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any tips?

what's the best way to memorize quotes or context for things such as play or poems?
i have exam abt macbeth and poetry next wednesday and worrying abt how to memorize the quotes or the context for poems

Reply 1

{Moss}

Original post by hurtinguser

Flashcards would probably be the best way to memorise. Try and recall, and if you get it memorise every 3 days, if you get it partially memorise every 2 days, and if you don't get it revise every day. That helps you break down the revision so you have less to do and focus on waht you need.

It's important to try and get quotes that apply to multiple topics to minimise what you need. For example, in Macbeth 'look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't' is a good quote for Lady Macbeth, showing her power, also good for their relationship, and also applies to appearance vs reality. Likewise, 'come you spirits, unsex me here' shows her commandingness, but also applies to the supernatural. That allows you to cover several themes or characters at once, which is really useful. E.g. the forceful words 'come' and 'look' show her power if you're writing about her, but if you're asked about Macbeth it also shows his 'weakness' at the start, as she controls him.

I'd recommend, if you haven't already, checking out this video, by Mr Salles which are predictions for Macbeth this year. It's thought that the Supernatural is likely to come up.

For the poems, depending on your anthology, I generally recommend to pick 4 poems that are able to be compared to every other poem, and memorise ~5 quotes for those, minimising the quotes you need. E.g., for power and conflict AQA I memorised quotes for Exposure, Remains, Poppies and Ozymandias - Ozymandias is good for poems on power, like London and Checking out me History, and also for nature. Exposure is good for anything on the reality of war, like Bayonet Charge. Remains is good for memories and such, and Poppies is a nice emergency if you get Remains. That way it's much easier to remember. You don't generally need that much context, so you can just include a bit on your flashcard - e.g. Checking out Me History - colonialism. Exposure - WW1. Ozymandias - George III.

I hope that helps? If you do AQA, and if you want, I can send along some quotes that I'd recommend for you to try and remember. Feel free to ask if you want them. Best of luck with your exams! Hope all goes well :biggrin: