How to Memorise an Entire Essay or Speech

Christmas and New year is over and for some thereloud a few times go back to the first sentence and
looms the prospect of mid term exams. A lot of theseread it out loud. Then read it again and again until you
exams will be closed book exams. A closed bookhave memorised it. When you are confident you have
exam tests your knowledge and memory of amemorised it word for word go on to the next
subject. One of the ways in which some studentssentence. When you have memorised the second
prepare is to actively learn the subject areas and alsosentence, whilst walking vocalise the first two
look at past questions and anticipate a question whichsentences without looking at your printed essay. If you
might come up. At the moment my wife is studying forare okay with this go on to do the same with your 3rd
exams in which she is actively learning her subjectssentence and so on until you have memorised your
and also she has written 3 500 word essays on thefirst full paragraph. This can take anywhere between
three areas of study. Together we have come up15 - 45 depending on motivation, alertness, quietness
with a system which means that she can memorise aetc.
500 word essay in 1 day and 3 500 word essays in 3The reason I ask you to walk is to keep your blood
days. Together with actively learning the subject she isflowing whilst memorising. If you are sitting down you
confident that she has prepared well.might nod off, by walking it will prevent you from
In this article I will show you the system we came upnodding off. I find walking up and down an excellent
with to memorise 1500 verbatim. Sound hard? It isway to concentrate on reading.
actually quite easy and is a system I used to when atKeep reading, and vocalising your essay or speech
university studying psychology for 2 1000 worduntil you have memorised it completely. When you are
essays.confident of having memorised it. Vocalise it without
This method can also be used for memorising any kindlooking at your printed sheet. If you get it right, do it
of written work or speech.again, and if you get it right a second time reward
Before you beginyourself with a cup of tea or coffee or whatever is
Before you begin this it is important to actually believeyour want and leave it for a few hours.
that you can memorise a complete essay or speechWhen a few hours have passed go back to the
whether it be 500 words or 2000 words. When I firstessay, read it out loud whilst walking and looking at the
suggested using this method to my wife she said thatprinted sheet and then try to memorise it again.
she would never be able to memorise an essay wordOnce you are confident that you have memorised it
for word.completely, at the bottom of the page write down the
Once she got over this and started telling herself thatfirst few words of each sentence of your essay,
she could do it we started.separated by a comma, and number each line for
Active learningeach paragraph. When you have done that put in the
First off, this method of memorising an essay shouldnumber of sentences at the end of the list and bracket
not be substituted for actively learning a subject.it.
Active learning is when you read, not skim, the subjectFor example if I was writing out the first few words of
area and take note of the key points. Cross reading isthis article for the first 3 paragraphs it would look like
also very good for active learning. This is when youthis;
read books on the subjects by different authors.
Some authors are not good at getting information1. Christmas and New year, A lot of, A closed book,
across so cross reading is an excellent way learning.One of the, At the moment (5)
The method for memorising an essay or speech.2. Together we have, Together with actively (2)
You will need to write out the essay or speech first.3. In this article, sound hard? (2) Now what you should
Treat this part of the process as if you were writingdo is only look at the lost at the bottom of the paper
an essay to hand in for marking by your lecturer. Inand read out from that whilst walking. This way you
other words make sure it is worthy of memorising.are only looking at the first few words and finishing the
When you have written the essay make sure it issentence without looking at it. If you get stuck just go
grammatically correct as you will be memorising everyback to the main essay and look at it, until you have
comma and full stop.got it completely.
When you are sure you have a good essay orNow memorise the bottom of the sheet of paper with
speech print it off and mark down the left margin thethe first few words of the essay and how many
number of paragraphs e.g. if you have 6 paragraphssentences are in each paragraph. This should only
write at the side of each paragraph the numbers 1 - 6.take 10-15 minutes at the most.
In the right hand margin write the number of sentencesThis sounds a very convoluted way of memorising an
in each paragraph. This is the first part of theessay but it is a lot easier than it reads here.
memorisation process.Time taken to memorise
A quiet place to studyYou should be able to memorise a full 500 word
Now, make sure you have quiet space to be able toessay in about 3 hours, for your first time, using the
read, walk and vocalise your essay. When you areabove method. When you are practiced you should be
sure you will not be interrupted you can start.able to memorise a 500 word essay in about 60 - 90
With your printed essay start walking and reading outminutes.
loud the essay or speech. When you have read it out