Should I do essays in a night or take my time, leading upto the exam?

karaokeman

Does anyone try to do an essay in a single night, or work on it for the time limit your teacher gives you to hand it in?

I'm in 6th year and usually when I'm given an essay in either English, History or Art History, we usually have a week to write the essay and hand it in.

Heres how I go about it;
1st day : Write a plan for essay and write the introduction of half a page
2nd day : Write out paragraphs, about another page or so of writing
3rd day : Write more paragraphs, one more page written (2.5 pages)
4th day : Complete the rest of the paragraphs (3.5-4 pages)
5th day : Do out conclusion and finish essay
6th day : Check over finished essay for any mistakes

Usually I spent about 30 minutes a night on each of my 6 subjects. Sometimes Ii ask myself should I work towards doing an essay in one night?
I know that I should get the hang of having only an hour or so in the exam to do a whole essay, but usually I'm able to anyway because I'm well rested in the exam and it all comes back to me.

randylonghorn

As you get nearer the big day, you should probably try to do essays not only in one night, but in a set time.

Admittedly, the adrenalin boost in an exam situation usually helps with this, but getting accustomed to spending too much time on them probably isn't the best idea.

Bbbbolger

I find that I work a lot better when I do it all in one night. If I spread my essay over a couple of days my writing can seem disjointed. Its much easier to make links to previous paragraphs, keep to your plan and avoid needless repetition if you do it all in one go. Thats just my experience with essays.
I'd also agree with RandyLongHorn about trying to do it in a set time. I've just started doing it recently and am finding it hard to adjust my writing speed. Get it done now and I'll be grand in the exams though!

partyatmygaff

It's much better to do it all in one night. In the real exam you have circa one hour for each essay, not six days worth of planning and redrafting. Planning and redrafting should be left for preparing notes or essays to study.

Ayrtonf7

I must admit that I agree with doing it in one night. Not only will it relieve some stress from your shoulders. For me it also lets my essay flow alot more, makes it easier to join paragraphs and the work together just seems alot more relevant.

Lexii307

karaokeman wrote: »

Does anyone try to do an essay in a single night, or work on it for the time limit your teacher gives you to hand it in?

I'm in 6th year and usually when I'm given an essay in either English, History or Art History, we usually have a week to write the essay and hand it in.

Heres how I go about it;
1st day : Write a plan for essay and write the introduction of half a page
2nd day : Write out paragraphs, about another page or so of writing
3rd day : Write more paragraphs, one more page written (2.5 pages)
4th day : Complete the rest of the paragraphs (3.5-4 pages)
5th day : Do out conclusion and finish essay
6th day : Check over finished essay for any mistakes

Usually I spent about 30 minutes a night on each of my 6 subjects. Sometimes Ii ask myself should I work towards doing an essay in one night?
I know that I should get the hang of having only an hour or so in the exam to do a whole essay, but usually I'm able to anyway because I'm well rested in the exam and it all comes back to me.

My English teacher always gets us to do essays in a night including a plan. The least amount of time it takes me is around 2.5 hours without a plan. Then she corrects it and if you dont get an A or B she makes you do it again. Its really helpfull because then you know where you went wrong and you know how to improve

Ayrtonf7

Lexii307 wrote: »

My English teacher always gets us to do essays in a night including a plan. The least amount of time it takes me is around 2.5 hours without a plan. Then she corrects it and if you dont get an A or B she makes you do it again. Its really helpfull because then you know where you went wrong and you know how to improve

I dont mean to sound like an ass or anything it is actually just curiousty (because that sounds like it would work in practice) but how will you cut 2.5hrs down too 1hr ?

karaokeman

Hi all, thanks for the replies.
If its not too much trouble I would like to know where you all think I could improve in terms of the time it takes me to do my essays.
For midterm I have 3 essays, one in History and two in English (one poetry and one composition).
I started the poetry essay last friday and wrote 2 pages (out of 5). I only did a little bit of Maths revision during the weekend to lay off the lengthy writing.
Here's what I did today;
1. Finished another paragraph on the poetry essay, so its now almost 3 pages
2. I started the Hisory essay and did 2 whole pages in a day (out of 4)
3. I started the composition essay and wrote about a page and a half (including the plan)
I still have the rest of the week to finish these 3 essays and get started on my shorter homework in other subjects.
Problem is I still feel stressed when I attempt to do an essay in a day/ few hours, but I don't know how to not be stressed about this.

soup1

doing your English essays like that is a stpid idea to be honest. . .complete it in the time allotted!

Chuchoter

Hate to say it but thats a ridiculous way of doing it. My friend does something similar, writes up a 'draft version' and then writes up the real thing. You can't do it in the exam so there is no point doing it now. Aim to get everything, including the plan, done in an hour, as I assume thats the amount of time (if thats not more than it) you get to do it in the exam. Frankly if its taking you a few days/even a few hours, you're doing it wrong. You're writing too much (waffling) or too slowly (English and history are contests to see who can write the fastest.)

Really if you're in sixth year I'd be trying to get all the essays done in one day, or at least one per day (I have a personal response and a hamlet summary to do, Hamlet is getting done today and Personal response is on Friday).