Minutes a day n e w y o r k

B u d g e t i n g   Yo u r   T i m e
As you prepare to take your exam, familiarize yourself with its timing. Whether you have 25 minutes or an hour,
you should complete three distinct tasks: planning, writing, and revising. The writing stage will take the longest,
and, for essays that don’t hold grammatical and spelling mistakes against you, the revising stage will be the short-
est. But every essay should include all three.
Planning
Section 1 covered prewriting. Review in particular Lessons 3 and 4, and decide, based on a few practice essays, which
brainstorming technique works best for you in a timed situation. Knowing exactly what you will do when you begin
the exam will not only help you save time, but will also take some of the pressure off, too. Some exit exams (such
as Indiana’s Graduation Qualifying Exam) judge your prewriting notes, outlines, and other graphic organizers,
making it even more important to choose a strategy that you know you do well ahead of time. Even if you are tak-
ing the SAT, and have just 25 minutes for your essay, spend the first 3–5 planning.
Your planning time, no matter which prewriting strategy you use, should involve the formation of a thesis state-
ment and three or four main points. Any supporting evidence for, or examples of, those points should be included.
Once you begin planning, don’t be tempted to switch topics, which will waste valuable writing time. Allow a few min-
utes to think through the topic. You may cross off main points that don’t work, or add a new one or two as you go.