how to memorize an essay in one day

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 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 Write an Essay in 1 Day

H ave you ever written an essay in 25 minutes? You have if you have ever sat for the SAT. While the stakes may be higher for a last-minute academic essay, the point is this: do not panic! Instead, read this six-step guide to writing an essay in a day:

1. Understand your goals

Whether you are writing a personal statement for a college or graduate school application, or an essay for a high school or college class, your assignment will have specific goals. Before you begin to write, review these goals. Clearly understanding your objective is essential when working with a shortened timeline.

2. Choose a topic

Under normal circumstances, you might devote several days to brainstorming a promising topic, and then you might write a detailed outline before writing and revising your essay over a week or two. When you are on a tight schedule, this is not possible.

So—write down the first three or four ideas that occur to you. If you cannot think of an appropriate topic, ask a parent or a friend to review the assignment with you. Do not spend more than 10 or 15 minutes on this part of your essay, as the execution ultimately matters more than the idea itself.

In addition, do not stress yourself about selecting the “perfect” topic. Without a topic, you will have no essay to turn in, and any essay is better than no essay. (It naturally follows that any topic is also better than no topic at all.)

3. Set deadlines

Establishing deadlines for a one-day essay is key. Budget 5-10 minutes for brainstorming, 15-20 minutes for creating an outline, and several hours for writing. You can also set aside an hour for feedback and review, and another hour for any necessary revisions. You should also allow for an hour-long break to recharge your mind. Finally, plan to submit your essay several hours before the deadline. A schedule with some flexibility will allow you to adapt to any unforeseen complications.

4. Arrange for reviewers in advance

Whenever possible, arrange for reviewers (such as your parents or friends) first thing in the morning, and let them know when they can expect a draft. When your deadline is in several days or weeks, you have the luxury of finding reviewers after you have finished your draft. With a shorter deadline, you will not have this ability. Be clear on the short turnaround time to ensure as smooth a review period as possible.

5. Outline your essay

There are many resources that can advise you on how to write a wonderful essay, but the purpose of this article is to shape that advice to the demands of a very short timeline. This includes resisting the urge to abandon the outline. Having an outline is even more important for a one-day essay than for a week-long project with a similar word count. A strong outline will keep your essay focused and organized from the start—which is critical when time constraints will limit your rewrites.

Your outline should not be detailed, and it should take no more than 15 or 20 minutes to complete. Determine your hook (see below for more information), and then jot down the threads that connect this moment to your central argument or idea.

6. Stay organized

When you are under pressure, your tendency may be to start writing and to see where your essay goes. Try instead to use a brief anecdote or emotional impact statement (i.e. the “hook” in your opening paragraph) to set the stakes for your essay. This is essentially your opportunity to state why your argument or idea is worth your reader’s attention.

Finally, remember that “perfect is the enemy of good.” Manage your expectations. Your goal should be to write a good essay, not a perfect one. If you have a compelling hook and a well-organized flow of ideas, check your writing for errors, and then send it in.

Brian Witte is a professional SAT tutor with Varsity Tutors , a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University

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How to Write a Last Minute Essay

←What If I Don’t Have Anything Interesting to Write About in My College Essay?

8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block→

Ooops! You waited until the very last minute to begin the college application process, and it’s probably stressing you out. But never fear – CollegeVine is here to make sure that your procrastination impacts your essay as minimally as possible.

We’ve included a guide for the 30-day essay, the 15-day essay, and the 3-day essay. If you have multiple essays to write in a short time, you can follow the appropriate guide for multiple prompts simultaneously, or offset it by a few days.

The 30-Day Essay

At this point, you want to focus on ideas. You have the freedom to spend a few days figuring out which direction your essay is going to take, so take your time to think about what you want to convey in your essay. Find four to five topics to begin with—you can ask your parents, friends, and teachers about what they find interesting about you in order to speed this process up. Try to choose anecdotes from your life that, in retrospect, you learned from, and these stories will inform your topic. Even the shortest, most insignificant moment can make a great essay if it shaped you in some way. If you are writing a “why this school” essay, make a list of reasons why you are applying. Do appropriate research to find strong reasons that show your genuine interest in the school. 

Now that you have a few potential topics, think about how each one would respond to the prompt. Spend 15 minutes outlining each one, using your prompt to guide the outline. In essays that ask you to tell a story, a good topic should write itself and finding a strong essay idea will nearly always be more productive than forcing a story to respond to the prompt. For “why this school” essays, focus on the structure and connection between your reasons. Giving this step the necessary hours now will pay off later. Narrow your list of potential topics to your top one to three choices.

Now it’s time to put pen to paper. If you’re having a hard time, try writing in different environments—coffee shops, your room, or a library, for example—and alternate between topics, and remember that at least at this stage, more words is better than fewer; there will be a step to polish your writing later. 

By day 14, you should have written one rough essay for every “top choice” topic you decided on during day 5. This means that you should now have anywhere between one to three potential essays for a single prompt.

If you do have more than one essay written, it is now time to choose a single essay. Out of the two or three essays you have written in the past couple days, there is probably one that speaks to you more than the rest. If you’re having a hard time, think about which of the topics you’d like to spend another two weeks with, and try to figure out which one says the most about you. Essays with twice the number of words allowed or more should be ruled out; the anecdote is probably too long, or the topic requires too much detail to be effective.

Break days! Distance is important when writing. Take a break from your essays so that you can continue to edit with a fresh mind. These are great days to give your essay to other people to edit—school faculty members who know you well, a coach/music teacher, your parents, and one or two friends. If you are over the word limit, ask specifically for these editors to help you cut down the essay.

Reading your essay with a fresh mind should help you catch big, structural edits. Your first round of edits should involve content edits; you’re looking for what the essay really says about you as a person, and whether that was what you were trying to get across. How does the sentence flow? Does the essay move itself?

Break day! Get some more distance from your writing.

At this point, you might have received some edits back from the people you handed your essay to. Go through each of the edits and decide which suggestions you plan to take, and which seem to alter your personal voice or which don’t match the essay stylistically. Try to stay objective as you review these edits—some of them will be detrimental. If you can’t see why the change was made, it’s probably best to ignore it. If multiple people give you the same feedback, however, you may want to give it some thought.

Implement the edits that you liked. Then read through the essay again and make sure that there are no structural edits or content edits that still need to happen.

These days are the middle stage of your editing process. You’re looking for words that don’t fit the style of the essay, or which could be improved, as well as sentence flow problems. Are all your sentences the same length? Is one paragraph not as well written as the rest of the essay? This should also be the time that you cut words. If you are still more than 70 words over, try to cut full sentences. Otherwise, start by cutting unnecessary phrases and words.

Start doing smaller grammatical edits. A great way to catch edits is to record yourself reading your essay aloud and then listening to the recording. As you go through this process, highlight, mark, and comment on your essay. Afterwards, go through and use your notes to fix word flow, word choice, and grammatical mistakes.

Break day! It’s close to the deadline, we know. Take a break anyway – you need and deserve it.

Last minute edits! Spend some quality time with your essay by just reading it every few hours. Try to catch any small mistakes or random sentence flow problems. (If you suddenly realize that you hate your essay, reference the 3-Day Essay below. Be sure that you aren’t being hyper-critical, though—you may just hate the essay because you’ve spent so much time on it).

Congratulations! Your essay is done! It’s time for you to catch a break. 

The 15-Day Essay

Spend a few hours working on a list of ideas that could become potential essays. Choose one and make an outline.

Write your essay!

Ask a few people who you think would give constructive comments to read your essay— teachers, parents, and  friends. Spend some time doing content and structure edits. Figure out what you want the essay to convey about your personality, and determine whether your essay actually gets this across.

Do some structural editing. Pay attention to sentence flow, the length of paragraphs, overall organization. If your essay is too long, try to cut down on unnecessary information. Pay close attention to the way that you have structured paragraphs and make sure each one makes sense.

Take a break!

Synthesize the comments you received on your essay. Decide which suggestions you want to use and which ones you don’t. If you can’t figure out why a particular suggestion was made, ask the person who gave it. After you’ve gone through all the feedback, edit your essay accordingly.

Cut your essay down to the word limit – ask yourself which anecdotes, details, and adjectives are truly necessary. If you’re having trouble, reference the editors that you spoke to previously.

Work on grammatical and other small edits. Look for minor things that need to be corrected, such as punctuation and word choice. This process requires a few dedicated hours. Aim to really spend some time polishing your language. Reading your essay aloud can be a productive way to accomplish this.

Take a break from your essay!

Spend the whole day with your essay. Every few hours, do a reread and see if you can catch any small last minute edits. Don’t try to change anything major—you don’t have time!

Submit the essay and take a good nap. You’ve finished! 

The 3-Day Essay

Don’t panic. This is doable, but it’ll be a busy few days. Spend the morning coming up with ideas for your essay. Choose one, and use the afternoon to write it. Email this draft to teachers, and show it to your parents. Then, take a few hours off, and later at night, read it through to edit for content. Does the essay say what you intended it to?

Check your email throughout the day. When you get edits back, start incorporating those into the essay. Be picky about which ones you choose to include because you don’t want to take your own voice out of the essay. Spend the day doing structural edits. Every hour, take a thirty minute break from editing. By the end of the day, you should have an essay that fits within the word limit and also has a strong flow. The organization should be good, and you should be able to see how the essay builds upon itself.

DO NOT OPEN EDITS. If any of your readers have replied to your email, don’t open them at all. At this point, the extra edits will just freak you out, and you don’t have time to do major fixes. The name of the game today is small edits; look for grammar, word changes, and minor sentence structure changes. When you’re finally done, take a breath; you can finally relax. 

The 1-Day Essay 

Of course, writing a college essay the day before it’s due is far from ideal, but we know there are probably some of you out there who will find yourself in this situation. Don’t worry, it is not hopeless. Instead of trying to fit a step-by-step plan into a tight timespan, we’ve compiled some general tips to help you churn out that essay in one day. 

Choose your prompts strategically.

