Learning off short story for english

TheBeetles

Does anybody have any input on learning off a short story for paper one of
english.
In particular leaving certs who learned off short stories for their own exam.

Canard

A guy I know got an A2 and used a story he'd written before in his spare time but changed it to fit the title better, but apparently its pretty obvious when you're struggling to fit in a prelearned story with the title you're given. And they keep making them more specific every year because they've caught on. I'd probably learn off my good ones and try to fit them in but to be honest, you're better off making one up on the day.

partyatmygaff

Learning off ANYTHING for Paper 1 is an incredibly bad idea. Improve your skill in English and guarantee yourself a decent grade regardless of the content on the paper instead of wasting your time memorising pre-written short stories.

I got an A1 in HL English last year. I went in to Paper 1 without having memorised a single word and managed an average mark of 94% across the three questions. I wrote about eight pages of original material to get that average mark. I know people who memorised reams of "A1" notes who wrote more than twenty pages who got no more than Bs and Cs. It's both easier and more beneficial to improve your command of English than it is to "memorise and regurgitate".

lorcan122

The examiners look out for people who have memorized stories before hand, and make them try and fit the title, they do this by simply, seeing if your story is relevant to the title or the question asked, if so, shoot right ahead, if they do catch you they heavily penalize you for it.

PictureFrame

lorcan122 wrote: »

The examiners look out for people who have memorized stories before hand, and make them try and fit the title, they do this by simply, seeing if your story is relevant to the title or the question asked, if so, shoot right ahead, if they do catch you they heavily penalize you for it.

I often wonder when people say this do they take into account the personal/short story option?. If you establish the setting they give you in the title for the short story you can basically write about what you want! It's when you try and get a speech or article to fit that the examiner can truly see that the candidate has learnt off the essay. Personal essays and the such are up to personal interpretation at the end of the day..

bscm

I agree with what Partyatmygaff said. I too got an A1 without learning anything for Paper 1. They can spot memorised essays a mile off, and they purposely give you challenging titles to stop students from learning off pages of work only to regurgitate it. It defeats the purpose of Paper 1, which is not to test your memory skills but your writing, creative and analytical skills

Chuchoter

Why do people even contemplate doing this. Just don't go near the short story at all. Its a bad choice. Learned off essays kill you in purpose marks.

LoonyLovegood

Short stories can be good. The main thing is to stick to the title given, as closely as you can stick to it.

implausible

You do not lose marks for writing a memorised essay; you lose marks for an essay/short story not being on task (P). Once you've lost marks on P, it's downhill on C and L.

brownlad

i did...though i was lucky.... 2 night b4 the eng paper1 i google short stories...read 3 stories.... (i find it easy to remember stuff i read) anyway luckily one of the themes matched one of the stories i read...and i simply put the story down...got my a2...



hoooooowwwwwever ...you might not be as lucky so...just learn how to write and stop being a b1tch :P ....jk...goodluck in the lc bro ...( how it turned out...in ucd doing commerce ... ...

walks out .. ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMPAH67f4o

bscm

brownlad wrote: »

i did...though i was lucky.... 2 night b4 the eng paper1 i google short stories...read 3 stories.... (i find it easy to remember stuff i read) anyway luckily one of the themes matched one of the stories i read...and i simply put the story down...got my a2...

... this has to be the riskiest thing I've heard so far, plagiarism is as bad as opening up a copy of HP in the exam and using it as "inspiration".

If the plot seems familiar then the examiner can do a quick Google search (or turnitin if they have an account) and you can say goodbye to your pass in English.

TheBeetles

In response to a lot of the criticism above of learning off a short story I'd like to say that :

Writing an A standard essay in 1hr 20 min does not necessarily prove how talented you are at English. Some of the best authors in the world would struggle to write a quality original piece in that time.

Secondly, it is not simply regurgitating an essay on the day which I am talking about but rather having a number of plots and ideas prepared so that I would be able to write an essay on at least one of the essay titles.

I find it difficult to believe that candidates can produce an A grade essay with no prior preparation whatsoever. If so Ireland has a lot of world class novelists waiting in the wings !!!

partyatmygaff

TheBeetles wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that candidates can produce an A grade essay with no prior preparation whatsoever. If so Ireland has a lot of world class novelists waiting in the wings !!!

