The Student Room Group

URGENT! How to learn 300 word essay in less than an hour?

I have a spanish speaking exam tomorrow and my essay is 300 words. I've tried to learn it but I keep forgetting most of it. I'm trying to learn by saying each setence off by heart from memory but it's not working for me right now...honestly what is the most efficient way to learn a 300 word spanish essay really quickly?! I'm stressing out over here, gonna fail! [this is what procrastination does to you :frown:]

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
PLEASEEE HELP! :cry: Stressed out here :woo:
Reply 2
Learning the whole thing off by heart seems to be a much harder than it needs to be.

Learn the main points of the essay, make sure you know the material, if you know that, you are sorted.

Write it out a few times. Make it shorter each time. Maybe try and write down the start of every sentence.. see if you can remember the rest of the work just from acknowledging the start of the sentence.

Failing that, just writing it all out part by part over and over has always been best for me.
Reply 3
Just write it out, write it out, and write it out again. Then write it, splitting it up into paragraphs, and switch them around. :smile:
Reply 4
I can only remember about 20 words out of 300 words! I have tried writing it out over and over it just isn't working! I'm so screwed ughh :frown: wanna die!!!
Honestly I sing to learn so try this!
Reply 6
Haha, you can manage it. I did this with Italian oral a few weeks back.

You need to memorise it in segments. Start with the first paragraph. Remember look-cover-write-check from Primary? It's like that, only speaking instead of writing. Keep testing yourself and checking yourself until you have the first paragraph down. Then go and do something for 10 minutes. Come back to it - see if you can still do it. If you can, proceed to the next paragraph.
Reply 7
Original post by Cicerao
Haha, you can manage it. I did this with Italian oral a few weeks back.

You need to memorise it in segments. Start with the first paragraph. Remember look-cover-write-check from Primary? It's like that, only speaking instead of writing. Keep testing yourself and checking yourself until you have the first paragraph down. Then go and do something for 10 minutes. Come back to it - see if you can still do it. If you can, proceed to the next paragraph.


So you look, cover, speak then check? I have already tried revising by sentence or three words, but I forget what i said before once I progress onto the next segment. Thanks all!
Reply 8
definitely failed!! still can only remember 20 words and have to go to bed now. wish i could be sick tomorrow :frown: thanks for the help everyone
I did this for all my speakings. I read a paragraph, read it out loud, tried to say it without looking, checked it, then wrote it out without looking.
Then did it for the rest.
Then tried to write it out altogether from memory.
And repeat :smile:
It's boring but does work.
Good luck!
Reply 10
Original post by jamaicangal
definitely failed!! still can only remember 20 words and have to go to bed now. wish i could be sick tomorrow :frown: thanks for the help everyone


Wake up early. Go Jamaicangal.
highlight the key words, and learn the start of each sentence.
Original post by JOR2010
Just write it out, write it out, and write it out again. Then write it, splitting it up into paragraphs, and switch them around. :smile:


This^... learning each paragraph just by writing it out a hundred times works well... I managed to memorize an 800 word piece of english narrative writing the day before my english exam... Seriously just spend all the time you have trying to do it... you're not going to find a special method which will help you remember it any easier... either spend all night learning the whole thing word for word, memorize the main points (probably the best idea) or just improvise! :biggrin:
Original post by jamaicangal
I have a spanish speaking exam tomorrow and my essay is 300 words. I've tried to learn it but I keep forgetting most of it. I'm trying to learn by saying each setence off by heart from memory but it's not working for me right now...honestly what is the most efficient way to learn a 300 word spanish essay really quickly?! I'm stressing out over here, gonna fail! [this is what procrastination does to you :frown:]


From what I remember you can take a prompt card in with a certain amount of words written on it, so you could write the first word of each sentence to help you remember.

300 words sounds like an awful lot for a GCSE speaking exam though, given that you only get around 1 minute to give your presentation. Are you sure it's not too long, or you're speaking too quickly? If so, cut it down and speak slower - that'll make it less to learn.

Apart from that, I find repetition is the best way, although I've learned so many oral presentations it comes naturally to me now.
Memorise a section, using some of the tips the people above have given, then each time your testing yourself for the second section, you read through the first section too. This makes sure you don't forget the previous paragraphs and sort of nails it in without having to go back to the whole thing once you're done. I've been sort of using that for Geography today, my exam is also tomorrow and I needed to learn about 30 pages with a whole bunch of case studies.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by jamaicangal
I have a spanish speaking exam tomorrow and my essay is 300 words. I've tried to learn it but I keep forgetting most of it. I'm trying to learn by saying each setence off by heart from memory but it's not working for me right now...honestly what is the most efficient way to learn a 300 word spanish essay really quickly?! I'm stressing out over here, gonna fail! [this is what procrastination does to you :frown:]


I don't see what's so difficult about this, it's half a page of typed script... When I did GCSE MFLs, writing out my speech a couple of times was enough for me to learn it... Are there lots of words you don't know the meaning of? Maybe you can replace them with simpler ones? It's better to give a simpler version than to not be able to say anything at all.

We were allowed to take in pictures with us, I think, maybe it would help if you draw pictures/diagrams of each sentence?

Anyway, best of luck :smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
Break it up into sections and then memorise each section- forget about the rest. Once you are confident with that section and can write it out from memory- move to the next section and learn that. Periodically go back to the first section and write it out, you can then move onto the 3rd section when you are cabable of writing the first and second together- always worked for me (I have a habit of procrastinating until the night before :wink: )
tutut..Never leave things like this until the last minute
Reply 18
Getting off TSR might've helped. :colone:
Couldn't you have just gone to bed later?

Quick Reply

Latest