If you already know what you’re going to write about, great! Move on to the next tip. If not, see if you might have already written an essay to any of the available prompts. Especially if the prompts are open-ended, you may have already addressed a potential topic in previous school papers. Look through your files to see if you have any essays that you might be able to recycle. The key here is recycle : it goes without saying that you shouldn’t use a previously-written essay word for word for your college submission. You should still take time to tailor it to the prompt and make sure that it conveys your message clearly, whether it’s illustrating your strengths or expressing why you wish to attend that particular college. 

Make an outline. 

Yes, you may feel that you don’t have time for extensive planning, and that you should just jump in and get everything on paper. Try to rein in this urge and take one hour to make a brief outline, spelling out your “thesis” and all the points you want to address. This will help keep your thoughts in order as you write, especially in such a time-constricted context. 

Get that distance, re-read, and edit. 

It’s always tempting to just click submit once you’re done with a project you worked long and hard on, to feel that relief when you know it’s done. However, especially given the rushed nature of a last-minute essay like this, the revision and editing process is crucial, even if it’ll be minimal. Blatant errors will reflect poorly in your application! 

So when you’re done writing, set it aside for a few hours. Then, reread it, and make any necessary corrections—grammar mistakes, typos, sentence flow. When you’re sure it sounds they way you want it to, then you can submit. 

Wrapping it Up

Procrastinating on your college essays isn’t the best way to go, but it can be saved. If you haven’t started applying yet, start your college essays as early as possible! Longer breaks between editing sessions will allow you to get the distance necessary to be objective, and to produce the best quality essay you can.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

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• how to memorise essays in less than a day

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Re: how to memorise essays in less than a day

Theaspiringdoc.

What I do to memorise essays is to read it out first, then look away from the paper and recall what you just read. Do this a few times until you’ve remembered most of it. If you want do it paragraph by paragraph and then rewrite the paragraph without looking at your paper. Then read the 2nd paragraph, recite it and write the 1st and 2nd paragraph from memory and so on. This is just something that works for me!

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Hi there, i have an essay to write in class this thursday (8th March) and i've just finished writing it. II have the memory of a goldfish, so I find it really hard to memorise essays. I need some tips as to how to memorise an essay in less than 2 days.. Any tips are appreciated, Thanks

• Rewriting the text. This helps (especially handwriting) as you have to go over words repeatedly. Consciously make an attempt to read each word, like you're talking to yourself in your head.
• Recording your own voice reading it back to you and listening to this, or getting a friend to do a favour and read it to you. Even if you find your voice annoying, you get used to it after a while. It's a really good way to memorise because you can be doing other things while phrases are being dumped into your brain.

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Okay, maybe this is just specific to me, but it seriously helped especially during prelims. I was having tests every day and for my English Extension I had 1 night to remember both my narrative and essay and I did word-by-word. All i would do is print out a copy, get and empty notebook and write. I would start with my bodies as they were most vital, then I would copy it down while reading it. This really helps. Then i would flip it over and see how much i could write before forgot what I needed, so would flip it over, read it, and cover it until I needed it again. Then do the same with you other paragraphs. After that I would go back to the first and try to do the whole essay still doing the read and cover thing I had going on, I think I did that twice and at this point you can see a massive improvement in how much you remember. Keep writing it and writing it.  I would really try and stick the first sentence of every paragraph as this will jog your memory, I always found if I couldn't remember the first sentence I couldn't remember anything. Its very tedious but it seriously sticks.

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How to Memorize Quickly

Last Updated: May 7, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alexander Ruiz, M.Ed. . Alexander Ruiz is an Educational Consultant and the Educational Director of Link Educational Institute, a tutoring business based in Claremont, California that provides customizable educational plans, subject and test prep tutoring, and college application consulting. With over a decade and a half of experience in the education industry, Alexander coaches students to increase their self-awareness and emotional intelligence while achieving skills and the goal of achieving skills and higher education. He holds a BA in Psychology from Florida International University and an MA in Education from Georgia Southern University. There are 10 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 1,029,341 times.

Memorizing quickly is an important talent to have. Whether for school, work or simply to improve yourself, exercising your memory adds to your capabilities as a person and helps to keep your brain healthy. The art of memorization is ancient and history is filled with clever ways of committing things to memory. By applying modern psychology, these approaches to memorization can be divided into five core methods.

Things You Should Know

• Try rote memorization; make a list of everything you need to know and repeat them until they’re committed to memory.
• Follow the chunking method, which involves organizing information into groups or categories and memorizing piece by piece. [1] X Research source
• Chain items into a single sentence made of everything you need to know or use mnemonics to create a key sentence representing what you have to memorize.
• Memorize through association by creating an imaginary journey or walk-through to associate with the facts you need to remember.

Memorizing through Association

• Memories that are easy to split up and spatially organize are best suited for the associative method - things like the stanzas of a poem, components of a machine or the procedure for cooking eggs.
• Memories that can't be divided up are less well-suited - like the basic idea of Abstract Expressionist painting, the history of the War of the Roses or remembering how to ask someone out.

• For this reason, if you have a list of discrete items that don't fit together in any way, it'll be harder to shape your second "key" memories. For our example, we'll simply imagine being a tiny little man walking around inside a 1911 slide.

