Set a schedule that allows for each step in the writing process:
■
Spend the first
1
4
of your time planning your essay.
■
Spend
1
2
of your time drafting your essay.
■
Spend the last
1
4
of your time editing and proofreading your essay.
Time Management
U n d e r s t a n d i n g Yo u r P r o m p t
This advice might seem obvious, but it aims to correct one of the most common mistakes made on essay exams:
Spend time understanding the type of prompt you’ll encounter. Remember that your
score depends in large part
on how well you address that prompt (both the ACT and SAT essay directions note that an essay written off topic
will be scored 0; a GED essay that fails to adequately address the prompt also gets the lowest score—a 1). Prepa-
ration
materials, both in print and on the Internet, are available
for every essay exam, so it’s easy to familiarize
yourself with them.
Many students fail to address the prompt because they didn’t understand what
it was asking them to write
about. The best way to determine whether you understand it is to put the prompt in your own words, and then
compare yours with the original. Are they nearly the same in meaning? If you have trouble
with this exercise, try
circling the verbs (key words) in the original prompt. These are the same key words you will look for during the
exam. When
you understand the key words, you can more easily write the type of essay required by the prompt.
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