How can you answer a question when you don't even know where to begin?

Even when you're super prepared for an exam, a subject like history can throw you a curve ball, so what can you do when you look at a question and think there's just no way you could answer it?

1. Put down your pen and breathe - just think if I write nothing, I get no marks. Writing something is better than panicking and leaving a paper blank.
2. Keeping calm and look at the question - What topic is it on? What do I know about this topic? What are the most important aspects/central themes? For example, when thinking about Britain’s success in the Napoleonic Wars, you will be looking to mention the navy, the riches of the Empire and Napoleon’s mistakes, as central aspects that could be worked into almost any answer.
3. Ask yourself about the key terms of the question and think about how to refer to these in your answer. For example if a question starts ‘To what extent…’ you would start/end your paragraphs with ‘to a great extent this impacted…’. With a question that starts ‘how convincing…’ you might start with ‘x is somewhat convincing, however, y is more so’. Use the key terms in your answer, for example, if a question asks ‘How important was the King’s influence in the election of Pitt the Younger?’ as obvious as it sounds, make sure to mention the King. Even in your other paragraphs refer to these words. Rather than saying ‘Pitt’s brilliance was the most important factor in his election…’ you could say ‘Pitt’s brilliance was more important in his election success than the King’s influence and was arguably the most important factor’. This signposts that you’re not trying to rewrite a previous essay and helps you remain focused on the question.
4. Think about what debates you know around these issues? How are historians engaged? What historiography can you use? For example in a question on Kennedy you might bring up how opinions on him have changed - perhaps how he was popular with contemporaries but revisionists may look back more critically and fear he has been over rated.
5. Think about how you could bring in other historical knowledge as a comparison. For example, a question might ask ‘Without ‘The Watergate Scandal’ Nixon would be remembered as a great president. Discuss’. Here would be the perfect opportunity to bring up other presidents who are remembered as ‘great’ and perhaps compare Nixon’s actions to Roosevelt’s.
6. Now pick up your pen and outline a brief plan of how you can include what you’ve been thinking about in your essay and how you want to structure it.
7. Now with a clear plan on how you can answer the question, start writing. Most importantly keep calm, focused and engaged. You may not be 100% confident with your answer but you’ve worked hard, know your stuff and know how to write a good response.