Memorising responses: the key to actually pulling it off

When it comes to memorising responses we could argue about the pros and cons for hours. But with trials season well and truly underway, I’m going to assume that arguing for hours about memorising isn’t at the top of your ‘to do’ list. Lucky for you, we’ve already weighed up the pros and cons of pre-prepared responses in one of our other blog posts. Check it.

The short answer: Memorising works.

The long answer: Memorising works, provided you’re able to pull it off.

So to help you pull off one of the most infamous tactics for playing the HSC game, here are our 5 best tips for pulling off the memorised response:

1. Memorising does not mean rote-learning

So after hours spent writing and rewriting, you now know your essay off by heart. You can recite it word for word right down to the placement of the semicolon in the second sentence of paragraph four. You’re as prepared as you’ll ever be and your hard work is done.

Just kidding, there’s a long way to go. We all know the key to memorising responses is adapting them on the day. Reality is that no matter how well you know your response, if you don’t understand what you’re writing – you won’t be able to adapt and actually answer the question.

Instead of stressing because you can’t remember if you opened your conclusion with ‘Ultimately’ or ‘In conclusion’, focus on the overall meaning of your essay. Make sure you know your overall argument, evidence and ideas and have a solid understanding of these. Once you’ve memorised your response, practice talking about it as if you’re trying to explain it to someone who’s never studied the topic before. Talk through your response to your mum, your dog, your bedroom wall – out loud, no notes, in your own words.

The best thing about understanding your response is that it’ll make learning and remembering it a lot easier. If you actually understand what argument you want to make, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable improvising if you freak out and forget a sentence in the exam.

2. Adapt your response before you have to.

Re-writing the same essay word for word to prepare for an exam where you know you have to adapt it would be like Lance Armstrong preparing for the Tour De France by only riding his bike up and down his driveway. No amount of performance enhancers can match real practice.

You’ll have to adapt your response to an unseen question in the exam, so practise how to do it before that. A good tip here is to do it once and then highlight the stuff you changed from your original essay. Then do it a second time and see if you’re able to adapt the same things. The trick here is to be able to have certain things in your response that are able to be changed depending on the question. As a general rule, this should be keywords in your thesis, question specific language and most importantly your linking sentences.

Another benefit to adapting your essay in advance is that you can aim to make small improvements each time. A good piece of advice is to set a target for improvement before you write the response and then come back and evaluate whether or not you achieved it at the end. Whether you’re writing more succinctly or making a stronger argument, it’s a lot easier to improve when you’re adapting your essay to something new: you’ll have a fresh mindset and won’t be afraid to make changes.

3. If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it

There’s nothing that annoys markers more than a pre-prepared essay that doesn’t answer the question.

Reality is BOSTES can throw you some absolute curve balls that even the most generic of all essays can’t handle. What if you get an essay question in Ancient that asks about Building Programs when your pre-prepared response focuses on the Senate? Or what if you get hit with an English question where they specify a poem you hadn’t written about? No matter how unlikely a question seems, if it’s on the syllabus there’s nothing stopping it from being asked. So what do you do?

There’s no point trying to write an essay that covers every possible point – you’ll end up sounding vague and won’t have a cohesive enough argument. Instead, have one essay that fits the common patterns of past questions and write plans or brainstorms for the more specific questions. Think about links between the syllabus points and look for the bigger picture.

You’re more likely to get better marks for an ‘on the spot’ essay that perfectly responds to the question being asked, than you are if you write a Band 6 generic essay that doesn’t even acknowledge that question at the top of the page.

At the end of the day, if the question doesn’t suit your response it’s not the end of the world. If you trick yourself into thinking it is you’re immediately setting yourself up with a disadvantage. Don’t be afraid to make major changes to your essay and step outside the comfort zone. Before you charge in all guns blazing, take some time to plan what you want to argue and what evidence you’re going to use.

All in all, pulling off the memorised response won’t just give you the adrenaline rush of beating the Board of Studies at their own game, it’ll also help ensure you’re giving the marker your best work. Obviously memorising is a matter of personal preference, and if you’re confident enough to improvise and have a good understanding of the content, writing something on the day is just as effective. But if you’re anything like me and seem to lose all ability with the English Language under the pressure of exam conditions, memorising responses might just be our secret to success.