how to memorize essay

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How to Memorize an Essay

Last Updated: January 24, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 123,907 times.

Memorizing an essay is a great way to ace tests, rock presentations, and increase your overall knowledge. If you want to memorize an essay word for word, take things slowly by studying short parts one at a time. Memorization techniques such as visualization and physical cues can help you recall this information on demand. Of course, sometimes you don’t need to memorize things exactly. You may find it more useful to memorize the main ideas or important quotes instead.

Learning Each Part of the Essay

• Use a partner to test you on what you've memorized. If you miss a word or forget a line, they can prompt you by telling you the next word or two.
• You might also want to arrange to practice in front of an audience of a few people. This will help to add some pressure, which may be beneficial to you later.

• For example, you might study it for 15 minutes and take a 10-minute break before studying for another 15 minutes.
• Try writing out the essay once or twice. This can improve your memory. [7] X Research source
• Avoid cramming the night before. Memorizing something in 1 session is not the most effective way to learn it. Repetition in small chunks will help more than cramming the essay all in 1 long session.

Recalling Information

• For example, the first part of the essay might be about tiger conservation, so you might visualize tigers as you go through this part. The second part may be about their habitat, so you might think about a jungle.

• For example, if the main parts of the essay are about family, cooperation, and communication, you might imagine a photograph (family), a table (cooperation), and a telephone (communication).
• When you need to recall the essay, imagine yourself walking from the photograph to the table and then to the telephone in the proper order.

• Pacing can help improve recall. Some people even find doing a simple dance to be useful as they try to memorize the essay.

• Practice hand gestures with your speech. Put certain gestures at specific spots in the essay.
• If you are allowed to use flashcards, you might write the basic outline on a series of cards. Glance down at these as you go along.
• You might ask a friend in the audience to give a signal if you are forgetting a line.

Remembering the Main Ideas of an Essay

• When you need to remember the essay, you can redraw the chart to help you remember all the different pieces you need to recall.
• You can also draw images in your chart or sketch out the main events of the essay in comic form.
• ↑ https://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/how-to-memorise-an-entire-essay-or-speech/
• ↑ https://www.improvememory.org/blog/how-to-improve-memory/memorization-techniques/how-to-retain-information/
• ↑ https://www.bw.edu/Assets/conservatory/wellness/memorization-tips.pdf
• ↑ https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/7-easy-monologue-memorization-tips/
• ↑ https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-ways-to-memorize-a-speechwithout-sounding-like-a-nervous-robot
• ↑ https://effectiviology.com/external-memory-cues/
• ↑ https://collegeinfogeek.com/flash-card-study-tips/
• ↑ https://zapier.com/blog/best-book-note-taking-system/

Community Q&A

• Sleep and a healthy diet can improve your memory overall. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
• If you need to present the essay, try practicing in front of family and friends. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Record yourself reading the essay out loud and listen to it repeatedly Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Cramming the essay the night before may not help you remember the entire essay. It is better to start early. Thanks Helpful 16 Not Helpful 4

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About This Article

Memorizing your essay can be a great way to nail your test without having to think about it on the day of. Try to learn small chunks, like a paragraph or a few sentences, at a time since they'll be easier to remember. You can also try reading your essay out loud to remember it faster. If you find memorizing the whole essay too difficult, break it down and memorize only the main points. Then, you’ll be able to write your essay around them on the day of your test. If you need to remember quotes, try writing them on flashcards and memorizing them one at a time. For more tips from our Teaching co-author, including how to visualize your essay in a memory palace to help you remember it, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to memorise essays and long responses

Lauren Condon

Marketing Specialist at Atomi

When it comes to memorising essays or long responses for your exams, there are three big things to consider.

• Should you even try to memorise an essay?
• Do you know how to adapt your memorised response to the exam question?
• How on earth are you meant to memorise a 1,200 word essay??

It’s a lot to weigh up but we can help you out here. If you want an answer to the first question, here’s one we prepared earlier. But wait, there’s more! If you’re super keen to read more about question #2, then go ahead and click here .

And for that third point on how to actually memorise a long essay? Well, all you have to do is keep reading...

1. Break it down

Your essay/long response/creative writing piece could be anywhere between 800 and 1,200 words long. Yeah… that’s a lot. So when it comes to memorising the whole thing, it’s a lot easier to break the answer down into logical chunks and work on memorising it bit by bit.

So if you want to memorise your Discovery Essay, you might have something like this:

• Introduction
• Theme 1 with the assigned text
• Theme 1 with the related text
• Theme 2 with the assigned text
• Theme 2 with the related text

You’re going to want to memorise the paragraphs and pay attention to the structure then you can piece it all together in the exam. Having a killer structure makes it a lot easier to remember the overall bones of this situation and if you’re finding this effective, you can even break those body paragraphs down further like topic sentence > example > explanation > connection to thesis.

2. Use memory tricks

Now, there are lots of different strategies and approaches when it comes to memorising a long piece of writing. Moving in sections, you can try reading it out loud over again (slowly looking at the paper less and less) or the classic look-cover-write-check approach. If you’re really struggling, make some of your own flashcards that have the first sentence on one side and the next sentence on the back so you can test your progress.

You could also enlist the help of some creative mnemonics (memory tricks) to remind you which sentence or section needs to come next. Pick one keyword from each sentence in the paragraph and turn them into a silly sentence to help you remember the structure of the paragraph and to make sure you don’t forget one of your awesome points.

3. Play to your strengths

Not all of us are super geniuses that can just read an essay and then memorise the entire thing but we’re all going to have our own strengths. There’s going to be something whether it’s art, music, writing, performance or sport that just ‘clicks’ in your brain and this is what you want to capitalise on. So for me, I was really into debating and public speaking (hold back the jokes please) and was used to giving speeches and remembering them. So whenever I wanted to memorise a long response, I would write out the essay onto palm cards and then practice it out loud like a speech. Did it annoy my family? Yes. Was I too embarrassed to tell people my strategy? Yes. Did it work? Absolutely. 💯

Whatever your strengths are, find a way to connect them to your essay and come up with a creative way of learning your long response that will be much easier and more effective for you!

4. Start early

So you know how there’s that whole long-term/short-term memory divide? Yeah well that’s going to be pretty relevant when it comes to memorising. You’re going to have a much better chance of remembering your long response if you start early and practice it often, instead of trying to cram it in the night before… sorry.

The good news is, you still have a couple of months before the HSC so try to get your prepared response written, get good feedback from your teachers and then make it perfect so it’s ready to go for the HSC. Then, the next step is to start memorising the essay now and test yourself on it fairly regularly all the way up to your exams. This way, you have plenty of time to really lock it deep into your memory.

5. Test yourself

The final and maybe even most important step is to test yourself. And not with flashcards or the look-cover-check-repeat anymore. Once you’ve got the essay memorised pretty well, you want to spend the weeks coming up to HSC doing past questions so you can practice

• Having the essay memorised
• Being able to recall it under pressure
• Adapting it to any question so that all your hard work will actually pay off

For this to work, you really need to commit 100% to exam conditions (no cheating!) and it’s definitely worth sending those responses to your teacher to get them marked. That way, you will actually know if you’re doing a good job of remembering the core of your argument but also tailoring it perfectly to the question.

Any subject with essays or long responses can be super daunting so if you want to have a pre-written, adaptable response ready to go then it’s worth making sure you can actually memorise it for your exam. Remember to break down the essay into sections, play to your memory strengths and make sure you consistently test yourself all the way up to HSC. That should do the trick. 👌

Published on

July 28, 2017

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How To Study: The Essay Memorisation Framework

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As a medical student, I did have to undertake some exams that required writing essays. One of the questions I often get asked is how you can apply techniques such as active recall and spaced repetition – that I frequently discuss as being ‘the best’ revision techniques – to essay-based subjects. During my third year at university, I adopted the following approach to preparing for my own essay-based psychology exams – it proved highly effective in my own exams and I hope that you can make effective use of it too.

The system can be broadly broken down into two stages:

• The Creation Stage
• Objective to create first class essay plans for every conceivable essay title that they throw at us in the exam.

2.  The Memorisation Stage

• Objective of committing all of these essay plans to memory by systematically using active recall, spaced repetition, spider diagrams and flashcards.

The idea is that, by using these two stages, by the time the exams arrive you’ll have memorised so many essay plans that they will either come up in the exam or the essays will be similar enough that you will have the knowledge to draw up and form coherent and well-structured essay that answer the question effectively.

Creation Stage

There are three main questions in the creation stage:

How to decide what essay titles to pick/prepare

The objective here is to ‘scope the subject’ and find essay titles that cover the entire breadth of the syllabus. The easiest way to do this is to both look through the past papers and start by planning the essays that have come up in the past and then examine the syllabus and identify areas that lend themselves to essays. Once you’ve planned out those essays, you’ll have a better idea as to what style of questions are asked and what material is often covered. This should give you a breadth of essays titles that span the course – if you find that there is still an area of the syllabus that hasn’t been address, try to come up a suitable question and add it to your essay plans to compile.

How you plan the essay

Personally, I would give myself one day per essay plan. Although it’s best to try to have this process ongoing throughout the year, I did the bulk of my essay plan preparation in the Easter holidays (perhaps not ideal!).

My process involved starting off with a question then use Google to get as much information as possible about that particular topic. I would start off with Google because it can give you a good broad overview as well as useful links to review papers that would often provide key details or interesting examples.

Once I had created my essay plan I would then look at the lecture notes and the recommended reading. This meant that a lot of my material was more original than everyone else’s because most other people would’ve built their essays based around the lecture notes, whereas I was building my essays from a Google search supplemented by lecture notes.

Once I had got my research document, I would spend a few hours writing out the essay – consolidating all the information into this one essay that I am ultimately going to learn.

How you make sure your essay plan is really good.

But how do we make an essay plan good? There are 3 key ingredients in my opinions:

• Answering the question
• Adding a bit of spice.

The introduction is the most important part of the essay because you can address all three of these key ingredients and signal to the examiner how you are going to go about compiling the essay and answer the question.

Here is an example of one of the introductions from an essay that I prepared on whether judgement and decision making is cognitive (logical) or affective (emotional).

The historical view in the social sciences has always been that judgements are based solely on content information, with individuals being assumed to form judgements by systematically evaluating all available content information in an unbiased manner. However, over the past three decades a considerable amount of research has challenged this assumption by showing that judgments may be formed not only on the basis of content information (cognitive judgements) but also on the basis of feelings (affective judgement). It is now well accepted that judgement can be both affective and cognitive. Whether it is one or the other depends on a multitude of factors: (1) the salience of the affective feelings, (2) the representativeness of the affective feelings for the target, (3) the relevance of the feelings for the judgement, (4) the evaluative malleability of the judgement and (5) the level of processing intensity. I will discuss these in turn and ultimately argue that generally speaking in day-to-day life, the circumstances are generally those that result in affective rather than cognitive judgements and decision making.

As you can see, I signpost the essay explicitly using numbered points as well as answering the question and outlining to the examiner the direction that my argument is going to go.

The Memorisation Stage

By this point, you should have a good number of essay plans that you’ve created in documents – now the aim is to ‘upload’ those essay plans to our brain. I approached doing this using three main techniques:

Anki Flashcards

With my essays, I used Anki flashcards to memorise paragraphs and main points whether from an essay or key points from a particularly relevant research paper. The aim was to create blocks of content with every Anki flashcard being its’ own ‘block’ which I could then draw upon either for the essays that I had planned or for unfamiliar essays but ones which I could answer using the material from the flashcards.

However, specific paragraphs or points from research papers aren’t helpful unless you can associate them with particular essays – that’s where spider diagrams come into the equation…

Spider Diagrams

Having memorised content blocks from my essays using Anki flashcards, I made one page diagrams of every single essay. The idea being that you would be able to discern the structure of the essay through the spider diagram as well as notice key words that are relevant for that topic and/or that you find particularly helpful in triggering your memory about the key points that you need to raise in answering that question.

Every day I would draw out various spider diagrams from memory and if there were any books that I didn’t know, I would look them up in the master research document or in Anki and actively work on learning those parts.

Over time, this became a highly effective way to systematically use active recall to ensure that I knew absolutely everything.

Retrospective Revision Timetable

The final part of the system involved systematic spaced repetition. If you’ve seen any of my other content, I am a big proponent of retrospective revision timetables. This approach counters the conventional idea of planning a prospective revision timetable which has a number of issues – namely trying to predict the future and inflexibility, amongst others – and instead involves creating a spreadsheet that starts with a list of subjects, topics or essays that we have compiled through scoping our subject and then inputting the dates on which we study those areas as well as colour code the system to provide a visual representation as to which areas we might need to cover again. You can read more about these sorts of timetables  here , where I explain them in more depth.

This structure which combines active recall, spaced repetition, flashcards and spider diagrams was probably the most effective system that I used whilst at university. In the exam, about two thirds of the essays that we had to write, I had already planned. Although the other four essays that I had to write were ‘new’, I had built up such a systematic and in-depth knowledge of the subject that I could more easily draw upon ‘blocks’ of content from my Anki decks which I could then ‘drop’ into these essays to answer them effectively.

I hope this has provided you with a more logical structure with which to utilise active recall, spaced repetition, spider diagrams and flashcards to ensure that you can approach your essay-based exams with more confidence.

Please see the other blog posts in this ‘How To Study’ series for more hints, tips and guidance on studying and revising.

About The Author

I'm an ex-doctor turned YouTuber, Podcaster, entrepreneur and author. I've been creating YouTube videos for over 7 years and have a following of over 4 million over on my main channel.

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How to Memorize an Essay Like a Pro

Are you having a hard time memorizing an an essay for your test? Maybe you want to keep a paragraph or two of a well-written essay in your memory to score well, right?

No need to worry anymore as we’ve got all the details here on how to memorize an essay well. That way, your final piece could look like one from the pros of a  custom essay writing service  online. So, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Things You Should Know About Memorizing An Essay

Let’s begin with how memorizing an essay could help.

How can Memorizing an Essay Help?

Memorizing an essay can offer several benefits to students, including:

Your Memory Retention Gets Better

While you are memorizing an essay, you are also engaging repeatedly with the content. That means your retention of key facts, and concepts gets better. Hence, it’s not a bad activity, is it?

Your Understanding Improves

When you memorize an essay, your understanding of the key concepts in the text gets better. This way, you can better recall the focus of the essay and use that information when needed.

Your Confidence Improves

Memorizing an essay before sitting for an exam could skyrocket your confidence. You can recall and write the key points of the essay in your paper. Now you must be feeling confident to know how to memorize an essay, isn’t it? Don’t worry some tips and tricks are coming up on how to study for an essay test.

Skill of Time Management

Memorizing an essay can also help you save time, how? Like when you have a good understanding of key concepts in the essay, you won’t have to refer to those notes or stuff while writing. As a result, more of your time will be saved. It is a tough task to memorize an essay, especially when you are not used to it. But these tips and tricks from  professional essay writers  will guide you in the right direction. Keep on reading as more of them are coming your way!

Your Communication Gets Better

It is also noted that memorizing an essay would improve your communication skills. You can coherently convey key concepts of the essay which is a plus point in job interviews and more.

Memorizing Skill Improvement

No doubt, while you consistently memorize an essay, your memorization skill gets better. So, in further studies, if you have to memorize a key concept or something, you’ll be all set to do that effectively.

Tips for Memorizing an Essay Well

Here are some tips on how to memorize an essay effectively:

Break Down the Essay

Breaking your essay into small sections would make its memorization very easy. You can slowly move from sentences to paragraphs. Remember to focus on memorizing one section at a time.

Establish A Good Understanding of the Content

You need to get comfortable with the essay content before memorizing it. Even better if you focus on one key idea or complex concept at a time. Plus, you must logically connect those ideas to facilitate memorization.

Make Use of Mnemonics

This is one of the best methods of memorization. You can create mnemonic devices like rhymes, acronyms, visual imagery, and more to help you remember the essay’s facts or key points. Even a great technique on how to memorize a paragraph quickly.

Repetition is the Key

One of the best ways to remember your essay is to recite it several times. This practice will reinforce your memory retention. Repetition is also a good exercise to solidify information in your mind that you can easily recall later.

Write it Out

When you write something down, you make it fixed to your memory. The best you can do is to transcribe the essay several times by typing it on a computer or writing by hand.

Use Visual Aids

Creating visual aids, such as mind maps, flashcards, or more could help you recall the information well. Such measures can also help you in recalling sections or concepts of the essay well. Even a renowned  argumentative essay writing service  online will also make use of visual aids to keep things in memory for a long.

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Teach Someone Else

Teaching helps! Yes, when you start teaching key concepts of that essay to your friends or family, you will notice your understanding of key terms getting better. Hence, such facts and concepts will commit to your memory well.

Practice Retrieval

This is one of the very effective steps in memorization of an essay. Each day, invest some time in recalling the essay from your memory. Do practice retrieval skills which is a good activity for Strengthening your memory recalls. Plus don’t forget to identify areas that need more improvement.

Associate with Personal Experiences

You can also relate the essay content to your own experience. This way, you can remember it well. This practice will also make the write-up much more meaningful and useful.

Take Good Pauses

You must allow yourself some breaks when you are into memorizing essays. Doing so, will prevent mental fatigue and your memory retention and focus will improve.

Useful Visual Techniques For Memorizing Essays

If you are still wondering how to memorize an essay or how to memorize a paragraph quickly, here are some visual techniques you can use.

Mind Mapping

Surely, you must have heard about mind mapping which is a way to link key concepts. For essay memorization, you can draw a visual representation of the essay’s structure on a mind map. Keep the main subject in the center and expand key points or supporting details. You can also make use of a color code and symbols to make mindmap visually engaging.

Storyboarding

You can also divide an essay into different sections. Then work on a storyboard with diagrams that represent each of these sections. Don’t forget to associate key concepts or images to help your memory retention.

Visualization

You can also visualize the whole content of the essay in a series of mental images. Plus, you should associate each of the mental images with a relevant section or concept to form a mnemonic device effective for recalling the content. In a nutshell, visualization could be your answer to how to memorize an essay. But you know that there are more ways!

