To write a good essay you have to spend a decent amount of time to gather all your thoughts on the topic, and this is hard to be done during those 40 to 60 minutes you have during exam. Thus, we suggest you start preparing for it beforehand, and the following tips will help you succeed.
Before the exam
- Try to guess the questions – look through those for the previous year, remember the big topics in the course, imagine what would you ask yourself if being a teacher.
- Practice writing – try composing a summary for all the theories you discussed and be sure to make it clear and understandable.
- Memorize the facts – these include names, facts and dates to support the arguments in the essay.
During the exam
- Recall everything – write down all the information you have memorized for the exam.
- Read all the questions – this will help ensuring you will not miss anything important which can happen if you answer questions one by one.
- Write an answering thesis to the question – you can use the words from question. This will help you show the main though you are going to speak about, and how you will support your ideas.
- Organize supporting points – make an outline of those before you proceed to the body paragraphs. Be sure they answer all the parts of the question and are in the right order – organization is a half of success.
- Review the essay – after you write all the arguments and ideas you had in mind, take couple minutes to re-read everything and correct mistakes if any.
Mistakes to avoid
- Have no excuses. In case you didn’t have time to learn the topic because you were ill, or you were short of time to write the essay – do not mention it in the exam. Meet your teacher later and discuss it personally.
- Do not fake your answer. If you are stuck on the topic do not bluff as if you are an expert in it – ‘padding’ the answer is way too obvious and easy to detect. Write all you remember as long as it is related to the topic.