How can I improve my ability to write a good quality essay in the short time frame of my exam?

The answer is a combination of knowledge, structure, and practice. You are affectively aiming to achieve a mark for every minute of your exam which leaves little time for planning your answer. The key to overcoming this, is to make use of the past papers provided, and to consider the key arguments of each topic you have covered throughout the year. Once you have a good understanding of your course and feel confident with your level of knowledge, use your revision time to plan your answers to questions that appear in past papers. Look for repetition from year to year, there is a limit to what you have been taught therefore there is a limit to what examiners can ask of you. If you look carefully you will find that many questions are very similar or even repeats of the questions asked in previous years. Done correctly, you can effectively plan for all possible questions or question topics before you have even seen the paper. A trick I found to be the most useful was to plan an unseen essay in a single minute, as this was the time I had allocated myself to plan in the actual exam. Set a sixty second timer and write down in note form all the points you intend to cover in your essay. In the exam this will help you organise your thoughts and you can always add to your plan if you suddenly remember something you want to add to your answer later on. This technique also allows the examiner to see clearly the extent of your knowledge, even if you run out of time and are unable to cover all the points. Understanding how your essay should be structured is of paramount importance. Put simply, you should have an introduction, the main argument, and a conclusion. Essentially the introduction sums up what you intend to argue, and the conclusion reaffirms your points. Structuring the main body of the essay is the tricky part. I found it useful not to overcomplicate it. Stick to a point for each paragraph, followed by an explanation, an example, and if possible a link to the main point of the next paragraph.