This is also a very effective recalling technique. You can make some flashcards with key points or facts from the essay. Now you have to put some visual cues on one side of the flashcard to reinforce memory retention. Plus don’t forget to review flashcards regularly which will improve your memory strength.

Sketch Notes

When you are reading or summarizing the essay, ensure to take visual notes. Plus, don’t forget to put in some colors, typography, and icons to make sketch notes more attractive and memorable.

Go For Visual Storytelling

You can also work on transforming the essay’s content into a visual story. Even you can turn it into a narrative that has characters, a plot, and more.

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Final Thoughts

This blog post was all about letting students know, how they can get better at memorizing an essay. First, we discussed the benefits of essay memorization, then we moved to the tips of memorization and some visual tricks you can use.

Hopefully, you now have a good idea of how to memorize an essay or how to study for an essay test well. If you still have issues with it, feel free to contact our experts.

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Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principle tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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How to Memorize Fast (and Why Most Memorization Tips Suck)

It's not too difficult to learn how to memorize fast and easily – if you use the right strategies, that is.

But most people don't use the right strategies. 

In fact, most people don't use any strategy – they use a few tactics that don't work very well. So, let me be straight with you: If you've been using flashcards or repetition to try to drill things into your brain, you're making things difficult for yourself.

It's time to work smarter, not harder .

Here's the thing: Your mind is a supercar that you haven't figured out how to drive yet. With practice, you can learn how to memorize anything – whether it's a new language, speech, or answers to an upcoming exam.

Oh, and learning how to memorize fast doesn't have to suck, either – it can even be fun. For real. This guide will show you how to memorize fast and easily – the smart way.

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6 Tips on How to Memorize Fast and Easily

If you want to learn how to memorize things fast and easily, you need to be strategic. Here are six tips on how to memorize fast that you'll learn about in this article:

• Understand your learning style
• Learn the 3 'R's of memorization
• Practice the substitution method
• Learn the story and link method
• Use the memory palace method
• Apply spaced repetition strategically

Step 1. Understand Your Learning Style

Before you try to learn how to memorize fast, it can help to have a basic understanding of how you best interpret and absorb new knowledge.

Now, there are four main learning styles usually referred to by the acronym "VARK":

• Reading/writing
• Kinesthetic

Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Visual learners learn best through sight. They like information to be presented visually and tend to prefer seeing and observing things, such as diagrams, pictures, and demonstrations. Many visual learners also like to sketch, draw, and write lists.

2. Auditory 

Auditory learners learn best by listening and when the subject matter is communicated through sound.

They'd rather listen to podcasts , lectures, and audiobooks than read books and notes. If they have to read a book, they're likely to absorb more information if they read it aloud to themselves. Many auditory learners also like to engage in discussions.

3. Reading/Writing

Reading/writing learners prefer to learn through the written word.

They learn best when reading books and articles . They also learn well when taking and reviewing notes. This learning style overlaps with visual learning, however, these learners tend to prefer to express themselves through writing.

Traditional western education systems cater to reading/writing learners by focusing on reading books and writing essays.

4. Kinesthetic

Kinesthetic learners learn best by experiencing or doing things. They're sometimes referred to as "tactile learners." 

This type of learner likes to get moving and use their hands. They excel when they can interpret the subject matter through their physical senses. They prefer hands-on exercises over book-learning every day of the week.

Which Style of Learning Do You Prefer?

It may be pretty obvious which learning style you prefer. For example, it's clear to me that I'm a visual and reading/writing learner – after all, I'm a writer.

However, if you're unsure which style – or styles – of learning you prefer, check out this VARK questionnaire to find out.

It’s also worth noting that most people have a natural preference for more than one style. Oh, and in case you were wondering, no particular learning style is better than the others. They're just different!

Step 2. Learn the 3 'R's of Memorization

It's time to understand the foundations of how to memorize fast and easily: The three 'R's of memorization. 

These three steps are the strategy you need to learn how to memorize fast. Here's how they work:

• Registration: The first step is to record a new memory in your mind with the intention of storing it in your long-term memory. To learn how to memorize quickly, it helps to practice effective registration techniques.
• Retention: In this stage, you work to retain the information in your brain and move it from your short-term memory into your long-term memory so that you can recall it later.
• Recall: In the final stage of memorization, you can use techniques to retrieve the information stored in your mind.

People refer to these steps in different ways – for example, some people call them "encode, store, and retrieve" – but the basic principles are the same.

Most memorization tips miss one or more of these steps. 

For example, repetition can help with retention. However, reading something over and over does nothing to encode the information into your mind intentionally. Plus, it provides no mechanism that you can use to recall the information.

In short, to learn how to memorize faster, you need to use all three 'R's.

Step 3. Learn How to Memorize Fast and Easily

Now that you have the basics under your belt, it's time to learn how to memorize something quickly. So, what is the easiest way to remember something?

The best way to memorize things is to use a mnemonic device – which is just a fancy way of saying a memory device.

What is a mnemonic device?

Simply put, a mnemonic device is anything that helps you to remember something. For example, the phrase "'I' before 'E,' except after 'C'" is a mnemonic device. 

Here's an example of a visual mnemonic device to help remember the numbers of days in the months, with each knuckle representing a 31-day month:

Whenever you hear about 'memory athletes' that can recall the order of six decks of playing cards, they're using mnemonic devices.

It's not magic. It's just practice, and you can do it too.

There are countless mnemonic devices out there. However, we're going to focus on three of the most popular and effective techniques that you can use to learn how to memorize something faster.

Unlike repetition and flashcards, each of these mnemonic devices uses the three 'R's of memorization – registration, retention, and recall.

1. The Substitution Method

This first memory method is super simple. All you need to do is take what you want to remember and substitute it for something more memorable.

For example, say that you're trying to memorize the periodic table of elements. When trying to remember the first element, "hydrogen," you could link it to the word "hydrant" because they sound similar.

For the second element, helium, you could imagine a balloon filled with helium, and so on.