• " First we'll encounter the barrel bushing, and inside it, I can see the barrel poking out. Behind the barrel and the breech face as we walk further back I'll see a tiny hole through which I can see the firing pin, and to its left will be the extractor against the side of the slide; when I make it to the very back, I'll reach the hammer stop. "

Rote Memorization

• Rote memorization is very good for manual tasks and short lists of items like a shopping list, starting a car, or ironing a shirt.
• Rote memorization is not very good for memorizing a large number of separate items or single complex ideas like the elements of the periodic table from left to right, the idea of dialectical materialism, or the components of a car engine. [5] X Research source

• At first you'll get a lot wrong - don't get frustrated! This is just your brain getting used to the work. Keep at it, and within a few minutes, you'll be able to remember everything you've memorized.

• If you've ever memorized a phone number, you might have noticed the way we write them - they're set up to be chunk-memorized. For instance, the White House phone number, (202) 456-1111 is easier to remember as three numbers - 202, 456 and 1111 - than it is to remember as a single complex number, 2,024,561,111.
• Chunking isn't a great strategy for big, complex things and concepts that don't break down into parts easily. For example, it's not easy to figure out what "memorizable" chunks would be for memorizing the concept of civil rights, the definition of nationhood or a list of similar phone numbers. [8] X Research source

Chaining Items into a Sentence or Concept

• Chaining is great for a limited number of items in an arbitrary list without any seeming relation to each other (for instance, the list tree, bird, keyboard, bottle ). It's hard to apply a strategy like chunking because there aren't any real categories to break stuff down.

• Peanut butter and espresso bean sandwich wrapped in ethernet cable with a screwdriver going through it.

• Peanut butter and espresso bean sandwich wrapped in ethernet cable with a screwdriver going through it = peanut butter, espresso beans, bread, ethernet cable, screwdriver bit

Using Mnemonics

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• ↑ https://psychcentral.com/lib/memory-and-mnemonic-devices
• ↑ Ted Coopersmith, MBA. Academic Tutor. Expert Interview. 10 July 2020.
• ↑ https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/spelling_vocabulary/how-to-memorize-using-the-association-technique/
• ↑ https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/what-is-rote-learning/
• ↑ https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2011/04/rote-memorization-important/
• ↑ Alexander Ruiz, M.Ed.. Educational Consultant. Expert Interview. 18 June 2020.
• ↑ http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/thinking/chunking/chunking-as-a-learning-strategy/
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/enhancing-your-memory/
• ↑ https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/dont-forget-a-memorization-exploration
• ↑ https://psychcentral.com/lib/memory-and-mnemonic-devices/

About This Article

If you want to get better at memorizing information quickly, make a list of the things you need to memorize, then read that list several times. Try covering part or all of the list with a piece of paper until you can recite the whole thing without looking. If you have a lot of information, try breaking it up into smaller chunks, then memorizing each chunk one at a time. To learn how to create a sentence out of the items you’re memorizing, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Essay On Republic Day For Classes 1, 2 & 3

Points to Note When Writing an Essay on Republic Day

10-line on republic day in english, short paragraph on republic day – 150 words essay, long essay on republic day in english for kids, what will your child learn from the republic day essay.

Republic Day is an important day celebrated in India. It marks a day of patriotic pride. Republic Day is an important topic for your child as they learn about their country at a tender age. Through essay writing, your child will learn an important activity that will be beneficial in their development. When your child writes an essay, they think about the ideas they want to write. It improves their thought process. When they pen down those ideas in short and simple sentences, they learn how to express their thoughts in words. It strengthens their foundation in language and English grammar. The act of writing also develops your child’s fine motor skills. Writing an essay on Republic Day in English may be challenging for your children as they will have to learn a few facts, memorise them and present them in the essay along with their thoughts and ideas. Let us help your child write a good composition on the topic.

There are some important points your child needs to remember while writing an essay on Republic Day. Let us guide your little one to write a paragraph on Republic Day:

• In the first step, let your child imagine the ideas they want to write on the topic.
• Next, ask them to jot down the ideas on paper. It will form an outline, and help them cover all the points while writing the paragraph.
• In the next step, guide your child to form easy-to-read short and simple sentences from the outline.
• Motivate your child not to get too deep describing any single idea. It will help them to stick to the word limit.
• Help your child to write with the flow. That will make them enjoy writing the essay.
• Your child can mention the date when Republic Day is celebrated, why it is celebrated and its history, how it is celebrated today.

Republic Day marks an important day in our country. Let us help your child write an essay for class 1 and class 2:

• Republic Day is on January 26 every year.
• It is a very important day in our country.
• It is a national holiday.
• It is a day of patriotic pride.
• Republic Day is celebrated in every part of the country.
• It is celebrated to mark the day the Constitution of India came into effect.
• There is a grand parade in the capital city of New Delhi on Republic Day.
• The tri-colour National Flag of India is hoisted on this day.
• Schools celebrate this day by singing patriotic songs, performing skits, and conducting cultural programmes.
• Sweets are distributed among children in schools.

Republic Day is an important day in the country. Children should learn about the importance of this day to feel proud of their country and its history. Let us help your child write a short essay on this special day.

Republic Day is celebrated on January 26 each year. The Constitution of India was written on this day by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. We celebrate Republic Day every year to commemorate this grand event in the history of our country. The Constitution of India marks India as a democratic nation. It means the country’s people choose the government who will run the nation. Republic Day is a national holiday. It is observed and celebrated on a grand scale throughout the country. The Republic Day parade, in the capital city of New Delhi, is a grand show that people throughout the country can watch on their television. It takes place at India Gate. The National Flag of India is hoisted, and the National Anthem is sung. All the three wings of the Indian Armed Forces, the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy participate in the grand show. We celebrate Republic in our schools by singing patriotic songs, performing skits and organising various cultural activities.

Republic Day is a very important day in the country. As children progress to class 3, they are expected to be able to weave in their factual knowledge with their thoughts and ideas. Let us teach your child how to compose an essay for Class 3 on this topic:

Republic Day is observed in India every year on January 26. India lived under British colonisation for hundreds of years. After many years of freedom struggle, India got its independence in 1947. Around two and half years later, India became a Democratic Republic. On January 26 1950, the Consitution of India came into effect. On this day, our motherland was declared a Sovereign, Secular, Socialistic, and Democratic Republic. It means the people of India have the power to choose the government for the country. To commemorate this grand event in the history of the country, this day is celebrated as Republic Day ever since. Our Constitution was written by a committee headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In India, Republic Day is celebrated as a national festival. The biggest celebration happens in the capital city, New Delhi.

The President of India hoists the National Flag, and the Indian Armed Forces, including the Army, Navy and Airforce organise a parade. The celebrations include the flag hoising ceremony where the tri-colour is unfurled. The military band plays the National Anthem along with a 21 gun salute to honour the lives lost in the freedom struggle. People also pay their tributes to all the freedom fighters who became martyrs for the nation. Military Bands of all the regiments, NCC Cadets, and ex-army men also join the parade. Tableaus from all the states of India are displayed after the parade. It showcases India’s rich ‘Unity and Diversity’ culture. Folk dances and other performances are also exhibited by the participants and army personnel during the celebrations. The President of India addresses the nation on the eve of Republic Day, on January 25. Towards the end of the occasion, flower petals in saffron, white, and green are showered from helicopters in the sky, creating the image of the Indian National Flag! The celebration is broadcast on all the radio and television channels.

From 2022, the Republic Day festival starts on January 23 to honour Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary. Netaji was a prominent freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India and his role in our freedom struggle can’t be forgotten. During the Republic Day celebrations, civilian awards like Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna are also announced by the President of India.

Writing an essay on Republic Day will instil patriotism in your child. Everyone must be aware of the brave struggle that our freedom fighters undertook for love for the country. Essay writing will develop your child’s creative writing skills and improve their vocabulary. Writing compositions will be helpful to your child till much later in life.

We hope the above write-up will help your child write an amazing essay on Republic Day!

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Calories for Weight Loss: How Many Experts Say to Burn Each Day

One of the most important hurdles to losing weight is burning calories. You'll need to burn this many to move the needle.

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Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you take in. Sounds easy, right? Anyone who has tried to lose weight knows it's more complicated than that . The first place to start is to figure out how many calories you need to eat and how much you burn during a workout. 

How many calories someone needs to burn to lose weight healthily varies by person. Working with a dietitian or nutritionist is best to establish a healthy plan for your body's specific needs. If that's unavailable, you can learn how to estimate how many calories you need to eat and burn daily to meet your weight goals. 

To break down the topic, I consulted Jamie Maitland , renowned fitness instructor, certified holistic nutritionist and founder of The Office Health .

How do calories work?

A calorie is a unit of energy used to express how much energy you exert or consume daily. We need calories; they give the body fuel and the ability to function. However, the calories you intake that are not used are stored as body fat.

According to the USDA, adult females need to consume between 1,600 and 2,200 calories each day. The average male requires between 2,200 and 3,000 calories. However, it's important to remember these are just guidelines, and while most people fall within these ranges, you may not. 

Read more: The Expert-Approved Way to Count Calories

You burn calories just by living . That's right, just reading this burns calories. So, whenever you clean your house or garden or do things that don't feel like a workout, you're burning calories. However, it's generally not enough to lose weight.

How many calories should you burn to lose weight? 

Everyone is different, so you'll have different calorie goals than someone else. Maitland explained that several factors influence how many calories you need to burn to lose weight. They include your weight, age, gender, hormones and health conditions. Your lifestyle and attitude will also come into play. 

"In order to really determine how many calories you need to burn to lose weight, you should realistically ask yourself what your goal weight is, and you are willing to change the way you think in order to achieve those results," Maitland said.

While calorie needs vary by person, the science behind weight loss is clear: you must be in a calorie deficit. You do this by either reducing the extra calories you're consuming or burning more than what you're eating with exercise. 

