BlogStudyShould You Memorise or Improvise a HSC Essay?

Should You Memorise or Improvise a HSC Essay?

The single most common question I hear when it comes to HSC essay writing is whether you should memorise or improvise.

Some people swear by pre-written essays, while others use the pressure of exam conditions to pump out extended responses.

There’s strong arguments for both sides, and most people have a preference, but to figure out which way is ‘best’, we have to look at exactly what they offer.

Memorising HSC Essays
How to pull off a pre-prepared essay using RATT
Improvising HSC Essays
How to pull off an improvised essay using PPET
The Verdict

Memorising HSC Essays

A lot of what makes memorised HSC essays strong is that you have time to refine them as you write and rewrite drafts in preparation for exams, and they give you a way to plan things down to a t.

At the same time, there are drawbacks to knowing your essays by heart, mainly because they don’t give you much room to adapt to unexpected questions and you risk missing the mark.

Pros of Memorising Your HSC Essay

  • Confidence – having a planned response ready to go when you walk into the exam room is an instant confidence boost, because you already know what you’re going to write!
  • Refining – because you have to rewrite your essay a few times in order to remember it, you’re able to spot problem areas and refine your response each time, leading to a much more sophisticated essay.
  • Concise – being able to give yourself an approximate word count to aim for makes it a lot easier to map out a concise, to-the-point essay that you can reproduce in the exams.
  • Time – knowing exactly how much you plan to write takes some of the guess work out of time management and lets you manage your exam time far better. 

Cons of Memorising Your HSC Essay

  • Adapting – it doesn’t matter how good your essay is if it doesn’t answer the question, and if the question on your exam paper is nothing like the one you prepared your essay for you’re in a major tight spot.
  • Improvement – even if your prepared response suits the question, it often doesn’t fit perfectly, and many students don’t think to make small changes to their memorised essay in order to make it better answer the question.
  • Forgetting – if you forget even the tiniest part of your essay, that may throw off your muscle memory and cause you to blank out on what you had planned to say.
  • Time – Trying to memorise all your essays for every single subject is incredibly overwhelming and time-consuming

How to pull off a pre-prepared essay using RATT

Step 1: Rewrite

Aim to write your essay at least 3 times (4 is ideal) before your exam and make at least one small improvement each time.

This follows the Rule of 3 – from our research with top performing state ranker students we found they would re-write out their notes and essays a minimum of 3 times!

The improvement you make each time may mean choosing a stronger quote for evidence or changing your conclusion.

Step 2: Adapt

Using past paper questions, try to adapt your essay at least 3 times (as part of the 4 rewrites) to different questions.

This will make it easier for you to adapt in the exams and prepare you for different question types.

Step 3: Themes

Break down your essay into the key themes or ideas your talking about, as well as the quotes/evidence for each theme.

Mind map or dot point this for easy recall and to use as study notes.

Step 4: Time

Complete at least 2 (as part of the 4 rewrites) timed practice papers under exam conditions.

This way you can learn how your essay fits into the given time and manage it as such.

For example; if you have an hour, give yourself 15 minutes per paragraph and 7 minutes each for your introduction and conclusion.

Grab a practice essay you wrote (or an essay from your trials, etc.) and a question from one of the English Past Papers. Now spend 5 minutes quickly planning out how you could change or adapt your essay to suit the question!  

Don’t wait until it’s too late! At Art of Smart Education we can support you with personalised Enlgish tutoring at our Castle Hill campus, or tutoring in your home or online across NSW!

Improvising HSC Essays

Improvising HSC essays are great if you are confident in your argumentative skills.

They take less preparation than a memorised essay, as you only have to memorise your quotes, themes and analysis, however it requires you to be able to think on the spot.

They also give you more creative freedom with your arguments, as you don’t have to stick to a thesis that you memorised which means you can think outside of the box, whilst still answering the question.

Pros of Improvising

  • Adapting – because you don’t have a set plan of what you’re going to be writing, it’s much easier to work to the question and deliver an essay that answers it properly.
  • Pressure – it sounds odd, but a lot of people actually work incredibly well under pressure, making ‘unprepared’ essays something they can take on easily, knowing that the pressure of the exam will motivate them to write an awesome response.
  • Preparation – not having to memorise an entire essay takes a lot of weight off your shoulders and makes it a fair deal easier to focus on overall preparation – knowing your quotes, themes, etc.
  • Sophisticated argument – because you’re not walking in with a set argument, you’re more likely to have a sophisticated argument which answers the given question well, rather than trying to adapt an argument

Cons of Improvising

  • Planning – having to come up with an essay on the spot can be really tough, and often means you’ll spend a fair deal longer planning your essay than if you memorised one.
  • Time – because it’s harder to know how much you’ll write, time management can be much trickier, and it’s very easy to accidentally run out of time.
  • Waffling – not the breakfast food! When you haven’t planned what you’re going to say in an essay it’s very common to begin repeating yourself or lingering on one point for too long – in other words, you waffle!

How to pull off an improvised essay using PPET

Step 1: Prepare

Work out at least 4 key themes/ideas central to the subject and then dot point or mind map different arguments you could develop in an essay so that you have some plans in the back of your mind.

We’ve created tons of scaffolds for you to prepare with! Check out our HSC Visual Arts Essay Scaffold here and access more by searching here!

Step 2: Practice

‘Unprepared’ doesn’t mean unknown, so write unplanned essays for at least 3 past paper questions, using the 4 ideas/themes from above as concepts for your body paragraphs.

Make your body paragraphs stronger by writing effective linking sentences!

Step 3: Evidence

Based on the 4 ideas/themes you’ve been writing about, collect a bunch of quotes/statistics/evidence you could use to back them up and memorise 1-2 pieces of evidence per theme.

Step 4: Time

Make sure that at least 2 of your 3 practice responses are timed so that you can learn how to manage your time in the actual exam. Try to check the clock after each paragraph to keep on track.

The Verdict

At the end of the day there’s merit to both memorised and unplanned essays – a lot of it comes down to your own preference and how you prefer to work.

I’ve always liked to micromanage, making memorised essays perfect for me, because they let me feel confident and in control during my exams.

At the same time, I often envied people who could remember a few key ideas and then punch out an awesome essay in their exams.

If you work well under pressure and feel comfortable planning essays on the spot, then unprepared essays will probably work well for you.

Looking for some extra help with your HSC English essay?

We have an incredible team of HSC English tutors and mentors!

We can help you master HSC English essay writing and ace your upcoming HSC English assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!

We’ve supported over 5,000 students over the last 10 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 19%!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational HSC English tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!


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 studying a Bachelor of Design at the University of Technology Sydney and spends most of her time trying not to get caught sketching people on trains.

45,861 students have a head start...

Get exclusive study content & advice from our team of experts delivered weekly to your inbox!

AOS Website Asset 2

Looking for English Support?

Discover how we can help you!

AOS Website Asset 1