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How to memorize an essay?

Wodeford

How can I memorize a 1500 word essay in 5 days? :confused:

Thanks!

Wodeford

Reply 1

Hopple

Record you reading it and play it to yourself whilst you sleep. My teacher suggested it to us to learn our lines for school plays and I think it did the trick. Not tested it with 1500 words though.

Reply 2

Guitarded

Memorize sections - maybe paragraphs - and what each section is about, and maybe something to associate it with. Then remember the order of those things, and if you can link them to the words then you should be able to recite your essay pretty easily.

Hope that makes sense :s-smilie:

Reply 3

LolaCherryCola

Don't memorise the whole essay, that will never work! Memorise the essay structure. Have a bullet point for each paragraph summing up the paragraph's content and memorise the first sentence of the paragraph. Write the essay out until you feel that you can associate your memorised bullet point/sentence with the rest of the paragraph. This always worked for me :smile:

Reply 4

RightSaidJames

Summarize your essay, then summarize that summary. Using the shortest summary as a prompt, describe the content of the longer summary. Then using the longer summary describe the content of the full essay. Eventually, after a bit of practice, you should be able to describe the content of the full essay using the shortest summary. After that, all you have to do is learn the shortest summary.

To be honest you shouldn't be memorising entire essays, what's really important is the knowledge behind it. If you're learning an essay for the purposes of an exam then a perfectly written essay might seem like the best thing to do, but an essay that is formulated on the fly based on the exact content of the exam question usually gets you better marks, but only if you're well prepared.

Edit - this post expresses my thoughts also:

Original post by LolaCherryCola

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

CookieDoughLove

Why would you want to?

Reply 6

Mr Inquisitive

The best thing to do is not try to memorise it. Attempting to memorise something like an essay puts mass amounts of pressure onto you. Just work calmly and spontaneously; it's much easier and generally produces better results! :biggrin: