Best way to tackle upcoming english exam (1 Viewer)

[Aaron6693]

Haha thanks =)

It does take time, and you'll legit spend what seems like FOREVER trying to memorise it all. But in my opinion it is worth it. I think for me it took about 1-2 days to memorise one essay, but I know I've got a fairly good memory and other people can take longer which is fine, as long as it gets done!

Most of my essays were about 1200-ish words, some getting closer to 1500 like for Ext.1. You really dont want to know what my writing looked like during those exams hahaha

 

[someth1ng]

@Aaron6693, you were somewhat lucky that your poem was prescribed...you probably would've gotten smashed if you hadn't otherwise. However memorisation usually works granted that you change your essay to some extent. If you don't change your essay at all, you probably wouldn't have done anywhere near as good.

Congratulations on the marks though!

 

[Aaron6693]

@Aaron6693, you were somewhat lucky that your poem was prescribed...you probably would've gotten smashed if you hadn't otherwise. However memorisation usually works granted that you change your essay to some extent. If you don't change your essay at all, you probably wouldn't have done anywhere near as good.

Congratulations on the marks though!

Thanks! Absolutely agree btw, you cant JUST write word-for-word what you've memorised; you definitely have to mention the question in there throughout. But in all honesty, it really was basically me writing the question in a sentence or two, sometimes re-worded, throughout the essay, and wasn't some in-depth new analysis haha.

And yeah you should have heard the reaction during the checking period when we all have to make sure the correct number of pages were in our booklets. When I saw that Module B was specified, I looked at my friend next to me and we both had the "HOOOOOOLLY F*CK" expression, and everyone gasped o.0

All year we'd heard our teachers discuss about how they felt they were gunna specify a text. Regardless, many people didnt memorise all of Yeats' poems, I only know of one person who did that.

I think thats why BOS provided the last stanza to give people a fighting chance if they didnt bother studying that particular one.

 

[teeah]

I'm just memorising quotes. I can make up techniques on the spot etc.

Best way to go, IMO

@Aaron; congrats on the marks

 

[Aaron6693]

If anyone needs example essays to look at, I'm happy to send mine through. I think I still have them.

Module A: "Pride & Prejudice" and "Letters to Alice" (Letters to Alice made me want to stab myself in the face -_-)

Module B: Yeats' Poetry (Best part about this was everyone pissing themselves while we discussed a swan having sex with someone...o.0)

Module C: Julius Caesar

And I've got my Belonging Essay as well...which I still can remember... was glad to go all "sacrificial burning of the essay" after Paper 1

 

[someth1ng]

Thanks! Absolutely agree btw, you cant JUST write word-for-word what you've memorised; you definitely have to mention the question in there throughout. But in all honesty, it really was basically me writing the question in a sentence or two, sometimes re-worded, throughout the essay, and wasn't some in-depth new analysis haha.

And yeah you should have heard the reaction during the checking period when we all have to make sure the correct number of pages were in our booklets. When I saw that Module B was specified, I looked at my friend next to me and we both had the "HOOOOOOLLY F*CK" expression, and everyone gasped o.0

All year we'd heard our teachers discuss about how they felt they were gunna specify a text. Regardless, many people didnt memorise all of Yeats' poems, I only know of one person who did that.

I think thats why BOS provided the last stanza to give people a fighting chance if they didnt bother studying that particular one.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. They would have to give people a segment because they know 95% of students only studied 2-3 of the speeches/poem/whatever it is and without anything, game over. Honestly, I'd be fucked if they didn't give me anything for Justice Game. I'd just re-write my essay etc except I'd change the text name to the one they asked (using quotes from the one I studied LOL).

 

[Lucas_]

Memorise your essays, then just go over past questions and write out a page summary on how YOU would've adapted your essay to the question.

After a few like this, you get into the creative space and you will be moulding your pre-prepared rubbish in ways you never thought possible!

 

[Aaron6693]

Yeah, I'm not surprised. They would have to give people a segment because they know 95% of students only studied 2-3 of the speeches/poem/whatever it is and without anything, game over. Honestly, I'd be fucked if they didn't give me anything for Justice Game. I'd just re-write my essay etc except I'd change the text name to the one they asked (using quotes from the one I studied LOL).

The amount of people who do that is really amazing haha. If you're REALLY stumped in the exam coz they've thrown a question at you thats just fucked, thats the best thing to do if you start freaking out and cant write anything. You could possibly get a marker that dosnt know much about those specific texts and it'd just be like any other essay Long shot but!

 

[Lucas_]

Bullshit. Not to sound conceited, but I completed the HSC last year and I memorised word-for-word (NO JOKE!) every single essay for both Advanced and Extension 1 English. Generally, this is where people would go all "...but then you cant answer the question properly!!!!"

The questions they give in the exams are always generic. Even for me who completed the 2011 HSC English exam where they SPECIFIED a text for Module B, and even stated a "type" of belonging in Paper 1, I wrote exactly what I memorised along with a simple sentence or two that was basically the question re-worded throughout the essay. Granted, the specified text in Module B just happened to be one of the poems I memorised (I didnt bother memorising all of them..which is a risk). Obviously you'd want to memorise all of them if you really wanted to cover yourself.

I'm serious when I say that for every single English exam I ever did I memorised the essays required. This is generally how most people in my year went about it.
Again, I'm not trying to sound conceited, but just to give you an idea of how people went with this approach, I was a consistent high-performer in both Adv./Ext.1 English.

I had a rank of 4th at a school with 450 people in my grade. (Obviously, the rank was 4/200 or however many students were doing Advanced)

Received a HSC Mark of 96/100 for Adv. English and 44/50 for Ext.1.

Considering most people I know went about it this way and did very well for HSC English at the various levels, memorising essays obviously DOES work...and it does so VERY well, as long as you have a somewhat natural ability to memorise large amounts of text.

Yeah definitely agreed. Not trying to sound arrogant either, but I am about to go into the HSC with a rank of 3/71 for Advanced, and I memorised each one of my assessment and trial essays word for word.

Memorising essays is easier than you think. Just go to quiet room, read your essay for a bit then WRITE. I know that for my trial, after 4-5 writings of each essay (so total time of 3-4 hours per essay) and slightly less for the creative (you can make up whatever you forget in the test) I forgot maybe 2-3% of each essay in the test.

Memorisation gives you a highly sophisticated essay which you would be incapable of producing when you're writing free-style under such a high level of pressure. And as Aaron said, as long as you slip in a reference to the question once or twice a paragraph, you will be fine.

Oh, and one last thing. Don't memorise your introduction or conclusion. This must be written to directly address the question from the very beginning. This is why you are given reading time.

 

[kwu1]

Memorise your essays, then just go over past questions and write out a page summary on how YOU would've adapted your essay to the question.

After a few like this, you get into the creative space and you will be moulding your pre-prepared rubbish in ways you never thought possible!

This

 

[Aaron6693]

Just to point out Lucas, its definitely fine to memorise the introduction and conclusion. I do get what you mean, but yeah, I memorised that as well and was still able to just add that stupid "connecting to the question" sentence. Obviously it has to be interwoven though. But like I said, I understand what you're getting at.

I sometimes skipped memorising the conclusion, purely because its pretty simple to bullshit that on the spot. =P

 

[Lucas_]

Just to point out Lucas, its definitely fine to memorise the introduction and conclusion. I do get what you mean, but yeah, I memorised that as well and was still able to just add that stupid "connecting to the question" sentence. Obviously it has to be interwoven though. But like I said, I understand what you're getting at.

I sometimes skipped memorising the conclusion, purely because its pretty simple to bullshit that on the spot. =P

The main reason that I don't memorise Introductions is because if you mess it up, and make it to generic/prepared, then the marker will go through the rest of your essay with a preconceived notion in your head that your essay is prepared and this could bias how they interpret the rest of your paper.

Obviously they mark against a criteria but I still don't want to give away the game plan to early and mess up my chance of impressing whoever is on the other end. If one thing in your whole paper has to be authentic it really should be your introduction.

Obviously, if you're decent at english (as Aaron's resulted clearly showed) you can break the rules

 

[Aaron6693]

The main reason that I don't memorise Introductions is because if you mess it up, and make it to generic/prepared, then the marker will go through the rest of your essay with a preconceived notion in your head that your essay is prepared and this could bias how they interpret the rest of your paper.

Obviously they mark against a criteria but I still don't want to give away the game plan to early and mess up my chance of impressing whoever is on the other end. If one thing in your whole paper has to be authentic it really should be your introduction.

Obviously, if you're decent at english (as Aaron's resulted clearly showed) you can break the rules

I like the way you think! Yeah depending on your ability at English it definitely would be better to not memorise the intro, but rather just have a rough idea of what you'd like to include.

 

[jane bubble]

Hi Aaron, your post really relieved me , i'm memorising my essays but getting really freaked that a questions gonna pop up that's gonna be totally different to my response

I wanted to ask about the poems for mod B. I'm doing Slessor, and because there is very little on the net for the poems, I only did an analysis on 3 poems. Do you think its important to do all of them and then memorise the analysis on all of them? I really don't know how to approach this module, and am very scared that they might specify again this year. What should i memorise for this module

Also, what do you think are the chances that they might ask for two related texts for belonging & mod c? threes only 8 days left and I have to do another related text for each, and then memorise it

I'm really nervous for english

 

[Demise]

Yeah definitely agreed. Not trying to sound arrogant either, but I am about to go into the HSC with a rank of 3/71 for Advanced, and I memorised each one of my assessment and trial essays word for word.

Memorising essays is easier than you think. Just go to quiet room, read your essay for a bit then WRITE. I know that for my trial, after 4-5 writings of each essay (so total time of 3-4 hours per essay) and slightly less for the creative (you can make up whatever you forget in the test) I forgot maybe 2-3% of each essay in the test.

Memorisation gives you a highly sophisticated essay which you would be incapable of producing when you're writing free-style under such a high level of pressure. And as Aaron said, as long as you slip in a reference to the question once or twice a paragraph, you will be fine.

Oh, and one last thing. Don't memorise your introduction or conclusion. This must be written to directly address the question from the very beginning. This is why you are given reading time.

So your recommendation to remember only the body paragraphs - and then to mould each body paragraph to suit the question is pretty much you recommending us to:

1. Remember the quote.
2. Remember the technique(s) used.
3. Remember the analysis used.

That is what you just said, because then you'd go onto linking the question, then the paragraph ends and then you repeat.

 

[ashtheawesome]

Hey guys try reading this article
http://www.matrix.edu.au/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-memorise-an-essay/

 

[nifkeh]

Yeah definitely agreed. Not trying to sound arrogant either, but I am about to go into the HSC with a rank of 3/71 for Advanced, and I memorised each one of my assessment and trial essays word for word.

Memorising essays is easier than you think. Just go to quiet room, read your essay for a bit then WRITE. I know that for my trial, after 4-5 writings of each essay (so total time of 3-4 hours per essay) and slightly less for the creative (you can make up whatever you forget in the test) I forgot maybe 2-3% of each essay in the test.

Memorisation gives you a highly sophisticated essay which you would be incapable of producing when you're writing free-style under such a high level of pressure. And as Aaron said, as long as you slip in a reference to the question once or twice a paragraph, you will be fine.

Oh, and one last thing. Don't memorise your introduction or conclusion. This must be written to directly address the question from the very beginning. This is why you are given reading time.

hmm I'll give this a try, especially because the practice essays you write are really detailed and without detailed memorising it would be hard to replicate in the exam which means less detail, maybe less marks and time lost for thinking how to write your paragraph on the spot

 

[nirukk]

Agree with this. I prepare in a way that can answer in many ways so that it's easy to adapt to the question.

 

[Bored_of_HSC]

I'm memorising for Frankenstein (hate this module)

not memorising for mod B - speeches. best module by far.
Not memorising for C either (might do an essay on C if I have time)

I'm doing the exact same thing lol. Except i've sorta got a generic essay structure for mod c, which i plan to use as a guide.

But for mod b (where they can specify a speech/throw weird questions)... hell no.

 

[ali-fc]

i memorize my quotes and techniques till their stuck in my head and i will read he effect and then whatever the question is il create my own effect with my quotes and techniques and then link it back to the question