When it comes to the HSC, trying to memorise HSC essays can seem almost impossible. With so many to draft, write and memorise, it can feel like you’re staring down an impossible task and asking yourself, ‘How do I memorise an essay?’
We’re here to tell you that you don’t have to memorise HSC essays — and shouldn’t!
您应该关注的是using key points, and we’ll guide you through this with our advice on how to smash out awesome essays based on memorised key points when it comes to the HSC.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Why You Shouldn’t Just Memorise HSC Essays
记住要点的好处
如何记住要点
我为什么不应该记住HSC论文？
我们不会撒谎，辩论两面都肯定有一些坚实的逻辑，您是否应该记住HSC论文。
While we think attempting to memorise an essay is a great way to build up confidence and prepare for your exams, we know it’s not a technique that works for everyone.
With that in mind, let’s check out some of the benefits and drawbacks.
优点
- 信心 -甚至在您走进考试室之前就了解您的论文会减少对不知道该写什么的焦虑。
- 准备 -为了记住您必须学习和准备的HSC论文，因此您将建立良好的学习模式。
- 省时间 -once you get into the exam you won’t end up spending any of your writing time trying to think up an idea or draft a plan for an essay.
- Quotes –it’s pretty much a given that you’ll only learn a certain amount of quotes for one essay, so having an essay pre-planned around those quotes avoids any chance of them not suiting what you’re trying to write.
缺点
- Answering the question –许多人忘记了他们必须将计划的论文改编成实际问题，从而导致实际上不适合或回答所要求的问题的论文。
- 记忆 -learning a whole essay is tough! Taking the time and effort to memorise HSC essays which can be 1000 words just isn’t reasonable for many people.
- 适应 -如果提出的问题甚至与您为准备的内容有所不同，那么您将被迫调整文章，这意味着您必须快速思考并将已经钻入头脑的内容更改。
As you can see the pros are pretty awesome, but the cons definitely present some major drawbacks when you try to memorise an essay.那么，您如何获得两全其美？
这很简单！您不会记住HSC论文 - 只是论文的关键点！
Why Memorise Key Points?
您可能想知道为什么要记住要点要比试图记住整篇文章更好 - 我明白了，我做到了！我的意思是，只学习整体的逻辑在哪里，对吗？
错误的。这就是原因。
＃1：这使记忆更容易
There’s no questioning that it’s easier to remember 16 dot points over a full, 1000 word essay.
这一事实没有内容学习将not only make it easier to get the info stuck in your head, it’ll also cut down on the time it takes to do it. Plus it’s way less daunting than trying to remember 3-4 pages of essay.
#2: It makes adapting easier
如前所述，适应很重要，当您记住一篇完整的文章时，可能会很棘手，但是如果只是您的关键点，您就陷入了大脑中，那么适应如何编写它们非常简单。
It’s just a case of building the essay around the question, using your key points as the bricks and filling in the rest as you go.
#3: You can answer any question
This kinda goes with the last point, but being able to adapt your response easily means you can also make it suit any question.
Again, you’re avoiding the possibility of getting in there and writing something you know back to front, but doesn’t answer the question.
#4: It preventsrote learning
This is less about the essay itself and more about how you learn, but when you get into the habit of memorising an entire response and just rewriting it in the exam, it creates rote learning.
死记硬背的学习基本上只是向memory记起and it can be useful, but it’s not the best way to learn to adapt your knowledge (and essay!) to different questions and situations. Just learning key points helps prevent that.
#5: It gives you confidence
Even though you’re not going in there with a full essay planned and memorised you’ll still be entering your exam knowing exactly what you need to know to formulate a strong response.
This will naturally make you feel way more prepared and help avoid any extra panic or anxiety on exam day.
How Do I Memorise Key Points?
记忆要点实际上是非常简单的,much more so than trying to memorise HSC essays!
It’s really just a case of figuring out what the most important elements of your essay, essay plan or analysis are and then studying them.
遵循我们简单的5步公式，您将立即记住您的要点，而无需记住论文。
Step 1: Write an Essay
好的，在您与干草叉大喊大叫之前，这应该是关于要点的，请听我说。
In order to know what your key points are, you actually have to have an idea of what you could write for an essay response.最好的方法是什么？你说对了;写一篇文章。
The purpose of this section is for you to figure out what themes you want to work with, how you’re going to analyse your texts, what techniques and quotes you’ll use, etc.
The essay you write doesn’t have to be a perfect Band 6, but you want it to have all the features and functions of something you’d hand in to be marked.
不确定如何写一篇强大的论文？Check out this step by step guide to writing a Band 6 worthy essay here!
如果您不想写新论文，您甚至可以使用已经写的论文！
In that situation it’s super important that you go through the essay and edit it. Maybe you got some feedback from your teacher you need to address, or you’ve found some better quotes to use, just make sure it’s up to date and of awesome quality.
步骤2：拉出TTEA
在这里，我们开始分解并弄清楚我们的要点，以便我们可以学习它们。
The best and quickest way to do them is by actually printing out your essay (or just grabbing it if it’s hand written) and highlighting anything that fits theTTEA结构。
What is TTEA, you ask?
主题 -What theme are you talking about and in what way?
Technique –您正在分析什么技术？
Example –What is your quote/textual reference?
分析 -Why does it all matter?
基本上，这些是您从论文中提取的关键点开始记忆。
您必须在文章的每个身体段落中突出显示这些内容，以弄清楚您的要点是什么。
If you feel like there are other things you need to include in your key points (e.g. context, comparisons, etc.) feel free to highlight them too.
