Memorizing Essays......... (1 Viewer)

[Marcus Aurelius]

So peoples its that time of the year, for me almost time for trials and for many of you its already done.
Now I know that many of you dont believe in memorizing essays but heck, I'll bloody well do it all I want cause it gets me good results . Now back to my point......
I've got three tests in three days, first AOS on monday, then maths on tuesday, then modules for english on wednesday.
Is one afternoon (ie. tuesday) enough time to remember three essays??? I know some people are better at this sought of thing then others but I really gotta study maths and I'm just seein what sought of time frame the average boser needs to remember three essays right down to the finer points......

Cheers, oh btw, good luck everyone with any remaining exams.

 

[Sepulchres]

No. Start now.

I think its a brilliant idea if you can chenge/twist it according to the question and I know many many people who do it and succeed.

 

[goan_crazy]

Yes one afternoon is enough. I had RE this tues, area of study on the mon, and english adv on wed.
I did that and remembered most of my two of my essays and adaped them to the question. didnt bother about the third, I made it up in the exam
stupid king lear

 

[Sepulchres]

I started putting pages into my head last week. I've got AOS on monday and bio in the afternoon. ANd then I've got paper 2 on tuesday. x_X.

 

[goan_crazy]

Guess what! I had 5 exams this week. stop complaining guys!
2 on the same day [i.e. 6 hours] of exams is painful alright
IPT and legal yesterday

maths mon and business-wed next week, then 5 days off from thurs-mon

Good luck with ur english trials anyways Marcus Aurelius and Sepulchres
I'm sure you will both be fine!

 

[Danni07]

Guess what! I had 5 exams this week. stop complaining guys!

And I had six, no use in telling people not to complain... One of my friends had seven exams, 6 of them in the first three days, it's just the way the cookie crumbles.

To the orginal poster, it all depends or your ability. Personally I wouldn't memorise three essays in one afternoon. They'd probably get jumbled up anyway. My sugesstion is dedicate one day from today to each essay. It will be a lot more productive and take up less time, leaving you to spread out your stuy for other subjects.

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Thanks guys, much appreciated input. I remember for my half yearly modules paper I was able to remember two in one arvo, as we had only done about half the course, but this third one could prove to be a problem.

I think Sepulchres and Danni's advice is the way to go so i'll start memorizing one essay a day (except for monday arvo cause i'll be doing hardcore maths ) and then just recall them all on tuesday afternoon as a refresher. If only maths was as easy as memorizing essays......

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Oh and while were on the topic of memorizing essays how long do you think they should be?
Mine are between 700-1000 words long. That should be about right?

 

[Danni07]

Try and copy it in the time you have to write it in the exam (40 minutes) if you can write it all, then you have about the right amount. Once you've memorised it but you can generally write a little more.

 

[_blank]

Mine are between 700-1000 words long. That should be about right?

Around 1000 is best. Like ^ said, I would normally memorize my essay - and do some extra revision incase something unexpected comes along that you HAVEN'T memorized for. When you memorized and know it well - you write faster and then have more time to write more and manipulate bits to suit the question.

 

[PiGMAN]

I know some people are better at this sought of thing

memorizing essays is fine, but make sure you spellcheck them first.

 

[lilkatie]

I can't remember essays, it doesn't help me at all
But I usually remember some catchy phrases and thesis lines that sound good

 

[Dreamerish*~]

I freestyle all my essays.

I'm not completely clueless when I write them though. I write a practise one, remember all the main points of each paragraph, and write up a similar but not identical one in the exam. This way, I can change my answer to suit the question.

 

[volition]

Personally I like to memorise my points and quotes and have a general order for them to go into when I walk into the exam room. I think that memorising essays is useful, so long as you are able to adapt the pre written essay to the question. For example, I 'prewrote' my AOS Q2 story and when it came time to actually write it out in the exam, I just changed a few things so that it would fit the 'stimulus' and I was able to write about 600-650 words in about 15-20 minutes, which then gave me extra time for Q3 on the AOS paper. Having the extra time there meant that I could write a nice long response (a prepared one of course ) which went for about 15 pages.

 

[ujuphleg]

I said it all throughout last year and I'll say it again. In my opinion, memorising essays is a baaaaad idea. Its a stupid thing to do - its like going into the HSC with only one pen.

Having said that though, if you are savvy enough to change that memorised essay to answer and suit the question asked, then I suppose its ok.

Your much better off writing practice essays, and remembering techniques and quotes rather than a solid essay word for word.

 

[AreYouAlright?]

I reckon if it wasn't for memorising essays i wouldn't be ranked 1st in Advanced English. I totally agree though it is fundamental you can change your essay on the fly in the exam to suit the question. I find the easiest way to do this is to write the essay on the very basics of that module. For example if you are doing comparative study of texts: transformations pick five key points: characters,themes x3, and form perhaps and for those write an essay that looks at the transformation process from your first text to the second. You'll find that any question can be answered using an essay of this format by altering the opening and concluding paragraphs with a couple inside references to the question. To apply this idea to critical study of texts look at the major aspects for example in Wuthering Heights: Setting, Context, Characters, Themes, Genre and make these your paragraphs

 

[silvermoon]

I said it all throughout last year and I'll say it again. In my opinion, memorising essays is a baaaaad idea. Its a stupid thing to do - its like going into the HSC with only one pen.

Having said that though, if you are savvy enough to change that memorised essay to answer and suit the question asked, then I suppose its ok.

Your much better off writing practice essays, and remembering techniques and quotes rather than a solid essay word for word.

i agree - you need to memorise your points and how they link together, quotes, techniques etc. but it's a bad idea to memorise one essay --> you'll find that it's much harder to twist what you have in your head into something that suits the question and often what you do write isn't as good as it could have been

 

[IcEy]

I hear that in HSC, they can pick memorised essays real easy, and if/when they do, you can't get higher than 14/20 or thereabouts no matter how good it is.

For my first english assessment, we got the question ahead of time, so I memorised my essay and did well.

But I agree with what the others are saying - learn your quotes.

For modules, they look for 'personal connection with the text.'
If you can demonstrate why you "value" a text, and how that has come about, then I think you ought to do well...

 

[SmileyCam]

I hear that in HSC, they can pick memorised essays real easy, and if/when they do, you can't get higher than 14/20 or thereabouts no matter how good it is.

For my first english assessment, we got the question ahead of time, so I memorised my essay and did well.

But I agree with what the others are saying - learn your quotes.

For modules, they look for 'personal connection with the text.'
If you can demonstrate why you "value" a text, and how that has come about, then I think you ought to do well...

exactly, you would be much better learning your topic, becoming engaged with it. really knowing it, rather then knowing a whole essay, I did it once, and it takes waaaaay too much effort. just continually write out your idea on some scrap paper, mindmaps are good for that, or hierachies, etc... and get some past questions, past HSC and past trials from your teachers, and there's some on this site and other websites.

 

[nwatts]

Pfft. Borderline cheating. I want to become a teacher, so some day I can make people who do this feel bad. You're being assessed on how much detail you can get out in 40mins - not on how well you can memorise an essay.

Plus, I can't even see it working 9/10 times. Transformations (Module A) is the only possible module you could get away with it in. Module B/C and AOS are so argument driven (which comes from the question at hand) it's insane to think you could "adapt" another argument to fit your new thread.

That's why I like the Modern History essay questions. There's virtually no room to do this in. The questions are always so varied, and driven by evaluation/thesis rather than facts.