essay writing in exam

[feeah]

hi guys, i've been struggling with the essay portion of all my exams. for most my subjects, i've written essays beforehand for marking and always gotten fairly good feedback from teachers, but these essays take me about two hours to write. once i get into the exam and have less than an hour for an essay, i struggle and always get really bad marks. does anyone have any tips on how to write good essays within a short time frame?

[RuiAce]

hi guys, i've been struggling with the essay portion of all my exams. for most my subjects, i've written essays beforehand for marking and always gotten fairly good feedback from teachers, but these essays take me about two hours to write. once i get into the exam and have less than an hour for an essay, i struggle and always get really bad marks. does anyone have any tips on how to write good essays within a short time frame?

Have you tried timing yourself to write essays at home or anywhere in your free time?

If yes then break down what is actually CAUSING all the trouble. E.g.
- Do you forget your ideas
- Do you forget your structures
- Do you not know how to plan
- Do you just write too slowly
- Do you know how to adapt to a new question

[jamonwindeyer]

hi guys, i've been struggling with the essay portion of all my exams. for most my subjects, i've written essays beforehand for marking and always gotten fairly good feedback from teachers, but these essays take me about two hours to write. once i get into the exam and have less than an hour for an essay, i struggle and always get really bad marks. does anyone have any tips on how to write good essays within a short time frame?

Hey there! Ditto with Rui for above, is there a particular aspect of essay writing under exam conditions that you think you struggle with? Can I also ask, how many words do you aim to write under those sorts of conditions? Trying to write 1500 words in 45 minutes is setting yourself up for disappointment 

My big piece of advice for essays in exams is using your reading time to plan out your ideas. In your head, sort out a structure you want to use, and the ideas that will go in each paragraph. You don't want to spend time doing this when you could be writing!!

Being able to write a good essay in a short amount of time is all about practice. Be sure to use our marking forums for feedback to continually improve your work! This will help you fix some common issues:

• Eliminate waffle/unnecessary information
• Ensure that your Thesis is focused and your structure is solid
• Ensure that you are answering the question

If the only concern is time, it's all about practice. But the chances are that there is just one or two little things (perhaps something Rui mentioned above) that is giving you some grief. Feel free to come back to us with some more questions/details and we'll give you the best help we can!

Oh, and you might find this article I wrote useful! 

[elysepopplewell]

hi guys, i've been struggling with the essay portion of all my exams. for most my subjects, i've written essays beforehand for marking and always gotten fairly good feedback from teachers, but these essays take me about two hours to write. once i get into the exam and have less than an hour for an essay, i struggle and always get really bad marks. does anyone have any tips on how to write good essays within a short time frame?

I know this is controversial at times (lol), but I don't think I could have written so much in exams in such a short time without having memorised a lot of my essay. Sometimes it isn't about memorising it word for word, but having particular phrases that you like using and are very familiar with, so in the time that it takes you to write that sentence, your mind can be thinking about the next thing as your hand focuses on that. It's really about thinking about the next sentence as you're writing the current one. Not an easy skill to develop! I wouldn't be able to do it if I didn't memorise my essays, either completely or partially. I wrote some tips on memorising essays here!

Best of luck!

[feeah]

thank you!!

[jamonwindeyer]

I know this is controversial at times (lol)

It's only controversial when I'm around, you are the majority, I'm the minority 

[conic curve]

For an essay exam, do you think you could do the following:

5 mins to think of an idea
25 minutes to write
10 minutes to edit it

[elysepopplewell]

For an essay exam, do you think you could do the following:

5 mins to think of an idea
25 minutes to write
10 minutes to edit it

I think it is possible but I don't think it is wise. Ten minutes editing could be better used adding an entire new paragraph in, or providing more examples for existing arguments. If you are the person who likes to check over your work, then give yourself about five minutes. If you need to mentally leave 10 minutes in case you go overboard, then you have a 5 minute safety net. I really think that the more time you spend writing, the better! It of course works differently for everyone though!

[conic curve]

I think it is possible but I don't think it is wise. Ten minutes editing could be better used adding an entire new paragraph in, or providing more examples for existing arguments. If you are the person who likes to check over your work, then give yourself about five minutes. If you need to mentally leave 10 minutes in case you go overboard, then you have a 5 minute safety net. I really think that the more time you spend writing, the better! It of course works differently for everyone though!

Okay thanks. The thing is that I'm the type of person who needs a lot of time to check and recheck in order to do well but for a 1000 word essay in 40 minutes, I find that quite difficult

[jamonwindeyer]

Okay thanks. The thing is that I'm the type of person who needs a lot of time to check and recheck in order to do well but for a 1000 word essay in 40 minutes, I find that quite difficult

You should get an idea of how long you need to write a 1000 word essay! Do a timed practice and count your words, that will give you an indicator for how long you have to spare for planning/editing

PS - I never managed 1000 words consistently in exams, I sat a little below usually, you don't need 1000 words for a Band 6 essay

[conic curve]

You should get an idea of how long you need to write a 1000 word essay! Do a timed practice and count your words, that will give you an indicator for how long you have to spare for planning/editing

PS - I never managed 1000 words consistently in exams, I sat a little below usually, you don't need 1000 words for a Band 6 essay

What is the best in your opinion?

[elysepopplewell]

What is the best in your opinion?

There isn't really a golden number. Each essay requires a different amount of time too, so that is a big factor. For AOS, I'd give that 750-1200 are all acceptable. That 750 needs to work a lot harder in each and every sentence than the 1000 word essay. It's very hard to estimate because some people take longer to get to the point, and others like to spit it out quickly. And both ways can be effective.

[conic curve]

There isn't really a golden number. Each essay requires a different amount of time too, so that is a big factor. For AOS, I'd give that 750-1200 are all acceptable. That 750 needs to work a lot harder in each and every sentence than the 1000 word essay. It's very hard to estimate because some people take longer to get to the point, and others like to spit it out quickly. And both ways can be effective.

Thanks 

[jamonwindeyer]

There isn't really a golden number. Each essay requires a different amount of time too, so that is a big factor. For AOS, I'd give that 750-1200 are all acceptable. That 750 needs to work a lot harder in each and every sentence than the 1000 word essay. It's very hard to estimate because some people take longer to get to the point, and others like to spit it out quickly. And both ways can be effective.

Also, it depends on your writing style. Some writers will use 50 words to say what someone else can do in half the space. This is absolutely cool! It is obviously best to get your points across as efficiently as possible, but I believe that should come secondary to abiding by the basic writing "style" you will have developed throughout high school (with improvements, of course)