That said, remember to highlight only the most important elements of your essay – we don’t want to end up with the whole thing coloured in with fluorescent marker.
In the end it will look a little like this:
您会注意到，在这种情况下，段落中也有很多上下文，因此我也继续强调了其中的关键部分。
Step 3: Study Your Key Points
So now that you’ve gone and highlighted all this stuff what are you going to do with it? Study it!
In order to get your key points into a study-ready format you’ll need to turn the TTEA things you highlighted into a set of super succinct notes.
点点通常是最好的选择，我总是发现最好按段落将它们分解。
This means you should end up with4-5 dot points* per paragraph，总体上获得16-20点 - 比您全面记住HSC论文所需的方式要少。
免责声明：我f you have more than one quote per paragraph (which you definitely should) you can also choose to turn each quote into an individual dot point. I did this for the sake of organisation, making each quote and the techniques it included a single dot point, so this did mean I ended up with a fair few more than 4 dot points per paragraph.
My dot point format often ended up a little something like this:
- Theme statement
- Techniques
- Quotes (repeat for each quote, usually 4-5)
- Analysis point
- Context
Yours may follow this same pattern or be totally different, it’s up to your personal preference and what you want your notes to look like.
That all said, each set of notes will end up looking something like this.
These are now your key points!
That means it’s time to start studying them and trying to memorise them for your essay. Most people like to start by just reading over these notes a few times, but that’s definitely not the only or even the most effective way to learn them.
Some of the best techniques for learning your key points include:
- Flashcards –write your text and theme on the front and the context, quotes, techniques and analysis points on the back. Then only look at the front and try to remember what the back says. If you can remember them all you’re good to go, if not flip the card over and try again!
- Quizzing –you can quiz yourself just by not looking at the notes and trying to recall them, but giving them to a friend or family member to quiz you is way more fun. Just hand over your key points and have someone else ask you questions about them to see how well you remember them.
- 重写它们 -进行一些实践研究始终是开始记住事物的绝妙方法，但是在学习如何最好地使用关键点时，这特别有用。这意味着您将要开始写练习回答！
Step 4: Write a Practice Response
我已经听到了愤怒的尖叫声。“You said this wasn’t about essays!” “This is the second essay you’ve made me write!”.
I get it, I do, but here’s the thing – if you want to be able to use your key points to effectively write an essay in your exam, you’re going to have to practice it at least once first.
Even though you’re not trying memorise HSC essays, the only way to test how well you can actually utilise your key points for an essay in an exam situation is by doing it. That means grabbing a past paper question and your key point notes, sitting down and getting stuck into it. This way you’re putting your knowledge to practical use as well as teaching yourself how to actually use your key points to develop an essay.
The best way to do it is by giving yourself 5 minutes to create a quick essay plan first. It’s as simple as reading over the question and then jotting down how you’ll fit each of your key themes/texts to the question – the rest should just flow naturally.
Let’s try an example!
问题：Understanding context is essential to understanding a text.
Looking at our notes from before we can pretty much just jot down how we might link it to the question. In this case it’s really important that we had that dot point on context, so by drawing on that we’ll be able to build up a really strong essay around it!
Pro Tip:If you feel like the question isn’t really suiting your key points you can always twist it by playing devil’s advocate! Check out this article on how to do it well.
我总是建议您在第一次尝试根据关键点写论文时将笔记保留在手上，只是为了给人一种安全感，但是如果您对自己的知识感到非常自信，那就在没有它们的情况下尝试一下！
Step 5: Rinse and Repeat
您知道他们在说什么 - 记忆是通过重复来的。这意味着您必须一遍又一遍地做这些事情，才能真正使这些关键想法陷入困境。
虽然我建议至少做一些练习论文（即使是一些时间，以确保您将在考试时间限制中获得所有内容），您选择学习的方式取决于您。
如果您是阅读和重新阅读的类型或喜欢每隔晚上进行一次测验的那种类型，那就去做 - 这一切都与您有用！
Just keep practising and before long you’ll know every key point and quote at the drop of a hat. You’ll be ready to write those band 6 essay responses in no time!
现在您尝试一下！
Remember that the big takeaway from this is that by knowing your key points you’ll be memorising enough information to get you ready for an essay, but the amount of effort you put in is always going to influence your final outcome.
这意味着，如果您撰写5篇练习论文并每天研究一个星期的关键点，那么您可能会获得与一次写笔记，然后让他们在办公桌上收集灰尘的最终结果。
The effort that you put in is the results that you’ll get out, so get out there and start studying those awesome key points instead of trying to memorise an entire essay!
在HSC英语方面寻找额外的帮助？
我们有一个令人难以置信的团队HSC的英语教师nd mentors!
我们可以通过在您的家中或在霍恩斯比（Hornsby）的艺术校园内进行一对一的个性化课程，帮助您掌握HSC英语论文写作和ACE您即将进行的HSC英语评估！
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To find out more and get started with an inspirational HSC English tutor and mentor,get in touch today或给我们戒指1300 267 888!
麦迪逊·利奇（Maddison Leach）completed her HSC in 2014, achieving an ATAR of 98.00 and Band 6 in all her subjects. Having tutored privately for two years before joining Art of Smart, she enjoys helping students through the academic and other aspects of school life, even though it sometimes makes her feel old. Maddison has had a passion for writing since her early teens, having had several short stories published before joining the world of blogging. She’s currently deferring her studies until she starts her Bachelor of Communication at UTS in the spring.
