Is it suggested to memorise pre-written essays for the HSC? (3 Viewers)

[tommykins]

i tried the remember essay approach in one of my assesment tasks. even with the help of a few teachers n shit (diffschools) i still got a shit mark.

whereas winging it - i did pretty decent.

no study whatsoever before hsc and winging the exam gave me 79, which i'm satisfied with

 

[Aerath]

How well it works for people varies from person to person. I'm not really a memorise essay person, however, I know it does work for others.

 

[Tully B.]

My old English teacher taught us sex.
Statement
Example (ie quote)
eXplanation (techniques and so forth)

So you remember a couple of those, and supposedly your set.
Seems a bit neanderthalic to me, but whatever, it works for some people.

 

[samthebear]

nope. i dont like memorising essays simply because you get too fixated on how to fit your answer to the question you lose sight of how to actually write a decent response.

do practice essays, do notes on your texts by identifying key quotes and techniques and remember how those link to the overall topic. do that and you're set.

But if you really cant do it that way - just memorise; it all up to the individual but i find that for those who understand what they're writing about and who know how to utilise what has been learnt in class tend to write better essays when they arent pre made.

 

[123ash]

don't memorise your essay. but expand your information bank in your brain that is relevant to each module. then you can adapt to the into and conclusion. but the body will almost stay the same.

 

[slummydragon24]

no, dont memorise essays, just memorise points as guide to what u will say. that way it is easier 2 adapt 2 a question

 

[Ostentatious]

I might sound like a broken record, but yes, do NOT memorise an entire essay. Rather, try to develop your point of view in the form of a thesis that you could adapt to the question you receive, and then in the exam include the techniques you learned and the quotes you memorised to back up your adapted thesis.

I think having a thesis alone is more important than an entire essay, because you'll waste less time adapting a thesis and it can really jog your mind when you've summarised exactly what you want to write about in your essay question.

Furthermore, PRACTISE essay writing. I've only practised essay writing once, and that was in prelim, and it was the only time I scored 100% in an essay question. Fate beholds that I didn't practise ever again, and got crappy band 5's in every essay since (with a general idea for a thesis).

If you need more guidance, there are books that have exemplars that can assist you in essay technique, but at this point of time, they may be useless because their content is completely unrelated.

Hope this helps

 

[illa mc]

i completely disagree.. obviously for some subjects (histories especially) you have no notion of what the question might be, for english (apart from module b) it is always the same idea just worded differently.. all you do is memorise an essay and know that it covers all aspect of the text/s in relation to your thesis which is PRE-DETERMINED but worded to the question which you get in the exam. Of course its easier to have pre-written essays as you spend less time thinking and more time writing and ultimately, if you remember certain sentence and the way in which you bring techniques, quotes, contextual statments etc. into the arguments, then you will produce an essay that reads fluently and sounds sophisticated.

 

[oly1991]

im not too sure if i agree on having a set "thesis". i mean, doesn't the thesis have to be based on the question? could somebody please explain to me how you would go about this.

 

[illa mc]

im not too sure if i agree on having a set "thesis". i mean, doesn't the thesis have to be based on the question? could somebody please explain to me how you would go about this.

dude, look at every single past paper for both english advanced and extension and clearly the questions for every single essay (apart from module b) are asking you to do the same thing - write an essay which shows how the texts relate to the concept of the module/AOS. If you have your own personal interpretation or way of thinking about the concept you use that as your thesis and adapt the idea to whatever question you get. as for the rest of the essay its basically always blatantly obvious what you will get so preparing an essay is by no means a risk

 

[h3ll h0und]

No. If you have a pre-prepared generic answer in the HSC and fail to mould it to the question then the best you can get is in the C range. But then again people do it anyway.

of course u cant get higher than a C range if u dont answer the question...but wat if u make a perfect generic essay b4 hand and then just mould to the question...my friend got 97 in HSC advanced english by using this method. im confused though...because lots of my english teachers at school say that its very bad :S