Strategies
Before Writing
- Carefully consider the prompt. You should be quite familiar with it by the time you get to the essay section of the test. It is presented on the summary page at the beginning of the test and you should have reviewed it before each section.
- Take 10 to 15 minutes to create an outline.
- Decide on the focus of your argument and make sure your thesis statement states your position clearly.
- Review your notes in the question booklet.
While Writing
- Keep in mind the essay checklist provided in this unit.
- Remember that your essay will be assessed according to three categories: content, organization, and language.
- Make sure that you divide your work logically into appropiate paragraphs and that you provide clear transitions between them.
- Try to use information from all the sections of the test (readings and listening) to support your argument.
- Use your own words as much as possible. If you copy from the text, you must use quotation marks.
After Writing
- Try to leave yourself five minutes to check your work for sentence-level errors related to punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement, and the use of verb tenses.