I'm struggling with how to write an essay in an exam under pressure. Can you help?

In an exam, your time is very limited. You don't have time to make extremely sophisticated points or go off on a ramble. The most important thing is to identify which essay question you want to answer. In an exam, this might be the one you think you have the most to talk about, rather than the most 'sophisticated' or 'impressive' question. (Eg. Compare how two writers use the theme of gender in their works'.)For the question you want to answer, write down three or four 'main' points you have in answer to the question. The majority of them should agree with the question, and the last should disagree to provide a well-rounded response. The points should be relatively broad (eg. The writer shows men as powerful, and women as weak) but easily supported by textual evidence that you can remember! If you are writing a comparison essay, make sure you have things to say about each book for the point, even if they contradict each other. For each point, then give the evidence in the text. This should take the form of a quotation or two, but it should be specific to the point you're making and focused very closely on that point. Finally, elaborate further on that point. This could be talking more about how that quotation fits into the general theme of the book, how it impacts the character's later decisions or compares to other characters, or how the point and quotation are related to things critics have said about the topic overall. Your introduction should provide some information about how that theme is important in literature at that time, and a short, one sentence overview of what your overall argument is. You should be able to work out your argument from your points! Your conclusion should tie all of your points together, and you should repeat your final argument based on them.