You've probably heard of the 3,500-calorie deficit rule , which states that a pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. While this provides a basic framework, Maitland pointed out that it won't apply to everyone. If you're unsure where to start, Maitland suggests that you start simply and shave off 500 calories from your normal intake and monitor how you feel. 

Quick tips to cut 500 calories : 

• Opt for healthy snacks like fruit or nuts
• Try to eliminate high-calorie treat each day
• Identify low-calorie swaps like using low-fat milk or plain yogurt instead of sour cream
• Cut out high-calorie drinks like sodas
• Use smaller bowls or plates
• Avoid fried foods as often as you can

Remember, calories don't tell you the quality of food you're eating. Focus on nutrient-rich foods that ensure your body and mind get what they need to function and flourish. 

What are healthy weight loss goals? 

Losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way is essential for meeting your goals. According to Maitland, a healthy weight loss goal is between 2 and 5 pounds a week. That doesn't mean that if you're not losing within that range, you're doing it wrong. It's simply a guideline for what is healthy and sustainable. You should expect it to vary each week. 

"It's important to understand the difference between water weight loss and actual fat loss. Regardless of how much weight you would like to lose, it's imperative to set realistic goals and trust that even the smallest steps taken daily can make a difference. Consistency is the secret sauce," Maitland said. 

Weight loss is a long-term lifestyle change. Maitland highlighted that your weight loss will plateau if you don't increase the deficit. So, your diet and exercise routines should be evaluated frequently to ensure they suit your goals. That said, if you achieve your goals and find a workout routine that works for you, it's OK to stick with it. 

How to track calorie burn when you exercise 

It's essential to track your progress when exercising, not only so you can see how far you've come but also to identify when you need a break. 

How many calories you burn will vary by the duration and intensity of your workout, so it's good practice to use a fitness tracker to simplify things. The top fitness trackers like Fitbit , Apple Watch and Whoop include your calorie burn throughout the day and during your tracked workouts. 

Factors that contribute to how many calories you burn:

• Your heart rate zone : Smartwatches measure your heart rate zones , or how hard you're pushing and recovery periods. Heart rate zones will change, so having a record will help you determine when you need to take your workout to the next level. 
• Your natural resting heart rate : We all have a unique resting heart rate . The normal range falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Use your heart rate to inform how often you need to take breaks. For example, you may need to take more breaks if you have a naturally high heart rate. 
• Your weight : How much you weigh will impact how many calories you burn while exercising. Someone who weighs less will burn less. 
• The type of workout: Strength training may not burn as many calories as cardio , though it's important to include both sources to build muscle mass and avoid injury. 

Read more: Best Fitness Tracker 

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Understanding how calories and weight loss are related is the basis for any wellness journey. Whether you research yourself, meet with a health professional or find an accountability group, your weight loss goals are achievable.

The best part is that you don't have to completely change your life to lose weight. You can find an exercise routine that works for you. Walking for 20 to 30 minutes daily can go a long way, and at-home exercises can do wonders for losing body fat . Counting calories doesn't make sense for everyone , especially if you have a history of disordered eating .

"Your life doesn't need to make sense to anyone but you. Find what motivates you, stick with it and the results will come," Maitland advised. 

Keep your fitness research going by learning when the best time to weigh yourself is, what foods to moderate and which exercises you should focus on to age gracefully . 

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How to Learn a Language by Studying Smarter, Not Harder

Just like most things in life, if you know the tips, tricks and hacks for learning something, the process usually goes much smoother, and much more successfully.

So if you’re looking for tips on how to learn a language effectively, read on. We’ve got seven key tips for you to consider on your language learning journey.

1. Use Visual Elements to Memorize New Words

2. write something every day, 3. watch tv and listen to radio and podcasts in the target language, 4. read books at your actual level, 5. branch out from textbooks, 6. learn what interests you, 7. take initiative and personalize your learning style, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Summary: Using visual elements is the best method to learn new words, as they trigger associations in our head, making it easier to remember permanently, not just learn by rote.

To understand and speak a language, several thousand words will be enough to get by in conversation and while reading modern writing. You’ll need more if you’re going to tackle more specialized or academic writing, or perhaps if you’re going to become a translator or interpreter. But we all have to start somewhere.

How do you know which words to learn and remember?

We live in the digital era when the internet surrounds us everywhere. So, check the list of most widely used words in the language you’re learning or download some apps that show you popular words, helping you to remember them along the way.

Summary: Write blog posts, diary entries, shopping lists, notes to yourself or anything else that is already part of your daily life, but do it all in your target language. Using grammar in practice will improve your skills many times over.

Certainly, grammar is important, and no one is going to say that you shouldn’t learn it. But just writing sometimes, free of grammar concerns, is very helpful for language learning, too.

Regardless of the language, grammar is always tricky for non-native speakers (well, let’s be honest: it’s often tricky for native speakers, too). All those gerunds, tenses, infinitives and exceptions are useful when you write academic essays, do research or write professional emails. You need to build a foundation of great grammar in order to speak and write correctly.

However, if your primary goal is to communicate, prepare for a trip abroad or master just the basics, don’t stress about this too much. If you’re seriously turned off by the nitty gritty of grammar, don’t torture yourself trying to remember all the rules at once.

