's more beneficial to remember structurally and roughly, i.e. by paragraphs and quotes used. Practice exam papers to help memorise, it's much easier to remember something when you're not just regurgitating information but actually thinking about it.
 

samthebear

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i hate memorising, cant do it - i just do heaps and heaps of practice essays. if you say you're good at adapting your essay then try that. i'm sure you'll have remembered something from your essay; pick a random practice question then try to answer it with the stuff you've already remembered. the rest will just flow and connect.

even though i dont like memorising my essays, i find that after awhile i find a good angle to argue my point from and i use that same angle over and over again for different essays.

good luck!
 

Cloesd

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What's the best way to memorise 5 essays for the trials? It took me incredibly long to memorise my module C essay by writing it down 2 times and then reciting the rest.

Any helpful tips? I know this method which I used for module C:

www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/.../how-to-memorise-an-entire-essay-or-speech/

But it worked out badly (i.e. it was incredibly time consuming taking a few days, even though it worked out in the end). A friend of mine told me to write the essay out 10 times, but that's incredibly time consuming, especially since I have to balance my time out for other subjects, and my exam is in 6 days... I wish I had a month...

Thanks.
Alright il'l tell you, but remember, the best marks are for essays that 100% answer the question, not a simply a change in the last line of each paragraph linking back in some half-ass way.

eg. The character hamlet, through the use of dialogue propel the plot, and emboss the theme into the text; effectively making the character hamlet a tragic-hero. Thus hamlet does not follow the conventions of the time.
(btw, the last two lines are an oxymoron)



Now what you do to make mediocre, regurgitation angry BOS marker fodder essays is:

Go through sentence by sentence, appointing a "key-word" to remember that sentence by. The keyword should cause you to recall the "idea" of the sentence, and with it a few more words.

Now you should have a list of keywords. Start with the top of the list, imagine a visual representation for that keyword, a imagined scene that recalls that particular word instantly. Then look at the next word. Place the image from the first word into the imagine scene for the next word. continue this until end of the list.

Finally write out the first word on the keyword list 20 or so times.

What you should be able to do in the exam is.. Think of the first keyword (route memorised) then that should recall the picture, which features the NEXT keyword, which recalls another picture and that picture features the NEXT keyword.

Effectively you've got a mental list of every sentence in your essay.

Takes roughly anywhere between 5-30 minutes depending on your visual cortex's imaginative powers, and how memorable you can make those pictures.


Now go forth, and regurgitate your medicore essays...
 

hairspray

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I don't think its wise to memorise any essay cos its not like u're going to get the exact question to match ur memorised essay. Just know the main points (context/ theme/ techniques) and quotes. MEMORISE quotes, hsc markers HATES it when you try and make up a quote.
 

diametric

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Sad.
With the exception of the STORY - all of your essays WILL be adaptable to the question.
When writing a top notch essay you plan to memorise, you WILL have a criteria in front of you - this is called the RUBRIC.
The question for ANY examination must come from the RUBRIC. Thus, if you have answered all the demands of the rubric in your essay, it should he adaptable to any question thrown at you. Adapting your essay skillfully and to various text types (if necessary) is what will demonstrate your skill in English.
 

annabackwards

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I don't think its wise to memorise any essay cos its not like u're going to get the exact question to match ur memorised essay. Just know the main points (context/ theme/ techniques) and quotes. MEMORISE quotes, hsc markers HATES it when you try and make up a quote.
That's pretty much a broken up essay. I've tried using this method alone and i end up writing the essay i would've written and memorised.

Sad.
With the exception of the STORY - all of your essays WILL be adaptable to the question.
When writing a top notch essay you plan to memorise, you WILL have a criteria in front of you - this is called the RUBRIC.
The question for ANY examination must come from the RUBRIC. Thus, if you have answered all the demands of the rubric in your essay, it should he adaptable to any question thrown at you. Adapting your essay skillfully and to various text types (if necessary) is what will demonstrate your skill in English.
This, although your story should be adaptable as well as you never know what sort of form they want you to write in.

They can only ask you so much in english - either a generic question or a question based on a specific theme/emotion. That's about it.
 

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