Timing issue?

[jewel carrot]

I am a bit of a perfectionist and have a tendency to go over the time limit for my essays all the time! For my sacs i usually just finish or rush the entire thing and end up feeling terrible because i know if i had more time the quality of the piece would have been better. I don't know what to do because the pressure in timed conditions really gets to me. 

[heids]

Check out the responses in this thread: Worried about not being able to finish English Exam.

I tended to feel exactly the same; I didn't finish any of the three pieces in the exam and perfectionism was my real issue too... you've got to train yourself to write something, even if it's not 'good enough'.  You do still have time to pick up your game!  Copy/pasting from another post I wrote:

Identify exactly what's slowing you down.  Is it:
• sitting there staring at the page
• not having a clue where to go next
• perfectionism, can't write something down until it's good enough
• spending ages trying to come up with better vocab/expression
• trying to remember evidence or quotes
• going into way too much depth/tangents in some paras, so you don't have time to cover your other points
• slow handwriting?

Then try to come up with ways to remedy these specific issues, e.g. write a very detailed plan so you don't ever get utterly lost; write even when it sounds clunky and come back later; write taller (tall n thin speeds up handwriting) and change your pen-grip.  Remember, you don't have to finish an essay (unless you want 10/10) in a SAC/exam.  If you can write 3-4 good, solid paragraphs, the examiner tends to believe you could have written more that way.  I tricked a lot of teachers this way .  Better than a rubbishy finished essay.

Courtesy literally lauren: If in an essay you get stuck – on a word, spelling, idea, clunky expression – put an asterisk at the edge of the page and move on; you'll (hopefully) get back to it later.  Write only on every second line of the page for more editing/sentence addition space.  Start a new paragraph on a new page if you get totally stuck in the middle of one.