Many learners get discouraged by the idea of studying grammar and end up avoiding their daily practice. Don’t procrastinate. On days when grammar fills you with dread, treat yourself to some movies, games or music videos in your target language. Keep building familiarity with the language every day, and you’ll start learning grammar naturally.

Some educators recommend starting off with full immersion—constant exposure to the language through a diversity of authentic materials—and never cracking open a textbook or starting formal grammar study until you’ve developed basic proficiency in the language. You can always give this route a try!

Summary: To develop your listening skills, you can watch movies or TV shows with subtitles, listen to a radio show in your target language, play games , try to understand all words from your favorite songs and so on. Keep it fun and casual! Listening to  TED lectures  is always a good decision, too.

While learning a foreign language, we usually pay lots of undue attention to vocabulary and grammar. Our goal is to learn how to read, write and speak.

That’s all well and good, but we often forget about listening to a target language despite the fact that it’s key to understanding and communication.

Learners too often discover the hard way that speaking a language and understanding it aren’t the same thing.

Sometimes one can speak but can hardly understand native speakers at all while listening to songs or watching a movie in the target language. Never underestimate the importance of listening skills; you need to practice them on a daily basis.

Summary: If you’re at the beginner level of learning, children’s books would be the best option for you. Intermediate and advanced learners can always try reading simplified versions of classics to learn some new words and grammar rules. If you’re pretty advanced, you can start tiptoeing towards the classics. Start with modern classics.

I bet your past or current language teachers have assigned you the task to read a book in the language you’re learning, make a vocabulary list of unknown words from it, learn them and discuss the book in the classroom afterward.

Such exercises are great unless your teacher asks you to read classic literature in the target language. They often don’t, and instead opt for abridged and otherwise simplified reading material.

First of all, it can be difficult to understand a plot and get pleasure from reading a book if you don’t know the meaning of most words. The “extensive reading” method encourages learners to choose texts where they know 95% of the words on any given page .

Secondly, books of classics may contain lots of archaic vocabulary (let’s take Shakespeare, for example). There’s no real need to learn all words from classics, as no one uses them in everyday language anymore.

However, many language learners make the mistake that teachers strive so hard to avoid—they dive into deep, complex literature and other texts that are well outside their reading level. They want to read what they want to read, even if they can’t read it! As you may already know, it can be very discouraging when you don’t understand most of what you’re reading.

You’re not giving yourself the chance to develop good reading habits. You won’t learn how to get into the flow of a native text if you’re constantly stopping to use your dictionary. You also won’t be able to pick up words via context if most of the language is way above your head (for the time being), and this kind of deductive work is critical for learning a language effectively.

Summary: Use all sorts of resources for learning your target language: newspapers, vlogs, novels, short stories, comments sections, advertisements, grocery lists—anything!

Going by the book is one of the biggest mistakes you can make while learning a foreign language.

The textbook can give you all the essential building blocks, but it can’t take you much farther.

Have you ever heard the people speaking in the audio files accompanying English textbooks? They’re speaking perfectly correct English, but they sound a bit forced and awkward at times. That’s because they’re reading a script designed for learners. It’s easy on the ears, and great for becoming familiar with the basics of language, but you’ll probably never hear a native speaker who talks quite like that.

Slang, idioms, jokes, regional dialects, pop culture references…they usually can’t be learned from standard textbooks. To really understand native speakers, you must learn casual language.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use textbooks at all. Some of them are worth trying, and one can find many reasons to use modern textbooks : They’re well-designed, they provide useful content and a road map for learning, they give lots of practice opportunities and they usually offer audio components.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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Summary: Find materials about subjects that interest you. If you’re an accountant, that might be accounting statements from a large foreign company, or if you’re an art aficionado, read the latest museum exhibition guides in their original language.

Some learners aren’t super passionate about languages, and instead consider reaching fluency just another task to complete. It’s just another task on a life list, bucket list or resume building plan. There are a couple of noteworthy problems with this:

• It’s very difficult to pinpoint the exact moment you reach fluency, so you may never be able to check the “task complete” box.
• You don’t know a language just because you score all A’s and 100’s on your exams.
• You need to find some personal motivation coming from within to really master a language without ever losing focus.

You can’t just study for the test. Fluency doesn’t come until after you’ve put your language skills into action, spoken with natives for hours, listened to native speakers intently and followed their directions. You also need to learn the culture behind the language to a certain extent, or you’ll find a large gap between you and natives while communicating.

Not to mention, you have to constantly be updating your language knowledge. Languages change and develop all the time. Don’t miss a chance to learn the culture of those people whose language you learn, chat with your native speaker friends, watch movies, listen to songs, travel to countries and interact with locals.

Summary: Seek out teachers and fellow students who learn like you like to learn and build a learning community, in real life or online.

This may be the most common mistake made by language learners. They rely on whatever course they’re taking, whether they’re taking it through a college, university or institute online, at home or abroad. This “reliance” comes in two forms:

• Relying on the course to give you all the material and exposure you need to learn.
• Holding the course or teacher responsible for your successes and failures.