Then, consider which learning style you lean toward and use that information to help you forge a lasting connection. For example:

• If you're a visual learner, you could visualize a bright red fire hydrant on the sidewalk. 
• Auditory learners could practice saying the words "hydrogen, hydrant" out loud to emphasize how they sound similar.
• Reading/writing learners could write the words down, emphasizing how their spellings are similar, with both words beginning with "h, y, d, r."
• Every time they walk past a hydrant, kinesthetic learners could touch the hydrant with their hand and practice saying the word "hydrogen" out loud.

When you need to recall the first element of the periodic table, it'll be a lot easier to remember the red fire hydrant first, which will trigger the memory of "hydrogen."

Substitution is an effective way to register new information in your brain and have a way to recall it easily later.

Plus, this technique doesn't just work with words – you can also use it to remember ideas, concepts, names, dates, or even the key talking points in a speech.

Okay, but how do you remember lots of things?

2. The Link and Story Method

Here's where things get interesting: After you've created some substitutions to memorable words and objects, you can link them together with a story.

Here's an example of how you could link "fire hydrant" (hydrogen) with "balloon" (helium): 

Imagine a bright red hydrant (hydrogen) on a sunny sidewalk at a park entrance. Stood next to the hydrant at the park entrance is a vendor selling balloons (helium) to children entering the park.

Here's the trick: Exaggerate the story so it sticks in your mind more – this will help with retention and recall.

For instance, perhaps the hydrant is broken and is spraying water everywhere. Or maybe the balloon vendor is dressed as a clown. Use whatever works best for you!

Once you create effective associations and link them together with a compelling story , it becomes very easy to remember things.

This method is a great way to register large amounts of information in your mind while also providing a mechanism to recall it.

3. The Memory Palace Method

If you want to know how to memorize a lot of information, try the memory palace method. 

This method has stood the test of time – it was first presented in a book called the "Rhetorica ad Herennium," written in 80 B.C. by an unknown author.

Here’s how to use it:

• Think of a place or a journey you know well, such as your home or a daily commute.
• Identify some significant points in your home or on your commute .
• Link what you want to remember to each one of those points.

For example, say that you need to remember a speech. 

You could break your speech up into points, such as your introduction, three main talking points, your summary, and final thoughts. You can then link each of these points to something in your memory palace.

Your home's front door could represent your speech's introduction. Then, your three main talking points could be the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The summary may be the hallway leading out of the house, and your final thoughts could be the front yard.

Then, whenever you practice your speech, you can imagine walking around your house for each point.

If you have a long speech – or a large amount of information to remember – you can break the information down into smaller chunks and link them to things in each room. 

For example, say you have three aspects in your first talking point (the living room). You could link each one to a piece of furniture, such as the sofa, coffee table, and standing lamp. 

If you practice the memory palace method, you should be able to walk around your house – or run through your commute – in your mind and recall all of the information.

Again, this method hits all three 'R's by providing a way to encode, retain, and recall information.

Step 4. Apply Spaced Repetition

Once you've registered new information in your mind, how can you stop yourself from forgetting it? Apply spaced repetition.

Way back in 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus created the 'Forgetting Curve.' This concept demonstrates how we forget things. Simply put, as soon as we learn something, it starts to fade from our memory.

However, we can prevent this decline by reviewing the information periodically. When we do this, we can increase the strength of the memory.

If you're a visual learner, here's what it looks like:

So, when should you review the subject matter?

At first, it helps to review things often – for example, you may want to review something daily at first, then bi-weekly, and then weekly until you're confident you won't forget it.

Again, look to your preferred learning style to help you. For example:

• Visual learners could draw a storyboard or sketch their memory palace.
• Auditory learners could tell their story aloud or describe walking through their memory palace.
• Reading/writing learners could write their story down and review it regularly.
• Kinesthetic learners could act out the story or walk through their memory palace in real life.

You may also want to review material late in the evening before bed.

Why? Studies show that people who study before bedtime can often remember more of what they learn a day later. Plus, they also felt more confident about their answers.

Summary: How to Memorize Quickly 

If you want to learn how to memorize fast, repetition alone won't cut it – you have to be strategic.

Start by identifying how you learn best. Are you a visual, auditory, reading/writing, or kinesthetic learner?

Then, understand the three 'R's of memorization (registration, retention, and recall) and put them to work:

• First, encode the information in your mind using a mnemonic device, such as the substitution method. 
• Link this information to a story or memory palace to ensure you can easily recall it later.
• Practice spaced repetition to combat the forgetting curve and retain the information.

What are you trying to learn? What is the best way to memorize something for you? Let us know in the comments below!

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How To Memorize An Essay

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Did you know that the average person can only retain about 5-7 unrelated items in their short-term memory? Imagine trying to remember an entire essay! Whether you’re a student or a professional needing to recall key points for a presentation, mastering the art of memorization can be a game-changer.

In this post, we’ll explore effective techniques and practical tips on how to memorize an essay effortlessly. From mnemonic devices to spaced repetition , we’ve got you covered with actionable strategies that will help you commit lengthy texts to memory in no time.

Understanding Essay Memorization

Memory basics.

The memory plays a crucial role in learning and retaining information. It consists of two main types: short-term and long-term memory . Short-term memory holds information for a short period, while long-term memory stores it for an extended duration. Understanding these distinctions is essential when learning how to start memorizing an essay effectively.

Retaining the content of an essay involves engaging various techniques to improve retention. Active engagement with the material , such as summarizing key points or discussing them with others, can significantly enhance retention. Incorporating multiple senses during the learning process – like reading aloud or creating visual aids – can further reinforce memory retention .

Retention Techniques

To successfully memorize an essay, individuals must develop personalized strategies that suit their learning style and preferences. This may involve utilizing effective study techniques such as spaced repetition or mnemonic devices to aid in retaining the material more efficiently. Furthermore, setting clear goals for memorization helps individuals stay focused on what they aim to achieve.

Students can experiment with different ways until they find one that works best for them. For instance, some learners might benefit from breaking down the essay into smaller sections and foc using on mastering each part separately before combining them into a cohesive whole.

Preparing to Memorize

Essay breakdown.

When memorizing an essay , it’s crucial to break the text into manageable sections . Identify key points, such as the main thesis and supporting arguments . Understand the structure of the essay, including introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

For instance, if you’re memorizing a history essay on World War II, break it down into sections covering causes, major battles, and outcomes. Each section can then be tackled separately for easier memorization.

