memorising essays? (1 Viewer)

[Deer]

I think that memorising essays and memorising notes are quite similar, but still, you should try to memorise your notes, ie, concepts, ideas, and quotations and techniques, rather than learning an essay word for word.

Why? Essays use the concepts etc in your notes to answer a specific question. Everything you say should (if it's a good essay) be focusing on answering that question with your thesis, and it's about 99% sure that you won't get that question again.

Memorise your concepts and draw on these in the exam. Even memorise the logical order that your concepts progress in, if you feel you need a structure-you can safely plan a rough structure before you see the question.

 

[forward]

At my school everyone is so batshit retarded that they use the same question like every time (or don't even bother having a question; either way they never mark very accurately on how your essay responds to the q).

Thanks for your help. I should've probably started doing this sooner lol..

 

[Miss Successful]

i write it a billion dozen times and also funny thing i found that if i record my self saying it and listen to it when im going to sleep it helps too

+1 LOL so true!

 

[icecubeX]

Don't memorise your essay. If they give you a different essay question you gotta relate your answer to the question being ask.
It's best to remember your main points and quotes, and you need to know your content well so expand on the points.

 

[ninetypercent]

i am going to have to resort to memorising an essay for my half yearly as I only get good marks when i memorise

 

[thongetsu]

memorise your essay structure and as much key concepts of the texts as possible in order to answer the question. READ READ READ!

 

[alcalder]

The only thing you should be memorising are:
- Quotes
- Concepts
- Mnemonics of outlines

Never memorise one essay or just prepare for just one question. If you do and they do what they did in last year's HSC in one subject and throw in an unseen, unexpected essay question, you are completely stuffed. You NEED to be able to relate what you have studied to any situation and write.

It is VERY easy to write 1000 words in 40 minutes when you know how to write. Know your basic essay structures for each key word (ie discuss, compare, relate etc), build your essay structure on the spot with topics and dot points and then fill in the gaps with joining words. 1000 words will come very quickly.

AND write your essays by leaving every second line blank. This makes it easier to edit as you go or later.

 

[Chevalier]

how is it possible to not memorise anything and write a thousand words in 40 mins?

It can be done, but if the question is a take home one its still easier to write a practise essay and just memorise that, reading over it again and again helps, as well as reciting in your head out loud or in your head sentence by sentence at a time.
NOTE- Don't bother remembering the entire essay, just remember key points and arguments, the rest will come naturally as you write. And also don't bother trying to memorise essays for an unseen question, this only works for take home ones like assessment taks where they give you the question beforehand

 

[kr73114]

my assessment only has one essay. i heard you can get two or three essays. how would you go about doing that?

 

[Chevalier]

my assessment only has one essay. i heard you can get two or three essays. how would you go about doing that?

If you get more than one essay only one of them, and I repeat, only one will be a takehome one. They can't overload you with too much work if you have to write two or three practise essays and expect u to remember all of them, there will only ever be one essay which you can write up at home and memorise it. I know, cause it just so happens that my half-yearly english exam is an unseen text plus two essays, one of which is a take-home one, as in we were given the question beforehand and can prepare for it at home