Memorising Essays for Exams Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

Uhh you don't memorise your essay because i think it's stupid, and you just memorise points which you can form on the spot. I know that some people like memorising their essay for re assurance but to me, it's a waste of memory. Re: essays for exams uhh you don't memorise your essay because i think it's stupid, and you just memorise points which you can form on the spot. I have 6 essays to memorise for it we know what two of the questions are, and i'm going to memorise 2 essays each for the other 2 sections because we have had hints on what they could be. Because the questions on the exam required essay style answers, i decided that the most effective use of my time would be to construct model answers and learn them off by heart. This seemed to be a much more efficient method, than to just learn basic facts and attempt to string them into an essay during the exam, while under increased pressure. my first exam went perfectly as planned. I had a good 2 days to learn my essay and could recite it without pause or mistake whenever required.

The problem came when i realised that the very next day, at 10am i would have another exam, which required another two more essay answers. Hence, i developed the following strategy. note: this strategy does not assume that you have a brain like a sponge and does not expect you to be able to absorb and retain vast amounts of information. Even if you have a brain like a colander, with a little effort you can make it work like a filofax. 1.    spend a good amount of time, constructing a well thought out answer, give the examiner exactly what they’re looking for. Try to put in as much emphasis as possible, because this makes a big difference to your ability to retain information. 3.    while you do other things, play your recorded essay repeatedly through earphones to yourself. 4.    before you go to bed, attempt to read the essay from memory as best you can, if you can get through only 2 sentences, don’t panic! 5.    take out a highlighter pen and highlight any parts you are having difficulty remembering. Our brains like shapes and colours, so placing symbols next to difficult paragraphs can help to jog your memory in the exam room.

6.    read over the essay again 2/3 times while in bed, prior to going to sleep. 7.    the next morning, you will be able to recall the essay much clearer than on the night before. 8.    if you have time before the exam, try and type out the essay from memory. You will find that typing or writing from memory is much easier than speaking from memory. 9.    if, when you get to the exam, you cannot yet recite your answer to yourself in your head, don’t panic! your brain will be able to pick out the most important concepts and you will surprise yourself as to how much you did actually remember! 10.    start earlier next time! you should ideally begin attempting to memorize an essay 3 or 4 days prior to the exam. This really helps to remove stress and allows you to concentrate more effectively. For an advanced guide to memorizing for exams, i recommend reading steven aitchisons blog post on the subject here: date october 16, 2010 29 read later tweet the academic peter aubusson memorising answers is not good preparation for life or university, but this is not life, learning and university.

If students are being coached to memorise answers it might be because it has worked. Mind you, i am certainly not willing to bet against a tutor with years of experience in a competition with 17 or 18 year olds on their first attempt. If the exam drifts too far from past norms people scream and the media vent complaints of unfairness. The consequence is that parts of exams are readily exploited by prepared answers.

It is one thing to memorise an answer which you have prepared, but it is wrong to present an answer prepared by someone else. The question we should be asking is not should it be done the answer is self evident. Rather we should ask why might some people engage in shady practices? advertisement high stakes tests always corrupt teaching, learning and curriculum. The australian tertiary admissions rank atar , produced from hsc data, is a high stakes cull. Memorising answers is just one strategy students have used to perform in examination sweat boxes. Cohorts of students studying latin in the 1970s routinely memorised the english translation of the entire latin text to get 100 per cent on set translation passages. He measured the length of passages set in past papers and memorised only those that fell within this range.

How to Start a Literature Research Paper

Answer memorisation is inevitable in high stakes and somewhat predictable examinations. We speak as if students in examinations spend their time in critical appraisal, analysis or proofs pure fraud. The reality is that many questions are answered by a process of ''recognition of sameness''. This exam question is similar to one they have done before and requires the same or an adapted response. For the well prepared, only some questions require careful, lengthy deliberation.

In the unreal world of exams with their time limits, single drafts and ritualised marking schemes, how could it be otherwise? if you step up for the biology exam and you are asked about koch's postulates again and you haven't memorised them, no amount of critical thinking will produce them unless, of course, you are robert koch. associate professor peter aubusson is head of the teacher education program at the university of technology, sydney. He is a former secondary science teacher. the marker louise ward i have been marking the hsc english exam for many years and would strongly advise against memorising essays as an effective way of preparing for an english exam. Before marking commences, markers are briefed on how to award marks for each question. Students should understand that a key discriminator for judging an answer relates to how well it addresses the full scope of the question. Learnt responses don't gain high marks as they generally don't address all aspects of the question. Some students compose prepared responses that address questions from previous years' examinations.

This often disadvantages them considerably since they are distracted from addressing the question they are required to answer. It is especially a dangerous practice to memorise a story or essay written by someone else and reproduce all or parts of it in an english exam. I think students sometimes forget that markers are experienced english teachers who are very familiar with material that is published to support them during their hsc preparation, as well as the work of a wide range of authors and filmmakers. If i am suspicious an answer has been memorised from another source i am required to report it to the supervisor of marking. If the answer is found to be plagiarised, the consequences for that student may be a zero mark or a reduced mark for that question.

Literary Analysis Argument Essay

It is important for students to understand that memorising essays and reproducing them in an exam is not the way to achieve high marks. Some of the ways i advise my students to best prepare for the hsc english examinations is to be thoroughly familiar with all the set texts, complete all class work during the year, write responses to a variety of questions under timed conditions and understand the standard that is required to achieve high marks. My experience as a marker and all the comments from the examiners in the marking reports published by the board of studies over the years show memorising essays is not the way to achieve high marks and may prevent a student from realising his or her full potential.

Essay About Respect Elders