Student Resources

Succeeding in Composition

Preparing for and Taking Essay Exams

Essay exams generally test your understanding of the relationship between ideas, rather than simple facts, and often cover more than one textbook chapter or course reading. So, from the first day of class, you need to be taking accurate notes of course material and trying to identify the instructor's indications of connections between important information.

Consider using the following guidelines for Preparing for the Essay Exam throughout the semester and performing them more rigorously during the weeks before the exam. And before each essay exam, read over the guidelines for Taking the Essay Exam to refresh your memory and get yourself "psyched" for the task ahead.

Are you writing an in-class essay? If you have been, or might soon be, asked to write an in-class essay, an essay written and turned in within one class meeting, you'll want to take a look at A Note on Writing In-class Essays, which provides a few tips that can be used along with the guidelines for writing essay exam. And if you are writing your in-class essay or taking your essay exam in a computer classroom, you will benefit from the tips in A Note on Writing Timed-Essays on the Computer.

The best way to prepare for an essay exam is to begin reviewing and drawing connections between your notes and readings

1. Review your notes, journal entries, and course readings. Get out all of your notes and your readings from the beginning of class (for a first test or comprehensive midterm or final exam) or from the time that you last had an exam (if the exam covers recent material only). Read over your notes and readings, paying close attention to anything that you have marked as possible test material or as important information. And note any connections or revelations that you might have written about in your journal.

2. Attempt to draw connections between readings and class discussion topics. Do you notice any themes that the instructor might have you discuss (e.g., types of discrimination, causes or effects of an event or movement, prevalent or changing environmental issues, differences in women's and men's voting or language, etc.)? Do the readings offer different argumentative positions or points of view on a topic? Make a list of these themes or topics and outline or summarize points that you might make about each of them. If your English exam deals with essays or literary pieces, make sure that you indicate where this information comes from: the author and title of the piece.

3. Try to create questions that you think might be on the test. Once you have reviewed your notes and readings and drawn connections between topics, you can begin to devise questions that might be on the test. Consider what type of information has been emphasized: are your notes filled with causes and effects, differences in perspectives on a topic, different solutions to a problem? Once you have identified the focus of this information, begin to write questions that address these emphases.
   For instance,

   • If your readings consist of various views of gender discrimination, your test might include a question that asks you to compare and contrast two views of gender discrimination, that asks you to take your own position on the subject of gender discrimination, or that asks you to discuss how the views of this particular topic have changed over time.

   • And if you have spent a good deal of your English class time discussing the structure of an argument, you might be asked to discuss how a particular author develops an essay. So, take time to go over your notes and annotations of the reading discussed in class, noting the significant rhetorical techniques highlighted in the discussion.

   • If your English class has been focusing on a particular form of writing-- writing a précis, a comparison/contrast paper, an argument--you will want to go over the structural elements of such writing, in case your instructor asks you to demonstrate that you understand how to do this type of writing.

   When you are making up these questions consider the verbs that often appear in essay exam questions.

4. Get plenty of sleep the night before the exam. Don't try to cram all night for your essay exam, or you might be too sleepy to do your best on the exam. Start studying for the exam at least a week in advance so that you can review your exam notes the night before and then rest. Having a good breakfast before the exam can also give you energy and help perform well.

1. Make sure that you have a pen and paper. Even if the majority of your exam requires you to fill in a scantron sheet with a pencil, you may want to (or your instructor may ask you to) write your essay in ink. So, make sure that you bring a pen as well as a pencil. Bring plenty of paper and have it handy for the exam. Even if you are writing your essay exam answers in a blue book, you might need extra paper for brainstorming and outlining your answers. (You may also want to bring a dictionary. But ask your instructor ahead of time if you will be allowed to use one during the exam.)

2. Read over the entire exam before beginning. As soon as you are instructed to begin your test, read over the entire exam. This will give you a sense of the range of questions and test as a whole. Note the type of questions (i.e., multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions) and how many points each question is worth. And carefully read the instructions for each question. Many students lose points because they have not read, or have misread, the instructions.

3. Plan how you will use your time. Once you have previewed the type of questions, their point values, and the instructions, decide how much time you will spend on each question. Allow more time for questions, or sections, that have a higher point value. Consider giving more time to questions that ask you to write out the answer, such as short answer or essay questions. And remember to give yourself enough time for planning, writing, and proofreading your essay. Try to stick to your plan as closely as you can so that you can complete the entire exam.

4. Begin with the questions you are most comfortable with. You may wish to start with factual questions (multiple choice or definitions) and graduate through short answer and longer essay questions. This plan will allow you to build up to the written answers and may build your confidence or remind you of important information that you would like to include in your essay. But if your essay question is worth the most points and you feel comfortable with the question, begin with the essay. But, remember to stick with the amount of time you have allotted for the essay so that you can complete the earlier questions.

5. Carefully read instructions for essay exam questions. Many students lose points because they have not read, or have misread, the instructions. Note important words and phrases, such as "briefly define," "choose one of the questions below," and "list." Work within the limits of the question: don't write several paragraphs for a short answer question that tells you to list information, and don't try to answer all of the essay questions if you are to choose one--you will probably run out of time and will only get points for one of the answers.

