Essay Exams

Essay exams - I don't think I'd be alone in saying that they're my least favorite. You definitely have to use a different preparation strategy for essay exams. Figure 12.1 from our textbook displays a great strategy:

From our textbook: "Orientation to College Learning"

Predict, Plan, and Practice!

1. Predict Questions - From the material covered, try to guess what the essay questions may be. If the professor focused on a certain topic more than others, that might be a good hint. In the past, I've had teachers give the essay questions out before the actual exam, or give a list of possible questions to go by. But that's not always the case.
2. Plan - Once you know or narrow down what your essay questions may be, it's a good idea to review and gather correct information for your answer. Re-reading a section in your textbook or creating a study sheet or outline from your notes would be helpful. The more organized your information is the easier it will be to remember.
3. Practice - After predicting the questions and planning your answer, it's helpful to practice your answer several times. You might write it out once, read and study over it a few times, and then create a mock self-test to measure how much of your answer you're recalling from memory. If you're not doing well, then start the process over again and study more. It may be useful to use Mnemonics (memory cues). For example, to remember the states of matter, I might think PLSG: "Please Let Sally Go," for Plasma, Liquid, Solid, and Gas.