Memorise msater essay or not? (1 Viewer)

[Jaron2005]

Hey guys, i was wondering should i memorise the master essay which i wrote for speeches, power play, in the wild and journey or do i just have to memorise points and quotes?

Because memorising all 4 essay will take ages.

 

[Sober]

Hey guys, i was wondering should i memorise the master essay which i wrote for speeches, power play, in the wild and journey or do i just have to memorise points and quotes?

Because memorising all 4 essay will take ages.

Memorise points and quotes. You don't even know what question you are going to get so memorising it perfectly is not going to be productive.

 

[priesty]

yeh the problem with memorising is what if half way through regurgitating you forget where you are up to... or you have a mind blank as to what comes next? then you'll be truly screwed... the rest of ur essay would just become a flop.

best to memorise points and quotes and even perhaps if your desparate a nice thesis for each that can easily be modified to adapt to the question.

 

[.ben]

Use variable regions in essays, say when you're linking text(s) back to question leave this bit blank and just insert the question on teh day

 

[ur_inner_child]

You'll be screwed if it asks you to write a radio transcript involving three characters you make up that offer different readings of your text.

Just understand your concepts so thoroughly that you are able to be flexible with it. Besides, there is really no doubt that the amount of practice essays you do, you'll remember what point flows best after what.

You will be marked on how well you understand the given medium. If they ask for a feature article and you give them an essay, they will mark you down for it. As well as this, your arguments and reasoning must address the question. This is all well and good for journeys, but things like critical responses, they're quite particular. Like others have said, you don't know the question yet.

 

[Jaron2005]

Well i asked my teacher should, i memorise points or an entire essay and she urged me to memorise the entire. If i were to memorise points and quotes only how much do you think is enough? can i reuse these quotes in my other paragraphs as well?

 

[frankyd]

I definately agree with the entire essay memorising approach.

my essays are structured so that if a creative style question (interview for BNW/BR came up in my trials) it can be adapted for these at the drop of a hat.

seriously, memorising only points is COUNTER productive in my opinion. it's hard to get the same level of sophistication that you can get through constrant reworking your essays into a perfect piece.

but in saying that, u do need to know all ur essays back to front and have prepared the memorisation a good time in advance and practiced under exam conditions to ensure you dont forget anything (as someone mentioned above)

Also, you really have to know your essays to ensure they can be moulded around a question - but still I believe that if your concepts and thesis are detailed and thorough enough this should be a VERY simple process.

although really, its whatever works for the person... but i recommend memorising whole essays if you are willing to put alot of work into it because its so much easier to get into the A range performance ranks with an already sophisticated answer.

 

[glitterfairy]

Bah. I hate memorised essays.

If they are extremely generic and you know your points well enough to adapt, then maybe it's ok. But I doubt the "highly sophisticated pre-written essays" are hugely adaptable - what do you do when you have to write a speech or something? People don't talk like essays.

I've always maintained that memorising entire essays is a) a gamble and b) cutting yourself short. Yes it does take more time to really KNOW your points/quotes etc, but once you do they're in your head forever and as your essay style improves (significantly aided by doing practice essays) you will in fact be able to write these "sophisticated essays" at the drop of a hat.

^ And there are definately a number of people who can do this sort of thing in the state - don't fall into the trap of thinking "my prewritten essay is better than the stuff people can come up with on the spot".


Jaron - you'll need to know enough points and quotes to be able to write a full essay on the spot. So this really means summarising your text - look at a few good key themes and some other secondary themes that might be helpful. For exact "numbers" you'd have to go through your notes and practice essays to look at what *you* tend to bring up in essays.

 

[P_Dilemma]

Memorising points allows for flexibility. But make sure you have the quantity and the quality needed for a good whatever-text-type.

Your teacher told you to memorise the whole thing?!

-P_D

 

[frankyd]

Bah. I hate memorised essays.

If they are extremely generic and you know your points well enough to adapt, then maybe it's ok. But I doubt the "highly sophisticated pre-written essays" are hugely adaptable - what do you do when you have to write a speech or something? People don't talk like essays.

Like I said, if you structure your master essay right.. it can be easily adapted. Of course if its a speech you may need to go easy on the language but if you know the entire master essay then you just adapt the terminology as you go along.

Highly sophisticated doesn't mean big words anyway.. I meant it as succinct and complex in ideas/concepts.

So far I've done this for both advanced papers and english extension and its worked fine. And yes.. we've had some very left field questions but its been easy to adapt because I've practiced writing my essays for different questions and forms from past trials etc..

but like i said its what works for the person. Some people are able to easily adapt essays on the spot, whereas some people are better suited to learning points only and then moulding it.

You can't condemn either because what works for you can be completley different to someone else.. I suggest that everyone should try both and then decide what they think