How to succeed on essay exam questions

Essay exam questions require more preparation than other types. You cannot walk into an essay exam and simply expect to read the question and write down what comes to mind; you must have a plan.  Here’s the steps to success on essay questions.

One: Choose your question(s)

For starters, if you are instructed to choose the essay questions to answer—e.g., you must answer three out of six of the essay questions presented—you should read all of the questions before deciding which ones to answer. As you read through each question, jot down some notes next to them. These notes will help you determine which questions you will be able to answer most completely. Also, you should choose to answer questions that you will be able to explain your answer to rather than questions you merely know the right answer to. Professors usually award points for each relevant fact included in your answer. So, giving a detailed explanation is the most effective way to gather points.

Two: Analyze the question

Once you have determined which questions you will answer, turn to the first one and analyze it. Don’t begin writing until you understand exactly what is being asked of you. Read the question carefully, focusing on the active verbs. Those words tell you how to answer the question.

Action verbs commonly used in essay questions can be separated into three categories: information words; relation words; and interpretation words. Here’s a brief description of what each type of word asks of the student:

Information words require students to demonstrate what they know about the subject—i.e., the who, what, when, where, how, and why. Here are some examples and what they mean—

define: give the subject’s meaning; Note: sometimes you have to give more than one view of the subject’s meaning

explain: give reasons or examples of why or how something happened

illustrate: give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected to the subject

research: gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you’ve found

summarize: briefly cover the important ideas you learned about the subject

trace: outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its present form

Relation words as you to demonstrate how things are connected. Here are some examples and what they mean—

apply: use data you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation

cause: show how one event or series of events made something happen

compare: show how two or more things are similar and/or different

contrast: show how two or more things are dissimilar

relate: describe the connections between two things

Interpretation words ask you to defend ideas of your won about the subject. However, these questions don’t usually ask you to give your unsupported opinion. Rather, you must support your ideas with concrete examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or from your research. Here are some examples and what they mean—

analyze: closely inspect the components of the subject to figure out how it works, what it might mean, or why it is important

argue: choose a side of an argument and, using supporting evidence, defend it against the other side

evaluate/respond/assess: give your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or a mixture of the two, with examples and reasons

prove/justify: present reasons or examples to demonstrate why something is the truth

support: give reasons or evidence for something you believe

synthesize: put two or more things together in a novel way; figure out how the things similar or different and provide a reason for putting them together

Three: Outline your answer

Once you’ve figured out exactly what is expected of you in answering the question, you must plan what you will write. Making an outline of your answer before going about writing or typing the answer is something every top student does. It’s simply the correct way to do it.

So, you need to budget time at the beginning of the essay for planning. Although different students have different preferences regarding how much time to dedicate to planning, a general rule of thumb is: if you are given an hour to write one essay, spend at least ten minutes mapping out your answer. By planning ahead like this, you end up saving a lot of time later because you already have the structure and (at least a skeleton of) the content in outline form.

Make sure you outline includes the three major parts of the essay: introduction, body, and conclusion. The structure of the essay should roughly mimic that of any paper you write for your classes, albeit on a much smaller scale.

While making the outline, it a good idea to be relaxed, which helps keep you focused. If you get flustered right at the beginning of the exam, it’s easy to forget to include some critical piece of information in your essay. So keep cool; save your stressing out until the last five minutes of the exam.

Also, make sure to focus on what you do know rather than what you don’t know. Some students get caught up in worrying about a particular point that they remember reading in the book but they can’t quite recall enough about it to write about it. Such anxiety is not only a complete waste of time, but it throws your mind off what you should be thinking about.

By thinking about and writing down all the stuff you do know, you will develop an essay with the highest possible score given what you learned in class. Just think of it this way: you only get points for what you know, not for what you don’t. Accordingly, don’t waste more than about five seconds daydreaming about what you wish you knew. Just stick with what you know.

Four: Write the essay

As mentioned above, an essay answer on an exam is roughly the equivalent of a miniature version of a term paper.

You should begin by writing your thesis, which will forecast everything to come in the essay. With your outline finished, you should be able to formulate a concise and comprehensive thesis statement. It should be placed either at the beginning or at the end of the first paragraph.

While you write out your thesis statement, it’s a good idea to stick to the exact language used in the question. For example, if the prompt of the essay question says, “How does the character of Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird reinforce negative racial stereotypes?” you may want to use the words “Calpurnia,” “reinforce,” “negative,” and “racial stereotypes” in your thesis statement. You may also want to use them throughout your answer.

As with writing a paper, make sure to vary your sentence length and don’t write overly lengthy paragraphs. Also, make sure to include transitional phrases and sentences to blend the paragraphs together.

It is incredibly important that your writing is clear and concise; professional and flawless. Although I have no hard proof of it, I strongly believe that professors tend to give higher grades to more well-written essay answers. And it makes sense. Clearly and articulately written essays look and feel like they were written by A-level students, and professors—being as they are only human—tend to go with their gut feelings when assigning grades.

If you are handwriting your essay and you realize that you want to insert text into a section you already wrote, do so in as clear and professional manner as possible. Write in the margin or on the back of the page and use a single arrow to point to where to insert the text.

Whatever you do, do not attempt to pad your answer by irrelevant or repetitive information. Such useless additions not only add no value to your essay, they actually take away from the quality of it. Professors appreciate essays that cover all the relevant material in an efficient and articulate manner. Just give them what they want and you will maximize your chances of getting an ‘A’.

Keep an eye on the clock as you write. Stick to the time you budgeted for each essay. If you find that you are not finished with an essay and the end of the time you allotted for it, do not fall into the trap of extending your answer for that question while eating away at the time available for the others. You must leave adequate time to finish each of the remaining essay questions in order to even have a shot at maximizing your potential.

So, wrap your answer up as quickly as possible while including all the relevant information you can think of.

The same thing goes for finishing up the exam. If the professor announces you have only a minute left but you are three paragraphs short of finishing, forget about format and style. Just write down all the information you know while concluding the essay.

If possible, always add a conclusion sentence. Finishing your essay on an awkward note just makes you look unorganized. And it only takes ten seconds to write a one-line sentence that begins with, “Therefore, …”

Do not go over each essay answer after you finish writing it. Instead, wait until you’ve finished answering all the questions before determining if you have time to go back and give your essays a proofread. If you are able to review your essays, you’re likely to catch at least one or two typos, which will help make your paper that much more polished.

To summarize…

Answering an essay question amounts to writing a short and hopefully well-structured paper in a very limited amount of time and space. In this context, you must demonstrate the knowledge you’ve acquired and your ability to use it. Essay exams are not the place to be subtle or vague. Instead, follow an organized structure (instruction, including thesis statement; body of text containing supporting and—sometimes—opposing data; and a conclusion summarizing your essay) and hit all the major points as if counting them out on your fingers. Defend your point with specific examples and conclude with a statement similar to (but not identical to) your thesis statement.

You can follow me on this and other topics on Twitter: twitter.com/henricksen.

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