How to ace (or at least pass) Undergraduate Essay Exams.
Analyze the questions. Decide what you are being asked to do. If you skim the question to find the main “topic” and then rush to grasp any related ideas you can. Focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t. Look at the active verbs in the assignment—they tell you what you.Essay-writing in the exam context Department of Sociology Student Resource Centre 2 answer. If you find yourself reverting to a version of an essay question you’ve written previously, it is very likely you will fail to answer the new question appropriately or well. And again, you may also find yourself guilty of plagiarism.Try to make your essay fluid and easy to read. Ideally the points you make within a paragraph should flow from one to the other and each paragraph should link well with the next. Have a snappy ending. Summarise your main points and end with a clear and well thought out main argument.
After my Undergraduate Essay Writing Guide ended up featured in the Guardian by some strange twist of fate, I've had a number of requests from friends and others to write guides for other things. In particular, I had requests to write a how-to for dissertations, as well as one for exams. I would by no means consider myself an expert on dissertation writing, having written a grand total of two.Come up with your own essay questions based on your themes. Practice your essay questions. As you do, make sure you use vocabulary terms found in your notes and text. Underline them as you go, and go back to review their relevance.
Not only do you have to learn all the facts and information. You also have to work out, under time pressure, how to present them in a clear and well-structured essay that addresses the requirements of the question. Many students struggle to produce a sophisticated essay format under exam conditions.
