How do I write an essay in an exam?

The first thing to do when writing your exam essay is to breathe! Take a moment, read the question through a few times to make sure you’ve absorbed it, and relax. When I’m in an exam, I always highlight or underline the key words in the question, so I know what I need to refer back to. Then you can start to plan. It is best to take around 5 minutes of planning time, which may seem long, but a full plan will make the writing process much easier. You should come up with a thesis for your essay: what is the main point you are trying to make? For example, if it is an extract question, what is the key point in this extract and how is it relevant to the question? Once you have this, you need to think of three main points relevant to this thesis, and these will be your paragraphs. A good essay structure to follow is introduction, three paragraphs, conclusion.Once you have written out your plan, it is time to start writing. Your introduction should introduce your thesis in around three sentences. For the paragraphs themselves, you may have learned the P.E.A.S. (Point-Evidence-Analysis-So What?) or P.E.E.L. (Point-Evidence-Explain-Link) methods in school, and these are both great ways to structure your paragraphs. Whichever acronym you use, always be sure to refer back to the question, and back up your answer with evidence. Try not to be too repetitive with your structure and syntax – you don’t want to send your examiner to sleep! For your conclusion, you need to summarise the points you have made and link them all back to your original thesis. If you have any small extra points, or perhaps a question you’d like to explore more, you can pop this in the conclusion for something a little different. Always leave yourself a few minutes at the end to read through what you’ve written and make any necessary corrections.