Written essay questions on interview day- Advice please!

[Tabitha]

Hello,


I'm hoping this comes within the remit of this forum, I know we aren't allowed to discuss specific universities questions etc, hence I haven't posted which course this relates to. And I suppose Im hoping for a discussion about how people would takle these tasks.

Basically, the process is that we were supplied abstracts to read and had to answer an exam question, on a fairly short time limit. I was completely thrown, as had no idea this would be the format of the test, panicked and wrote probably the worst essay i have ever written!

I've been trying to think about how I might tackle it differently this year, as it has been a good while since i have written an answer to an essay question (all my essays have been reflective in the past few years!)

I have been thinking that I had forgotten to even cover the basics on good essay practice;

• Have clear, Intro, discussion, conclusion sections;
  Ensure each paragraph is introduced, has a specific point, evidence and explaination to how it answers the question;
  Ensuring methodology in studies are critiqued i.e. sample size/demographics/method used/type of study/ year of study etc (have I missed anything here?);
  Making sure i actually ANSWER the question asked;
  Make sure there is aa balanced argument in the essay

Does anyone else have any advice/ discussion to offer around this topic?

Thanks

Tabby

[Esuma]

I cheat a little bit in my structuring of essays in exams in that I usually leave the introduction until last! So what I do is I’ll write a plan of the essay including roughly what I’ll talk about in each paragraph then I’ll start writing the introduction but leave a big space and continue with the actual content. That way I find I have some more thinking time so if I change my mind in how I want to structure it and what I want to conclude the introduction still flows and looks structured and organised It sounds like you’ve got a good general plan for how to get tackle it in the future to me - now you’re more prepared hopefully it’ll be less of a horrible experience

[Tabitha]

Thank you so much for your reply! That's a really good tip! Yeah i'm a very visual person and i like to plan on paper initially.. maybe i'll be assertive and ask for some paper!