When you learn a language, it’s good to have a teacher who will help and support you, but it doesn’t mean he or she can do everything for you. Teachers guide you—they can’t inject the language straight into your brain. It’s only you who’s responsible for your learning.

If you feel like the books and materials your school gives you aren’t effective or sufficient on their own, find a different textbook or other language learning materials to accompany the coursework. If the coursework doesn’t target your preferred learning style, learn how you learn best on your own time. If you learn best through music or visual cues, but simply don’t get enough of that in class, take care of yourself at home later.

Don’t only do your homework, study for tests and call it a day. Read and listen to your target language every day, communicate in it, go to language exchange clubs, make friends with native speakers and seek out new articles, blog posts, YouTube videos and more in that language. Become ravenous. Consume as much of the target language as you can on a daily basis.

Ask your school to assist you where needed, manage your emotions and try to stay motivated and optimistic.

If you don’t study properly and perform poorly on tests, take responsibility for this. If you ace all the reading and writing assignments but can’t speak without a heavy accent, then take responsibility for this and double up on speaking practice. The teacher and coursework can only get you so far.

Take these tips to heart and I think you’ll find your language learning journey moves faster than you ever thought it could. It’ll also be more fun!

If you dig the idea of learning on your own time from the comfort of your smart device with real-life authentic language content, you'll love using FluentU .

With FluentU, you'll learn real languages—as they're spoken by native speakers. FluentU has a wide variety of videos as you can see here:

FluentU App Browse Screen.

FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.

Didn't catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.

Interactive, dual-language subtitles.

You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU's "learn mode." Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

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And FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You get a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Tornadoes Are Coming in Bunches. Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why.

The number of tornadoes so far in the United States this year is just above average. But their distribution is changing.

By Delger Erdenesanaa

Tornadoes tend to travel in packs these days, often with a dozen or more forming in the same region on the same day. On the worst days, hundreds can form at once.

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported on both Monday and Tuesday this week across the Great Plains and the Midwest, according to the Storm Prediction Center run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Two weeks ago, on the most active day in April, 105 tornadoes were reported.

While outbreaks like these have always happened, they have become more common in recent decades.

The total number of tornadoes in the United States each year has stayed relatively consistent over the last several decades, but they now happen in more concentrated bursts over fewer days during the year.

In the 1950s through the 1970s, on average about 69 percent of tornadoes in the United States happened on days with fewer than 10 tornadoes, and about 11 percent happened on days with 20 or more tornadoes. These percentages have shifted significantly in recent decades, according to a 2019 study . The researchers found that since 2000, on average only about 49 percent of tornadoes have happened on less busy days and about 29 percent have happened on days with 20 or more tornadoes.

“Now when tornadoes happen, they often happen in an outbreak environment,” said Tyler Fricker, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Louisiana Monroe and one of the authors of the study.

While the timing of this trend lines up with the planet’s rising temperatures, scientists are hesitant to definitively attribute tornadoes’ clustering behavior to human-caused climate change.

“The link between climate change and tornadoes is still pretty tenuous,” Dr. Fricker said. “It’s a really open and difficult question for us.” One difficulty is that tornadoes are too small on a planetary scale, and too ephemeral, to show up in the global mathematical models that scientists use to study climate change.

Researchers can, however, look at patterns in the historical record. As more tornadoes cluster together, busy outbreak days are getting busier, according to Zoe Schroder, an assistant professor of meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “When we do get these outbreaks, they’re often larger, meaning that they have more tornadoes in them,” she said.

Scientists can also look at how atmospheric conditions that lead to tornadoes are changing.

There are two main ingredients to tornadoes, said Jana Houser, an associate professor of meteorology at The Ohio State University. The first is atmospheric instability caused by warm, moist air close to the ground meeting colder, dry air above. The second is vertical wind shear, or changes in wind speed and direction at different altitudes.

As the climate changes, there might be fewer days with both these ingredients. “But when we have conditions that are favorable, they’re almost supercharged,” Dr. Houser said, leading to more tornadoes on fewer days.

Tornadoes are also spreading farther east from the region people have historically thought of as “Tornado Alley,” the Great Plains states running south to north from Texas to the Dakotas. (Central Canada also experiences tornadoes, but fewer than the United States.)

In the past several weeks, tornadoes have struck not just the Great Plains but also parts of the Midwest, Appalachia and the Southeast.

Spring is typically the busiest time of year for tornadoes. “It’s not completely out of the ordinary for us to have a very active season right now,” Dr. Schroder said.

So far in 2024, the United States has had a total of 639 tornadoes. That’s slightly more than average for this time of year, but far fewer than the worst year on record, 2011, when there had already been 1,287 tornadoes by May 7.

Dr. Houser emphasized, however, that although there are seasonal and geographic patterns, tornadoes “can and do occur anywhere” in the United States.

An earlier version of this article misspelled in one instance the surname of a professor at the University of Louisiana Monroe. He is Tyler Fricker, not Frick.   

How we handle corrections

Delger Erdenesanaa is a reporter covering climate and the environment and a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Delger Erdenesanaa

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