Identify main ideas and supporting details within each section of the essay. Summarize key concepts in your own words to aid understanding and retention. Prioritize important information that needs to be committed to memory.

In a literature essay analyzing a novel’s themes, focus on identifying the primary themes along with specific examples or quotes that support them.

Learning Plan

Create a structured plan for learning and memorization by allocating specific time slots for different sections of the essay. Incorporate review sessions into your plan to reinforce memory retention over time.

For example:

• Monday: Memorize introduction & first body paragraph.
• Tuesday: Review Monday’s material; memorize second body paragraph.
• Wednesday: Review Monday & Tuesday’s material; memorize third body paragraph.
• Thursday: Review all previous material; memorize conclusion.

Memory Techniques for Essays

Repetition method.

The repetition method is a powerful technique for memorizing an essay . By using spaced repetition, you can effectively commit the content to memory. Rehearsing key points through repeated practice helps reinforce your understanding and retention of the material. Incorporating regular review sessions into your study schedule will further solidify the information in your mind.

For example, if you’re trying to memorize historical dates or scientific concepts for an essay, spacing out your practice sessions over several days can significantly improve long-term retention. This method allows you to revisit and reinforce the material at optimal intervals, making it easier to recall during exams or when writing essays .

Visualization

Visualization is another effective tool for essay memorization . Creating mental images related to specific parts of the essay can help trigger recall during exams or while writing. Linking visual cues with particular sections of the essay aids in retrieving information effortlessly when needed.

For instance, if you need to remember a complex argument structure in an essay, creating vivid mental images representing each section could help cement those details in your memory. Visualizing these components as distinct and memorable entities makes it easier to reconstruct them accurately when writing from memory.

Association Tricks

Utilizing association tricks , such as connecting new information with existing knowledge or employing mnemonic devices, can greatly enhance essay memorization . Making connections between unfamiliar concepts and familiar ideas facilitates better retention and recall.

Imagine needing to remember a series of persuasive techniques for an English literature essay; associating each technique with a real-life scenario or using acronyms based on their first letters could make recalling them much simpler during exams or while composing essays.

Mind Mapping for Structure

Creating maps.

Organizing information spatially can significantly aid in memorizing an essay. By creating visual maps or diagrams of the essay content, you can link related ideas and concepts together. For example, if your essay discusses different historical periods, you could create a mind map with each period branching out into specific events and details.

Mind mapping techniques allow you to see the overall structure of your essay at a glance, making it easier to recall information during exams or presentations. When organizing your thoughts spatially, consider using colors and images to make the map more visually engaging and memorable.

Visualizing Sections

Breaking down the essay into visual segments helps in improving memory retention. You can associate each section with a distinct visual representation that encapsulates its main theme or argument. For instance, if one section of your essay focuses on environmental issues, you might use nature-related imagery like trees or animals as visual aids for that particular segment.

Active Learning through Practice

Note-taking.

When memorizing an essay , effective note-taking is crucial. Summarize the key points in your own words, ensuring that you understand the content. Organize your notes using headings and bullet points to make them easy to reference later on. For instance, when reading an essay, jot down the main ideas of each paragraph in a few words.

Another effective strategy for note-taking is to use abbreviations or symbols to condense information without losing its meaning. This allows you to capture more details while keeping your notes concise and easily digestible.

Self-Testing

Implementing self-quizzing techniques can significantly enhance essay memorization . Test yourself by recalling the main points of each section of the essay without looking at it. This helps reinforce memory retention and strengthens understanding.

Evaluate your comprehension by simulating exam conditions during self-testing sessions. Set a timer and answer questions related to the content from memory alone, just as you would during an actual exam or presentation.

Memorization Tips and Tricks

Mnemonics, like acronyms or rhymes , are powerful tools for memorizing an essay. By creating memorable phrases that encapsulate key points, you can aid your memory retention significantly. For instance, if you’re trying to remember a list of historical dates or events in an essay, you could create an acronym using the first letter of each date or event to form a new word.

Another mnemonic strategy involves creating rhymes or jingles that encapsulate important details from different sections of the essay. This technique can be particularly effective when studying poetry analysis or literary devices within an English literature essay .

Chunking Information

Chunking information involves breaking down large amounts of content into smaller, more manageable chunks. By organizing the material based on themes or categories, it becomes easier to retain and recall specific details during the writing process. When memorizing essays through chunking, you can group related concepts together under thematic headings such as “historical context,” “literary analysis,” and “main arguments.”

Enhancing memory through chunking also allows for better organization and understanding of complex topics by presenting them in a more digestible format.

Memory Palaces

Creating a mental memory palace is another effective method for memorizing essays. You can associate specific locations with different parts of the essay and use spatial memory techniques for improved recall. For example, when recalling specific quotes from literature analyses within your essay, mentally associating them with particular rooms in your house can help reinforce their placement in your mind.

Optimizing Memorization Time

Scheduled sessions.

Allocating specific study sessions for essay memorization is crucial for effective learning. By establishing a consistent schedule, you can create a routine that reinforces memory retention. Plan regular review sessions within the schedule to reinforce what you’ve learned and enhance long-term memory.

Regular breaks are essential during study sessions as they allow time for relaxation and mental recharge. Balancing study time with regular intervals of rest prevents burnout and promotes sustained focus. Incorporating short breaks also helps in maintaining optimal cognitive function throughout your memorization process.

Sleep and Memory

Understanding the impact of sleep on memory consolidation is vital when aiming to memorize an essay effectively. Prioritizing adequate sleep enables optimal cognitive function, leading to improved information retention. Leveraging quality sleep enhances memory retention, ensuring that the material you have studied stays fresh in your mind.

Overcoming Memorization Challenges

Distraction management.

When memorizing an essay , it’s crucial to minimize external distractions. Find a quiet, comfortable space for study sessions. Ensure the environment is conducive to focused memorization by keeping it tidy and organized. Implement strategies like using noise-canceling headphones or setting specific time slots for uninterrupted concentration.

To stay focused amid distractions, consider techniques such as the Pomodoro method , which involves working in short bursts with regular breaks. This can help maintain focus and prevent mental fatigue. Practicing mindfulness or meditation can enhance your ability to concentrate amidst external disturbances.