You don't need to be a world-class novelist to write an A grade essay. You just need to be somewhat creative and to have a reasonably good command of English. Not exceedingly difficult and definitely not impossible.

If you go down the "prepare material and learn" route you'll put in a lot of effort needlessly preparing essays to cover for every potential question and all that will come of it is a good grade in LC English. If you go down the "Improve your skill and spontaneously create" route you'll put in similar (Perhaps slightly more or less depending on your style of learning) effort but will continue to enjoy the fruits of your effort throughout the LC and the rest of your life.

Canard

TheBeetles wrote: »

In response to a lot of the criticism above of learning off a short story I'd like to say that :

Writing an A standard essay in 1hr 20 min does not necessarily prove how talented you are at English. Some of the best authors in the world would struggle to write a quality original piece in that time.

Secondly, it is not simply regurgitating an essay on the day which I am talking about but rather having a number of plots and ideas prepared so that I would be able to write an essay on at least one of the essay titles.

I find it difficult to believe that candidates can produce an A grade essay with no prior preparation whatsoever. If so Ireland has a lot of world class novelists waiting in the wings !!!

Thats true, but its just how it is. And thats pretty much the idea I think, reading is encouraged to stimulate your imagination etc. As long as you're not writing an exact story I think its okay - just make sure it fits. I mean its a short story / essay of, what, 4 pages? Its not exactly a series of novels :P

TheBeetles

[QUOTE=partyatmygaff;76195257
If you go down the "prepare material and learn" route you'll put in a lot of effort needlessly preparing essays to cover for every potential question and all that will come of it is a good grade in LC English. If you go down the "Improve your skill and spontaneously create" route you'll put in similar (Perhaps slightly more or less depending on your style of learning) effort but will continue to enjoy the fruits of your effort throughout the LC and the rest of your life.[/QUOTE]

While I agree that it defeats the purpose of the exam to simply learn off an essay I have to say that I don't trust myself to come up with an idea on the day which will guarantee me an A.
For that reason I will have a number of plots and ideas prepared for the exam and perhaps an essay as well.

jumpguy

Chuchoter wrote: »

Why do people even contemplate doing this. Just don't go near the short story at all. Its a bad choice. Learned off essays kill you in purpose marks.

Unless you've really got an excellent flair for short stories, or are happy with a C/D/low B in English, I'd agree with Chuchoter. Short stories really don't suit a lot of people, despite what they think of their own abilities. It's very easy to write a short story that you think is excellent while you're writing it, and then look back a week later and go "wtf was I thinking?" Don't want that to happen in your exam...

Canard

Well, I always write the short story when we're given essay titles in class. Whats with all the hate for them? The essays are so specific, I just dont see how you're meant to drag out 4 pages with it. With the story you can just make up a story, throw in a few fancy words, make a nice twist to make it stand out and give it a good ending.

Although in my Christmas test just there I wrote a pretty awful one I think, so... :pac:

Yeah Buddy

I was going to use a learned off short story, then I panicked the night before and decided against it. I ended up with an A2, but could definitely have gotten an A1 if I went through with the short story though. My poetry essay was learned off word for word and I got 50 out of 50 for it. I got my course anyway so it didn't matter, but I'd have been absolutely raging if I missed out because of the ten points difference between an A2 and A1. It's a very grey area though and I've heard conflicting stories from different teachers. Personally I think a lot would have come down to whoever was correcting the paper.

13spanner

Wouldn't ever dream of learning off an entire short story. Maybe I'll have a few ideas floating in the head before going in, but noting learned off by heart.

As mentioned above, I'd sooner do a report/speech than a short story. A short story needs characters, setting, plot (a bit of dialogue?). Can you imagine coming up with all that and putting it together properly inside in the exam?! Where as a speech is much simpler off the top of your head.

Canard

But all the speeches etc would be so similar and you'd really have to make it stand out. I just dont get how you could come up with 4 good pages of a speech or something. With a short story if its a bit short just throw in some dialogue and that fills up loads of lines :pac: You can make anything happen and that means you can really make use of a large vocabulary too.