6. Underline important information in the essay exam question. Carefully read the essay questions and underline important words and phrases, such as "compare and contrast," "explain the causes of." Stick to the question and refer back to it often. If you are asked to explain the causes and effects, writing only about the causes will not do. For more information, see Strategies for Interpreting Essay Assignments.

7. Consider your audience and purpose. Unless the instructor has indicated a particular audience or has asked you to define your audience, your can probably assume that your instructor and peers are the audience for your essay. But remember that essay exams are designed so that you can show the instructor that you understand the course material, so don't expect the instructor to fill in the gaps or infer you are talking about. Try to use the vocabulary of the field (draw from terminology that was introduced in class). To identify the purpose of your essay, consider the language of the question (i.e., describe, explain, argue). When planning and developing your essay, refer to the question to make sure that you are addressing it accurately.

8. Brainstorm to find ideas for your essay. Once you feel comfortable with the question, take a few minutes to write down key words and phrases about the subject as they come to you. Don't worry about the order in which you write them down or how messy they look; just get the ideas on paper. You can create this list on an extra piece of paper or on the inside covers of your blue book.

9. Organize your ideas. When you have finished brainstorming, begin sorting out these ideas. Draw lines between related terms, or create a quasi-outline, listing related terms under topic headings. This will help you identify what topics you can develop into paragraphs or sections of your essay. Once you have the ideas organized by topic, consider the order in which topics should be discussed. Which topics best introduce the overall topic of the essay? Which topics should be the "meat," or body, of the essay? Now, you can number topics by their proposed appearance or rewrite your outline so that you can develop your essay in this order.

10. Develop a central claim, or thesis. Once you have discovered and organized your ideas, you can create your central claim, or thesis. To develop your central claim, consider the purpose of your essay and the structural cues you want to give the reader. In other words, when developing your claim, or central idea, consider these questions: What am I saying or showing in this essay? Why is my point valid? What topics will I develop? Remember that your claim, or thesis, not only tells the reader what the essay is about but also gives the reader cues about how the essay will develop.

    Consider the following essay exam question:

    Many American parents are concerned about the availability of pornography on the Internet. From your readings, identify and discuss two ways in which parents can police the type of information children can access on the Internet.

    Your claim or thesis might be as follows:

    To restrict children's access to Internet pornography, parents can actively censor the type of information their children can access on the Internet by engaging in and supervising their children's use of the Internet or by purchasing and using available software that blocks out particular Internet content.

    Following some background on the problem of the availability of Internet pornography to children, this claim clearly indicates that two methods of parental censorship will be discussed, what these two methods are, and in what order these methods will be discussed.

11. Write your essay. Follow your outline for the essay and remember to stick to the question. Make sure to include clear topic sentences, sufficient details and examples, and transitions between ideas. You may find it helpful to use such transitional words as "first," "second," and "third" to indicate the transition between major points in the body of the essay. You may also find it helpful to skip lines when writing your essay so that you can easily and neatly make revisions. Write neatly and use a single line to mark out words when you make changes. (If you run out of time, outline the remainder of the essay.)

12. Revise and proofread your essay. You will probably revise the majority of your essay while you are writing it, but once you have finished you will want to go over the essay again. Ask yourself if you have enough details and examples in paragraphs and mark out any irrelevant information. You can easily insert revisions and additions by using a carat (see the editor symbols on the back cover of you handbook). New text can be written in the margins of your page. You can then draw a line from the text to the carat or number the text and the corresponding carat.

    When proofreading your essay, look at your sentence structure and spelling. Indicate any paragraph indentations you might have left out, clarify any scribbles, and check to see if you have numbered your answers correctly.

In-class essays differ from essay exams primarily in the amount of time you have for completing the essay. You will often have a whole class period to write your essay and you will be focusing on this sole task, so your instructor's expectations for your essay will be a bit higher than they would be if you had only 30 minutes, or so, at the end of a multi-task exam. You will have more time to plan, write, and revise your essay, and you will be able to write a longer, more developed essay. But remember to pace yourself and spend some time revising. Check for coherence and unity and make any needed insertions, and proofread carefully.

If you are using a computer to write an essay exam or in-class essay, take a formatted disk to the class (or arrive early so that you can format your disk). And make sure that you understand how to use your word processing program. You have probably used this program in class, but before the exam or in-class essay, go over such functions as cut and paste, fonts, and spacing.

When you are planning your essay, you may want to do your brainstorming and organizing of ideas at the top of the page. By doing so, you can easily scroll up and refer to this information while writing and revising your essay. And after writing the essay, you can cut and paste your planning information into another file (and save it) to be turned in or kept for future reference.

Make sure that you use the style (MLA or APA) of the field when formatting your essay, including margin formats, spacing, and page numbering. And above all, save your essay every few minutes so that you do not lose it.

When revising your essay, you may want to make a printed copy that you can mark on. Work on unity and coherence, transitions, and sentence structure; don't worry about spelling at this point. You can then make the changes in the computer (save it) and then turn to proofreading. When proofreading your essay, run the spell checker and look for omitted words and phrases (the spell checker will not find omitted words or passages). And again save your document.

If you are turning in your essay on disk, make sure that your full name and course and section number is on the front of the disk. If you are printing out your essay before turning it in, check for formatting problems so that you can fix them before handing in your final product.