Anxiety Reduction

Managing anxiety and stress during the memorization process is essential for effective learning. Implement relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation to alleviate anxiety before and during study sessions. Cultivate a positive mindset towards memorization by reframing negative thoughts about the task into more positive affirmations.

By associating memorization with personal growth and achievement, you can reduce feelings of dread or apprehension associated with the task. Remember that feeling anxious is normal but doesn’t have to hinder your progress.

Staying Motivated

Maintaining motivation throughout the essay memorization process requires setting achievable milestones. Break down the material into smaller sections and celebrate each milestone achieved. Seek support from peers or mentors who can provide encouragement when motivation wanes.

Engage in discussions about the topic of your essay with others; this not only reinforces your understanding but also helps sustain enthusiasm for what you’re learning.

Closing Thoughts

Congratulations! You’ve now equipped yourself with a powerful arsenal of essay memorization techniques . By understanding the process, preparing effectively , and utilizing memory strategies , you can conquer the challenge of memorizing essays. Remember, it’s not just about rote learning; it’s about actively engaging with the material and finding what works best for you. So, go ahead, put these methods to the test and discover the one that syncs perfectly with your learning style.

Now, take a deep breath and dive into your essay memorization journey . Embrace the process, stay persistent , and don’t be afraid to tweak these techniques to fit your unique needs. Before you know it, you’ll be effortlessly reciting essays from memory like a pro! Happy memorizing!

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i improve my essay memorization skills.

To enhance your essay memorization skills, try using memory techniques such as visualization, chunking information, and spaced repetition. Engaging in active learning through practice and utilizing mind mapping for structuring the content can significantly aid in improving your memorization abilities.

Is it possible to memorize an entire essay?

While it’s challenging to memorize an entire essay word for word, you can effectively remember key points and structures by employing memory techniques like association, mnemonic devices, and rehearsal. Mind mapping can help organize the content mentally, making it easier to recall during writing or speaking tasks.

What are some common challenges many students face when trying to memorize an essay?

Common challenges in essay memorization include difficulty retaining large amounts of information, maintaining focus during study sessions, and combating mental fatigue. Overcoming these obstacles may involve optimizing your study environment for minimal distractions and breaking down the material into manageable sections for better retention.

How do mind mapping techniques assist with structuring essays?

Mind mapping aids in organizing ideas visually by creating a hierarchical structure that links main topics with supporting details. This technique not only enhances comprehension but also facilitates easier retrieval of information from memory when writing or reciting essays.

Are there specific tips to optimize time spent on essay memorization?

Optimizing time spent on essay memorization involves setting aside dedicated study sessions while ensuring proper rest intervals for effective consolidation of information. Employing active recall methods like self-quizzing and practicing retrieval exercises at spaced intervals can also maximize the efficiency of your study efforts.

Key Takeaways

• Understand the essay content before attempting to memorize, ensuring comprehension and making the process easier.
• Prepare for memorization by breaking the essay into smaller sections and creating a conducive environment for focused learning.
• Utilize memory techniques such as visualization, association, and mnemonic devices to aid in essay memorization.
• Employ mind mapping to organize the essay’s structure and key points, facilitating a clearer and more coherent memorization process.
• Actively engage in practice by reciting, writing, and teaching the essay content to reinforce memory retention.
• Optimize memorization time by scheduling regular, shorter study sessions rather than cramming, allowing for better absorption of information.

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Firstly, say it at least a few times. Try glancing at the screen briefly.

It might help to also write down what you're trying to memorize. Even when writing, make sure to glance at the screen as briefly as possible.

It's best to repeat this step until you know the flow of the text.

Secondly, say it without mistakes . Below are the first letters of each word.

Unlike the previous step, keep looking at the text to ensure that you're not skipping words.

Make sure you're comfortable with every line of the text.

Thirdly, say it without pausing . Below are the first words of each line.

If you have to learn a lot of text, try memorizing it in parts first and then all together. This is so that you don't take ages to get past this step.

If you're unsure about a word, go back two steps and reread that part.

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Memorizer works with dozens of languages , including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.

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Memorization Tips

You learn best by hearing , seeing , or doing , so find out what type of learner you are and have matching memorization techniques.

In addition, ask people who know you well and/or are familiar with memorizing (teachers, actors, etc.) to help you out.

Make sure to experiment - the only way to find out how you memorize best is by trying to memorize in different ways.

Colleges Rates and Requirements

Find the right college for you., core college requirements for competitive acceptance rates.

As you start thinking about which colleges to apply to and how to put together your college applications, don’t forget to familiarize yourself with current admissions requirements and acceptance trends. You may have seen recent headlines about college acceptance rates and how low they were for students who applied to the most selective colleges and universities. It’s important to remember that while admissions requirements for the most competitive schools didn’t change, the number of students applying to these types of institutions has gradually increased. As a result, acceptance rates of colleges, particularly elite universities, decreased. You should also keep in mind that due to the covid-19 pandemic, most institutions saw a spike in applications. This has caused acceptance rates to further decrease.

The headlines shouldn’t deter you from moving ahead with the application process. Although it might feel seem like there’s more competition than ever before, it’s important to remember two things: Acceptance rates vary among colleges, and most colleges accept two-thirds of applicants. Once you understand what college entrance requirements are and how to interpret college admission rates, you'll be better prepared to find the right school for you.

Understand These Key Requirements for College Applications.

Each college uses its own formula when evaluating applicants, and these practices vary from school to school. In addition, many colleges over the last few years have begun instituting "test optional" and "test flexible" policies for the SAT and ACT. Despite these factors, colleges still look for certain key requirements. You can learn more about admissions requirements for individual colleges in College Search .

Standard Core Curriculum and Beyond

All colleges emphasize GPA requirements, but they focus particularly on performance in core subject areas such as mathematics, science, English, and history. Colleges look at your grades, curriculum, and the courses you take as indicators of your ability to be successful in college. To get a better understanding of which colleges might be the best fit for you, research the GPA requirements for colleges you’re interested in. Also look at the range of GPAs accepted at those institutions on the BigFuture College Search tool. Consider taking more advanced coursework such as AP courses if it fits with your career goals and if your school offers them.

