Welcome back to my channel Learn Academic English where I teach intermediate and advanced
level English lessons for people who want to be successful in school and work today I'm going to
talk about one of the most dreaded situations in school it's writing timed essays this is writing
under pressure which basically means that you need to write an essay in a limited amount of time this
is a common practice on tests and applications in the united states and there are many situations in
which you might need to write a timed essay so let's look at what some situations are when you
might need to write an a timed essay and then I'll give you some tips for how to write a great timed
essay first you might need to write a timed essay if you're taking a class in an English-speaking
country or a college or university where English is the language of instruction in that situation
it is very common to need to write an essay in class it is a common type of exam or test for
example in English or history class a professor will often give a topic that students then need to
write an essay about and usually they have between one and two hours to complete this task another
type of test in which you might need to write a timed essay is the TOEFL or IELTS tests and again
this is a timed essay usually you have 30 or 45 minutes and you don't know the topic in advance
so you need to think quickly and write an essay in a short amount of time and finally another type of
test is assessment tests those are tests that are given to assess or find out your level of language
this is often given to students when they are entering a college or university and for example
where I teach the students need to write a timed essay they are given 50 minutes and they are given
the topic at the time of the test and we use this essay to find out what level of English
the students should take another common situation that you might need to write a timed essay for
is for an application for example an application for a scholarship or an application for a program
sometimes those will be timed essays for example my son applied for a special high school program
and he needed to write a timed essay they gave him a topic or actually they gave him
two topics and he chose one topic and he had two hours to write the essay and submit it
and that essay was used as part of his application for this program this also can happen at a job
application if the job requires a lot of writing a job like teaching or another similar type of job
there may be a timed essay as part of the job application so now that you know some situations
in which you might need to write a timed essay let's look at some tips for writing a great
essay under the pressure of time tip one practice practice practice if you practice writing
timed essays at home you will feel so much more comfortable and confident when you need to do it
what you can do is get a list of topics and I'm actually going to help you look in the
description box below I have a link to a handout of example topics so get a list of topics and then
set up a place in your home that you can use to write your timed essays sit at a desk or a table
and then think about how it's going to be when you really do it are you going to be writing on paper
or are you going to be typing on a computer how much time are you going to have give yourself the
same situation so if you're going to have to write on paper in your English class write on paper at
home and give yourself the same amount of time and then just practice doing it maybe you do it once
a week or twice a week you write a timed essay to help you practice and feel comfortable number
two prepare yourself well for the test get a good night's sleep sleep at least seven to eight hours
the night before your test prepare everything that you're gonna need the day before so get your paper
your pencil your pen a snack anything that you're going to need to take with you get it ready the
day before so that you're not rushing around on the morning of your test and don't forget to eat a
healthy complete breakfast you don't want to feel hungry during the test so make sure that you
have a good breakfast before you leave another thing that you need to do to plan ahead is to
think about how much time you're going to have during the test and then plan out how you're
going to use that time for example if you're going to have one hour to write your timed essay this is
what I recommend I recommend 10 to 15 minutes for brainstorming and planning your ideas then
40 to 45 minutes to write and five minutes to check your work at the end of the test
so make sure that you plan your time in advance so that when you are at the test
you're not going to be thinking to yourself how much time should I spend planning number three
when you get to the test practice some relaxation technique so that you don't get too nervous
practice some positive self-talk tell yourself that you can do it that it's no big deal that
it's gonna be fine and practice some deep breathing to help yourself relax
and remember that your instructor wants you to be successful
tip number four what should you do when you get to the test and start writing when the professor
gives you the topic or the writing prompt this is what you should do first spend five minutes
making sure that you understand the prompt exactly and then brainstorming some quick ideas write your
ideas down on paper and write short phrases so you don't waste a lot of time writing long sentences
get down any idea that comes to your head and make sure that you spend at least five
minutes brainstorming then take a look at your ideas and think about how you can plan those
into paragraphs spend about another five minutes planning a short brief outline of your essay
plan what you're going to say in the first paragraph what you're going to say in the second
paragraph etc this will be a guide for you as you are writing so that you don't feel lost or nervous
next it's time to start writing I usually recommend that my students write a
very short introduction don't waste a lot of time on the introduction because the introduction for
this type of essay is not important write a very short introduction and then get into your
body paragraphs your body paragraphs are the most important part of your essay because that's where
you answer the topic or you answer the prompt and that's where your ideas are going to be discussed
make sure you have enough time to finish your body paragraphs because you need to write a complete
essay finally spend just a couple minutes writing a very short conclusion restate your main idea
first and then add one sentence of some kind of final thought to close your essay don't spend
a lot of time on this part but don't forget about it either because you want to show your professor
that you are able to finish and write a complete essay in the time that he or she gave you before
you turn your essay in you need to spend a few minutes going back through your essay
and checking your work this is something that a lot of people don't do but you should make sure
that you do it because you're going to be able to check for grammar mistakes spelling mistakes or ad
ideas that might be missing so take a quick look through your essay and check for missing articles
missing s on verbs or nouns or incorrect verb forms spelling mistakes and if you think of an
idea that you want to add to a paragraph this is the time to do that there are a couple of ways
you can add ideas to paragraphs you can make a little star where you want to add the idea and
then write the sentence on another place on the paper with another star so that those places match
or if you know that you often have to add ideas later skip lines when you're writing and then add
your idea in that blank line but this is the time to make sure that your essay is as good as it can
be here are a few more tips for success first don't turn your essay in early you should never
finish early in a timed essay because you want to show the person who's going to read your essay
your best work so take enough time develop your ideas in your paragraphs add ideas if you have
extra time make a complete conclusion there's no reason to finish early because you can always add
or make your essay better next make sure that you write a complete essay that answers the prompt
if the prompt asks for three reasons make sure you wrote about three not two this is very important
because it will affect your grade next make sure that the first part of your essay is strong
because the first part of your essay makes a first impression try to make the first
several sentences of your essay as strong as possible with correct grammar and good ideas
remember that the person who is asking you to write the essay knows that this is a timed essay
and it's not going to be as good as an essay that you can write at home when you have more
time so don't worry it's okay that the essay is not perfect and your professor is not expecting
it to be amazing just work with the time that you have and make sure that you write a complete essay
in that amount of time most timed essays are going to be graded based on three things
first how well does your essay answer the prompt or answer the topic or the question
number two did you write a complete well organized essay most of these essays should follow the
classic five paragraph essay structure so that means an introduction three body paragraphs
and a conclusion and each of those body paragraphs is going to need to have two or three points to
support them and be sure that your introduction finishes with a clear thesis statement and number
three the quality of your language how well do you express your ideas in clear English this
means that you want to think about writing clear well-structured sentences with correct grammar
spelling capital letters and vocabulary so I know that that's a lot to think about and I
know that writing timed essays is not easy but if you can keep these tips in mind and if you
practice before you can do it let me know in the comments below if you have any tips
for writing a timed essay or if you have questions and don't forget to check down there for a handout
of example topics that you can use to practice at home take care and I hope to see you again soon!