How to Write a Good Exam Essay

Writing a good exam essay requires some craft and knowledge. There’s nothing unattainable here. All you have to do is to follow these easy tips.

Preparing for Your Exam

If you are a college or university student, you definitely need to know how to write a good exam essay. Writing an impressive essay requires a combination of creative thinking, research, and advanced writing skills. Without a good level of preparation, it cannot be done in just 30 minutes allowed at the exam. As such, you need to dedicate much time and effort to prepare for the exam. Below, you will find some helpful suggestions on how to write a good essay in an exam:

Anticipate the questions that may be on the test. Of course, you cannot predict what questions you will have to answer. However, you may look through the questions from the previous exams and they will help you understand the nature of questions that may be in the next test. Imagine yourself in the role of your teacher. What are the most important aspects you have learned within your topic? Most probably, your exam questions will be based on the most significant issues you have learned in class;
Practice your writing skills. You may do some writing exercises presenting the short summaries of the theories and concepts discussed in class. When practicing your skills, try to pay attention to conciseness, clarity, and other important aspects of academic writing. Do not forget that practice makes perfect;
Try to memorize the key facts, events, names, dates, etc. When writing an exam essay, this information will be very useful for you to impress your teacher by thorough preparation;
Learn how to organize your ideas. Even if you know the material well, being unfocused, you won’t be able to present a brilliant piece. Therefore, we recommend you spend some time learning how to organize your ideas in the right order and how to write a good essay exam.

How to Prepare for an Essay Exam?

If, for some reason, you do not have much time for preparation, try to find a few minutes per hour to have some rest. By helping your brain relax, you will be able to avoid many mistakes because of inattention.

One more physiological tip that may help you pass the exam successfully is to study in the classroom where the test will take place. Some studies prove that people may connect the ideas to the things they see around them. As such, studying in the classroom where the test will be taken, increase your chances of getting a positive result. If you have some things that bring you good luck, you may take them for a test. It does not mean that the toy from your childhood will provide you with the correct answers, but you will definitely feel more confident having it in your bag.

Take all the time allowed for a test. Even if you think that the answer you have written is correct, do not hurry up to submit your paper. Revise, re-read, and double-check your answers if you have extra time. Remember that using every advantage you have, you will get more chances to get the desired outcome. On the day of the exam, you need to be calm and relaxed because the more you panic, the more mistakes you can commit.

How to Write a Good Exam Essay?

Physiological Tips

Think about the following. Good athletes should practice their skills every day to achieve the desired result. No matter if they can cope with the particular task easily, they will train tomorrow to become better. Some students mistakenly believe that spending just one night without sleeping will prepare them for an essay examination. However, such an approach may lead to academic failure. Preparing for an essay test is just one more challenge in your life that requires an enormous amount of effort. If you want to get a reputation as a skilled test-taker, you need to do your best to polish your writing competence until perfection. Probably, one night is not enough for obtaining new skills and improving them. If you want to learn how to write a good essay on an exam, you should prepare thoroughly.

Believe it or not, but the last night before an exam should be dedicated to rest and good sleep because it will have a better effect than the all-night study. You have probably heard the stories about the students, who have slept at the exams because they preferred to stay up all night. Moreover, because of the lack of rest, you may forget everything you know about the topic or get nervous to such an extent that you will not be able to focus on the question. We assure you that you won’t be able to write a good essay on something you have learned at 3 a.m. Being rested and relaxed, you are in a much better position before the essay writing test. So, what to do? Preparing for the test during the whole semester is the best strategy because it prevents you from a lot of risks including emotional burnout.

Top 7 Tips for Exam Success

Answer the Question. The steps to write an essay start with this simple tip. When a student composes an excellent answer that’s not related to the question – it’s a disaster! Before you answer the question, make sure that you really understand it, and only then start to write.
Good Introduction. The introduction of the essay offers a precise and interesting summary of the paper. Don’t fall into details here, and don’t repeat the arguments that you use in the main body section. Be original, use short sentences, and choose clarity and simplicity over complexity and fuzziness.
Essay Plan. It helps you remember the key arguments and gather all your thoughts.
Writing an Argument. Make a statement, explain it, and look at it from a distance. An excellently explained argument shows that you can think critically and have only fact-based opinions.
Conclusion. When you are working on the conclusion, you should select the most relevant and strong arguments because your conclusion sums up your work and makes the final impression about your paper. You shouldn’t copy the info from the main body when writing a conclusion, but you should add some new interesting deductions.
How Much to Write? The study tips for exams should definitely include this one. The right answer is to write as much as you can during the given time, but you are to mention the information that is relevant. Remember that quality is more important than quantity. It doesn’t mean that you should write too little. It means that you should write an optimal volume of information, which will allow you to cover the topic and avoid going into twaddle.
Did You Answer the Question? Just to make sure that you got the first point. When you finish writing the answer, look at the question and make sure that you have answered it correctly. Sounds silly, but students often make this mistake.

How to Write a Good Exam Essay? Things to Avoid

As a student, you probably know that an essay exam can be pretty stressful. You may lack the time to answer the questions correctly, lack writing inspiration, or just lack sufficient knowledge. Undoubtedly, good preparation and excellent time-management skills will help you reach the desired outcome avoiding negative experiences. Below, you will find some essay exam tips that will help you improve your writing proficiency.

Do not look for excuses. If you run out of time and cannot finish your essay properly, do not write this information at the end of your paper. Instead, you need to appoint a meeting with your professor after the exam and discuss all the controversial moments there;
Do not include irrelevant information just to make your answer longer. The teachers are usually very sensitive to bluffing. Thus, by cheating, you will never get a good grade. It is better to answer the question with a few meaningful words;
Do not make your answers too shallow or too detailed. Your task is to find the balance that will help your instructor understand that you know the topic well. Including too much information, you will make your teacher guess whether you are able to figure out the most important details.

Understand Your Task Properly

Many students fail the exam because they cannot understand the essence of the task. However, taking a minute to understand your question properly, you will avoid negative emotions later. So, let`s find out what can be required from you for your exam. By knowing the peculiarities of each of the tasks given below, you will easily understand how to write a good essay for an exam.

Compare and contrast. Receiving such a task, you should focus on the characteristic similarities and differences of two or more objects;
Analyze. It means that you need to break the specific issue into several parts discussing, interpreting, and synthesizing the information about this object;
Define. Doing such a task, you need to provide a meaning of the specific concept;
Criticize. It means that your professor is asking you to make objective judgments on the specific object;
Illustrate. Such an assignment assumes providing good examples to support your viewpoint;
Describe. Figuratively speaking, you need to make a picture with words;
Outline. Provide the basic characteristics of the particular issue, concept, or policy. Provide the most meaningful information;
Summarize. When working on this task, you need to provide a brief but detailed account of the specific issue or thing;
Trace. It means that you need to examine the order of events to show the progress.