Extracurriculars

Extracurriculars are where you can really stand out, especially from others with similar grades. Extra academic activities show off your personal strengths and interests to admissions officers. Ideally, they want to see students who were deeply involved in school activities outside of the classroom and held leadership positions. Learn more about how extracurriculars matter to you and colleges .

Application Essay

For colleges that require it, the application essay can be a very important part of your application and is your pitch to the university. This is your opportunity to show the school of your dreams the unique individual you are, something that may not necessarily be conveyed in your transcript. It indicates how your talents will contribute to their community. Find tips for writing your college essay here.

Standardized Test Scores

Though the trend in some U.S. colleges has been to put less emphasis on SAT scores, make no mistake: They still play an important role in the college admissions process. Test scores are still used by many colleges for course placement and merit aid. High test scores can also help you stand out and strengthen your college application. If you’re not sure if you should submit your scores, talk to your school counselor or the college’s admissions officer for guidance.

Letters of Recommendation

Although not required by all colleges, letters of recommendation can give admissions counselors insight into who you are beyond just your grades and activities. If letters are required by the institutions you’re applying to, the college will let you know who they want letters from. It’s usually a teacher or counselor. Pick someone who knows you well.

Keep on Top of College Application Deadlines.

Application deadlines can sneak up on high school seniors like a tiger in the night. It’s of utmost importance that you double-check your prospective school’s application deadlines and submit everything you need sooner rather than later. Most college application deadlines fall into the following categories:

Understand the College Application Platform.

There are two main types of college applications : The Common Application and the Coalition Application, which allow students to apply to multiple schools using a single application platform. You should check with the institutions you’re interested in applying to see which application platform they prefer.

How Do College Acceptance Rates Work?

A college’s acceptance rate is actually a ratio. It's the total number of applicants in relation to the number of students who were accepted. For example, Harvard received applications from 61,220 students in 2022─the highest-ever number of applicants to the school. Of those, only 1,214 received admission, leading to the school’s lowest-ever acceptance rate of 3.19%.

This illustrates the point earlier that college acceptance rates are on a decline as the number of applicants increases, saturating the pool with more competition than ever before.

Acceptance rates are based on the number of spots available at a college. This is a set number of applicants who can be admitted to that class of graduates, and it's not subject to change based on the volume of applicants. As you can imagine, more competitive schools, such as Ivy League colleges and universities, have fewer spots available and are thus affected more by the number of applicants.

This same logic applies to private and public colleges. Public colleges, which are characteristically larger institutions, will admit greater numbers of students, leading to higher acceptance rates. However, public colleges have also been impacted by a larger number of applicants. When you’re building your college list, it’s advisable to include a balance of reach, match, and safety schools to improve your chances of acceptance.

It's important to keep in mind that college admission rates don’t necessarily reflect the quality of education or the quality of students who apply, and you shouldn’t be discouraged from applying to schools based on these numbers.

What is the Difference Between Admission Yield and Enrollment Rate?

Admission yield is the percentage of students who accepted enrollment into a college after being granted admission. These vary significantly from school to school. For example, the University of California, Berkeley’s yield rate for 2022 was just 40% while the yield rate for Yale was a whopping 83%.

As students apply to greater numbers of colleges and have more options, yield rates decline.

Review the Latest College Acceptance Rate Stats.

Students faced competitive acceptance rates in 2022. Common Application public colleges and universities saw a 24% surge of applicants since 2019-20 and 17% for private institutions. Meanwhile, the acceptance rates continue to decline. For example, Emory University’s acceptance rate fell 8 percentage points between 2020 and 2022.

Students who are eyeing colleges with highly competitive acceptance rates must focus more than ever on the things that will set them apart: exceptional performance beyond the standard core curriculum, strong extracurricular participation, powerful application essays, letters of recommendation, and excellent standardized test scores. However, even with all of these differentiators, it’s important to remember that none of these can guarantee acceptance, especially at selective institutions. Be sure to build a balanced college list that gives you options.

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Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.

As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents.

While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files ( IPUMS ) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.”

The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.

In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

The  U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis.

Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

Related: The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this).

Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.

Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men.

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view.

Pressures facing working women and men

Family caregiving responsibilities bring different pressures for working women and men, and research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings , while fatherhood can increase men’s earnings .

Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home.

About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads.

When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.)

About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender.

Gender differences in job roles, aspirations

Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.

Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.)

In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator

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Gig workers are writing essays for AI to learn from

• Companies are hiring highly educated gig workers to write training content for AI models .
• The shift toward more sophisticated trainers comes as tech giants scramble for new data sources.
• AI could run out of data to learn from by 2026, one research institute has warned. 

As artificial intelligence models run out of data to train themselves on, AI companies are increasingly turning to actual humans to write training content.

For years, companies have used gig workers to help train AI models on simple tasks like photo identification , data annotation, and labelling. But the rapidly advancing technology now requires more advanced people to train it.

Companies such as Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring part-timers with graduate degrees to write essays and creative prompts for the bots to gobble up, The New York Times reported . Scale AI, for example, posted a job last year looking for people with Master's degrees or PhDs, who are fluent in either English, Hindi, or Japanese and have professional writing experience in fields like poetry, journalism, and publishing.

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Their mission? To help AI bots "become better writers," Scale AI wrote in the posting.

And an army of workers are needed to do this kind of work. Scale AI has as many as tens of thousands of contractors working on its platform at a time, per the Times.

"What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent," Willow Primack, the vice president of data operations at Scale AI, told the New York Times. "We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result."

The shift toward more sophisticated gig trainers comes as tech giants scramble to find new data to train their technology on. That's because the programs learn so incredibly fast that they're already running out of available resources to learn from. The vast trove of online information — everything from scientific papers to news articles to Wikipedia pages — is drying up.

Epoch, an AI research institute, has warned that AI could run out of data by 2026.

So, companies are finding more and more creative ways to make sure their systems never stop learning. Google has considered accessing its customers' data in Google Docs , Sheets, and Slides while Meta even thought about buying publishing house Simon & Schuster to harvest its book collection, Business Insider previously reported.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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