changing your context piece?? Help

[sandaygirl]

Hi,
I had heard about writing A good piece and then changing it to fit the prompt, I can never seem to do this can someone give me some tips or an example thanks

[brenden]

The theory behind that whole thing is to remember the concepts/ideas behind the piece and maybe some key phrases, as these things have a good chance of applying to your prompt or being adaptable. In my opinion you should never write a piece and change it to fit the prompt. English is the application of a skill. Just hone the skill to the best of your ability and you don't need to memorise anything because you'll be able to do it again every day of the week.

[nisha]

Remembering the key ideas and concepts needed and changing it accodring to the prompt. Maybe you could change the ending/start to fit the prompt? Change the voice that would appeal more to the prompt? But in the end, you stick to the same ideas that you want to explore.

[paulsterio]

Not a good idea, Brenden is right, English is an application of a set of skills and a set of ideas which you have built on and learnt throughout the year. What you need to do is have a large database of ideas and structures in your head and hand pick the ideas and structure most relevant to the prompt when you're in the exam.

Adapting a memorised essay to a prompt will never work - well I guess it works for some people - but in their case - they would be remembering ideas rather than essays.

[pi]

Adapting a memorised essay to a prompt will never work - well I guess it works for some people - but in their case - they would be remembering ideas rather than essays.

It worked for me.

Mine are up on the notes section, but in essence, I wrote 4 very adaptable interviews (one of the most adaptable forms) on four different aspects of "Whose Reality?", with two on each text.

I had each piece memorised word-for-word, so I didn't just memorise the ideas.

[brenden]

I had each piece memorised word-for-word, so I didn't just memorise the ideas.

How long did it take you to memorise close to 4k words?

[pi]

I had each piece memorised word-for-word, so I didn't just memorise the ideas.

How long did it take you to memorise close to 4k words?

About a full day for each doing literally nothing else (I'm not a great rote learner tbh), but I didn't memorise them all at the same time.

[charmanderp]

I had each piece memorised word-for-word, so I didn't just memorise the ideas.

How long did it take you to memorise close to 4k words?

About a full day for each doing literally nothing else (I'm not a great rote learner tbh), but I didn't memorise them all at the same time.

I imagine he would have done this during the months leading up to the exam (ie. starting now) and continually revised them. Everything I do now for English is with one eye on the exam.

[pi]

Yep, memorised them before the appropriate context SACs and then kept them under memory by going over them all every once in a while.

[paulsterio]

I'm honestly still not a fan of memorising things word for word unless you're the type of person who struggles with expression. Time would be much better spent looking for broad ideas and reading widely, but of course, if you're the type of person who cannot put your words into fluent words then memorisation might work for you.

[sandaygirl]

ok thanks for your ideas,
would you think having about 4 different ideas then going with one on the exam is ok ?

[pi]

I found that 4 was sufficient. One of mine nearly perfectly fit the prompt too

[FlorianK]

After realising the great similarities between the prompts and the fitting ideas i'm going to memorize at least 2 essays as well and a few adaptable topic sentences

[brenden]

Yeah I can't help but feel the time spent memorising could have been spent developing your skills. Obvs I'm in no position to argue with pi, but what if the prompt was left-field and didn't match any of the prepared pieces?

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[charmanderp]

Yeah I can't help but feel the time spent memorising could have been spent developing your skills. Obvs I'm in no position to argue with pi, but what if the prompt was left-field and didn't match any of the prepared pieces?

No offence to pi but yes you are in a position to argue with him If we look at this prudently, the best thing to do is advance your English skills to the level where, before the exam, you are confident of spontaneously writing an A/A+ level piece based upon the prompt given to you. This will not only give you the best chance of achieving full/very high marks (show me a student that has received full marks using a pre-written response) but will also help in university if you are going to continue studying subjects which require you to write essays under test conditions.

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience