So did you plan essays like REALLY good ones? I want to start memorising a language analysis. Now bear with me. I HATE HATE HATE the idea of memorising I think it takes the fun out of English and personally (cause I’m annoying like that) think it’s cheating. I mean memorising good linking sentences I.e “ author shifts focal point of article from argument x to argument y to evoke xyz in the audience”. So not actual memorising just knowing how to have good expression. Also for text response did you do this. AGAIN not memorising whole essays but for certain quotes you know what your going to describe and it’s intended effect? Obviously not memorising a why it was used because that depends on the prompt/ contention.
Thanks!
A student struggling to get a 40
Well, inherently, everyone will be drawing from their memory in some capacity - that is something which is unavoidable e.g. memorising quotes, recalling nice vocab to use - what differs is the degree of memorisation used. Memorisation is by no means cheating - it's simply putting in the hard work before the actual exam - and it could be a useful way of measuring how prepared you are for your exam e.g. can you remember quotes to use? can you remember how to analyse them? do you remember your teacher's feedback? Also, memorisation doesn't work if you don't actually understand the content you're memorising i.e. you need to have a sufficient depth of the content your memorising in order to adapt it to different prompts if necessary, or if you have memorised content that fits with the prompt.
Now, against popular opinion, I do believe that memorisation is a very powerful tool. For example, memorisation can definitely boost a B+ student to an A+ level provided that they are willing to put in the time and effort. However, when using memorisation as an exam strategy, the input vs. output is very skewed i.e. you will need to put in an enormous amount of time for it to be effective. Yes, this will take out all the fun, but it means that you will do relatively decently. (But, you could probably make the argument that if you spent the same amount of time memorising learning your texts you'd do equally well.)