I will never understand how people can write a great essay on the spot ... haha I definitely memorised
Amen brudda...
guys
this girl
trials 100/105
no memorisation
she's the next jk rowling
Yeah my girlfriend did the same... fricken 102/105 in her trials and her school is known for tough English marking. Fucking shat bricks, although I have to say, JK Rowling's writing is nothing special, but her creativity makes up for that.
100% in last exam, just knew my texts really well. Memorizing is not necessary, just know your texts and answer the question. As long as you can structure an essay (which isn't hard to learn) high band six is fully attainable without just remembering an essay. If you put the amount of time into research into your text instead of mindlessly remembering something the essay you would end up writing would be far more complex and sophisticated in nature (in my experience at least).
True, but it's harder for most who can't write exceptionally on the spot. On the spot writing typically leads to extremes - either you do amazingly or you do poorly. I think you'll find far less people do average when they wing it instead of those who pre-prepared responses.
The problem I have with the latter part of your statement is that you're required to memorise that research and the text to actually be able to write something about it. Obviously you would have thought long and hard about it (which is where the complexity and sophistication in your essay comes into the picture), but just because people memorise a generic doesn't mean they didn't think long and hard about it when they wrote it either. In Years 7 - 11 I winged every single essay in English and didn't get anything less than 18/20. In Year 12, I simply put my thoughts to paper beforehand so I didn't have to wing it. That's the technique a person capitalising on memorising an essay is using, and it's a technique that doesn't fail the students who actually worked hard for it. Someone in one of the earlier posts in this thread said that they write out an essay 2-3 times and find different ideas come into it each time. That is something that happens for a lot of students who memorise - a generic is not all that inflexible. If it is, then it is not generic. Discouraging memorising generics is irresponsible as most people cannot write something of incredible quality on the spot. It's a genuine talent. The same way formulas in math aren't necessary as you can figure out what you need to do using pure logic, you wouldn't discourage not knowing them at all or having memorised them. Memorising leads to a greater understanding of the texts in most cases anyway, since you refine those ideas constantly, which is where complexity and sophistication also come. If you don't know your text well, then you're overly relying on that 1 essay which of course is risky in itself. But good students will know the text and have a prepared answer because they've already developed their argument and opinions on the text, and just want to refine them.
Also, it might interest you to know that all the teachers at my school that are HSC markers always mention that basically all of the essays they give anything 18+ in the externals are clearly memorised essays, just obviously adapted well. You'd be surprised what teachers can tell. I also have it on reliable sources that most state rankers (*cough*thestaterankersthemselves*cough) memorise their essays, and that includes 1st place getters in the past too. And the number of those who do memorise and state rank outnumber the ones who don't by a considerable margin.
