Exam Preparation (Timing, Word Count)

[Yendall]

Hello hello,
It's coming to that time where I am stressing like ca-razy about my English exam. I was wondering whether some wonderfully insightful AN members could address a couple of points for me:

• How long is too long? How short is too short? I would love to know how I can maintain my time effectively in the exam
• How quick does an hour feel in the exam? How long should I devote to planning my essays?
• Should I attempt Language Analysis first; before my Context and Text-Response pieces?
• How long can I afford to hesitate before choosing a prompt/text?
• Will delving into two forms of third-party evidence in an Expository essay absorb too much time?
• Realistically, how long do I have to write an essay? How fast should I be writing?

I have a practice English exam tomorrow at school, and it's safe too say I am freaking out big time. I know it's only practice, but naturally I am super stressed over close to everything. Any feedback is greatly appreciated, as always!

[Greatness]

• How long is too long? How short is too short? I would love to know how I can maintain my time effectively in the exam

If you there's 5 mins to go and you've written 1.5 essays then too long, if you've finished all 3 in 2 hours then maybe it's too short. You need practice, once you've written 3 or so essays for each section they'll have a good idea on how long it will take for you to write an essay for each section. To keep track of time, I'd say just try finish writing paragraphs/essays by certain times in the exam. Have a game plan before you get in and follow it, don't change it if you change it then you'll probably stress out and freak out.

• How quick does an hour feel in the exam? How long should I devote to planning my essays?

An hour goes by quickly, when you're writing your essays you'll feel like time is going for a while but afterwards you will back on it and think it went by really quickly and how you wasted 5 mins staring at the wall or something lol. And 15mins max planning, but it depends how you plan. If you're a good writer then maybe it will take 5 mins since you only need to write down topic sentences and annotate, but for me it took a good 10-15mins to do everything since I wrote down 1-2 points as evidence.

• Should I attempt Language Analysis first; before my Context and Text-Response pieces?

I did, but in the end do what works for you. I liked to do it first, because it's fresh in your mind and to get it out of the way.

• How long can I afford to hesitate before choosing a prompt/text?

30 seconds? Not sure, I guess it depends on your situation. Again choose what your comfortable writing about and the one where you know you will have some solid ideas.

• Will delving into two forms of third-party evidence in an Expository essay absorb too much time?

Depends how you've prepared for it and how you will include it in the essay. If you've practiced doing it a few different ways and you can do it easily and nicely then go for it. But have back up plans in case it doesn't work in the exam.

• Realistically, how long do I have to write an essay? How fast should I be writing?

Probably 50-60 mins per essay, a few-5 minutes less is preferable for checking. But it depends on what prompts you've given etc since you might've written an essay the day before on a very similar topic so you churn out a similar essay which may not take you very long. It really just depends on the day.
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[brenden]

Fuck I just spent so long typing out messages and then I hit 'tab' when I pressed Y because of IRC and then my page refreshed . Sigh.

How long is too long? How short is too short? I would love to know how I can maintain my time effectively in the exam

In terms of word count, 500 is probably way too short and as an upper limit, it would be had for you to surpass a ridiculous amount in the time you have allotted. It's also a matter of assessor perspective -> I'd be absolutely happy to read 4,000 words of EZ's writing but if I had to read 4,000 words of absolute shit from the last ranked person in my class I'd want to off myself. 1,000 each piece is stellar.  600 is pushing it and you could probably get away with 700 if it was good stuff. On utilising your time effectively in the exam; give yourself deadlines. Eg, 12 minutes per page. Personally I give myself 10 minutes for an LA intro and like 13 minutes per remaining paragraph and ten if I want to write a lot. You could go 15 minutes per page and write 4 pages per piece with no planning or reviewing. That's how I manage time and it works really well for me -> I'm all about deadlines. Also, write quickly from the beginning. A trend I notice a lot is people will write normally for two hours and super fast for one hour. Or in a one hour essay, 40 minutes normal and 20 minutes super fast. Just, start writing at a relatively fast pace to start off with so you can meet your deadlines.

How quick does an hour feel in the exam? How long should I devote to planning my essays?

In my prac exam and timed pieces it goes really quickly. Not in the sense that it's slipping away from you, just, you writewritewrite and you've written four pages and all of a sudden fifty minutes is gone and it's like "wow". Devote as much time as you want to planning your essays. I spent 60 second planning LA because I already had my ideas from the reading time and I spent 5 minutes on TR and no time planning for context. If I felt like I needed more time, I might choose to waive reading over the essay and plan for ten minutes each and write for 50 minutes each. It's all up to you. Maybe spend 5 minutes as a rough guide. Maybe a little more if you want to write pretty fast or waive your checking time.

Should I attempt Language Analysis first; before my Context and Text-Response pieces?

Absolutely. Unless you have some definite reason why you absolutely don't want to - I know Nisha writes her pieces disjointedly - then always do LA first so your reading time is effectively utilised and you save time rereading/planning later.

How long can I afford to hesitate before choosing a prompt/text?

Again, however you want to spend your time is how you should spend it. In your position I would allot myself 5 minutes to read the four prompts and choose (if you're preparing for two). I generally know what text I want to write about for Context but if you need time, maybe organise 2.5 minutes per TR and Context. Five minutes seems appropriate.

Realistically, how long do I have to write an essay? How fast should I be writing?

Depends what you want to do. Realistically you have 60 minutes a pop. 50 minutes if you want planning and reviewing time. However you swing your time it's all up to you. I'd be looking at 55 minutes a piece as a general rule. In my exam I used 65 minutes for LA (was dense) and TR each and wrote Context in about forty minutes and then drew some stuff on my page. If you have things you can write quicker then devote more time to something else. How fast should you be writing? --> No one needs to be the flash but you need to write relatively fast.


Stress less brother - you can do this! You've spent the last year, if not the last couple of years honing your skills and abilities. Go in there well hydrated and fed, sleep as much as you can, be as calm as you can be (I always feel like, jacked up on adrenaline but like I was born to write English essays before an assessment) and just do the absolute best you can. I have faith in you Yendall (this is where I hit tab because of IRC, motherfucker). Absolute best of luck. At the end of the day it only gauges where you're at right now and not how you will perform on the actual exam. Still lots of gains to be made between now and November.

[Yendall]

Thanks heaps for your advice {tab}Brenden and Swarley!
I think I will definitely attempt LA first and utilise my reading time to read through the LA piece and find key techniques. As for writing, I think that on the day it will make more sense. I think planning my time now will just crumble on itself during the exam.
As for Context, I write expository essays so I believe I will need to plan a little for that, but nonetheless it shouldn't be more than five minutes all up.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

[brenden]

Glad you've found some clarity, best wishes.

[charmanderp]

In my most recent text response SAC I spent about ten minutes trying to choose (brainstorming, etc) between the two essay questions because they were basically the same. Eenie-meenie-mynee-moe saved me in the end