Too slow in writing essays

[rowshan]

I can construct a fairly well written piece given that i receive ample time to do so. It takes me almost 5 hours to write an essay. Is there any hope? Anyone else have a problem similar to mine? Some advice would be wonderful!

[vce01]

i dunno if too many people can write an awesome essay in like an hour or something. im sure if you compared a top student's essay at home to one he/she does under exam conditions, there would be a difference in terms of quality.

anyway, trying to do an essay on HT now, struggling -_- if that makes you feel better

[ed_saifa]

hm..takes me ages to write the introduction

[cara.mel]

How do you perform under timed conditions?

I know english language is slightly different, but it took me 2-3 hours to write an essay at home, yet I could churn them out in 50 minutes for SACs (we get ~52 mins for our essay including proof reading etc, not 60)

Try to identify what the problem is. Do you have enough to write about? Are you not wanting to do it because you think the end result will be crap? etc.

[rowshan]

I dunnoe, i havent done a timed essay, lol i just completed a context essay in three hours. Gosh its so difficult, i cant imagine writing in under an hour.

[/0]

Give it a try perhaps, and get someone to mark it afterwards so you don't go into 'can't be fucked' mode. I tend to write about 3 times faster in exams than at home, so maybe you will too.

[Voltman]

  Yeah, I have this probable too. I really need to fix this or it will serious affect my ENTER, and not in a good way. I can write the best essays in about four hours at home...Damn it! I'm so angry at myself. Some people can do one in thirty minutes. I must be mentally-challegenged or something LOL. Or maybe I just need more practice though I usually can't be bothered putting much effort in English unless it's part of homework. I mean I really can't be bothered doing an essay on something at isn't going to get marked. Does anyone have this problem? How can I get better? I need help.

[marbs]

I had this problem, last year but have really improved according to teachers.

I really didn't value doing a plan, I don't know if you take time on it or not.

But these is something very important imo.

• Write the prompt out slowy before you begin, grasping all key words
  Underline the key words, and define them if you are not entirely sure what they mean
  Get the crux of the prompt
  Find your examples
  Extend them

Then you should be alright.

Also I stopped handwriting, once we needed laptops, but I have started to do that, and improved on essay writing

[Amnesiac]

yeah i write essays by hand now, just because it gets you ready for exams. i found that when typing essays i would constantly fix up sentances to make them perfect, and in turn take about 3 hours to write the essay. when i hand write i can do them in an hour (not good quality though lol.) its just good because you can't go back and correct everything, you sort of just have to persevere. btw, practice makes perfect, so start doing practice essays now and by the exam you'll be fine.

[ninwa]

Oh you poor thing, I had this problem years ago, it's so frustrating isn't it!

My solution was to just spend 10 mins on a plan and 50 mins on the essay, and keep strictly to it, stopping after an hour even if I didn't finish ... even if I had nothing in my head I would just make some crap up which hopefully had some relevance to the topic.

Initially those essays were absolute garbage and were only about 400 words long. But I just kept doing it and gradually I could see word length and quality increasing (word count increasing far more rapidly than quality unfortunately). Slowly you'll train your brain to think quickly on the spot.

Having a plan actually really helped me to write the essay faster because all the thinking was already done in the plan and all I had to do was just write it out in longhand.


(this post would have gone up faster but marbs' display pic hypnotised me. seriously I was sitting here staring at the THATS RACIST kid for like 5 mins )

[Voltman]

btw, practice makes perfect, so start doing practice essays now and by the exam you'll be fine.

Do you mean the required work or extra essays?

[brendan]

do plenty of practice essays

[Voltman]

Oh you poor thing, I had this problem years ago, it's so frustrating isn't it!

My solution was to just spend 10 mins on a plan and 50 mins on the essay, and keep strictly to it, stopping after an hour even if I didn't finish ... even if I had nothing in my head I would just make some crap up which hopefully had some relevance to the topic.

Initially those essays were absolute garbage and were only about 400 words long. But I just kept doing it and gradually I could see word length and quality increasing (word count increasing far more rapidly than quality unfortunately). Slowly you'll train your brain to think quickly on the spot.

Having a plan actually really helped me to write the essay faster because all the thinking was already done in the plan and all I had to do was just write it out in longhand.


(this post would have gone up faster but marbs' display pic hypnotised me. seriously I was sitting here staring at the THATS RACIST kid for like 5 mins )

Can you bring cheat sheets for the English exams?

[droodles]

what the fuck

[Ken]

u mean dictionary?