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Writing to a time limit

I'm in my AS year and I'm with edexcel doing the Germany options. We have 55 minutes to do two essays, one 20 mark and one 40 mark, for each module except for the sources paper which is 60 minutes. My trouble isn't in my ability, it's in my organisation. My essays always start really strong and lose momentum by the end, normally because I'm frantically scribbling the last half to make sure I actually get it completed.

I took my teacher's advice and used the 5 mins planning 20 mins for question A 30 mins for question B framework, but I'm still having problems.

If anybody has any advice then I'd greatly appreciate it.

Reply 1

Sagittarius_GBR

2

The 5 minutes planning that you do is very important. You need to know what you are going to say and how you are going to conclude before you write the essay. This makes sense really, you wouldnt set out on a car journey without knowing where you are going would you. :wink:

A plan doesn't have to be detailed, that comes later. You write out your intro and what factors/themes you are going to introduce in bullet point form.

Then you take each of those factors and expand them with a few words in the main body section of your plan. Your conclusion should be the factor you find most important with a balance of why the others are not so important.

Using this you write your essay. You need only have a few keywords, prompting you to write the next paragraph, as time is precious.

For example: To what extent did Hitler get into power on his own merit?

Intro: Depression, Weimar Republic Dissatisfaction, Democracy breakdown, Hitler's Party.

You have introduced the factors you are going to talk about in your essay along with the context of the situation.

Main Body:

Depression -1929 Wall St Crash, Unemployment, Hyperinflation 1923, post-war economy
Weimar Republic Disatisfaction: Junkers hate democracy, conflict between parties, Article 48, Betrayal Theory
Democracy Breakdown: Article 48, Hindenburg, Junkers, party conflict
Hitler's party: Hitler is strong, beer hall coup, Junkers approve, nationalistic agenda

Here you have specified in a bit more detail the things you are going to talk about in each factor. Provided you have the knowledge, then you will be able to put in the 'meat' i.e. statistics, dates, to fill up the 'bone' i.e. the core of your argument. In this plan, you can see where things overlap into each factor and making links and identifying these in an essay gets you good marks.

Conclusion:

Breakdown of democracy more important - support with dates/statistics/facts
But, Hitler was determined, the country had economic disasters, and Weimar government was hated. However, with the breakdown of democracy, hitler was able to get into power, because the rightists wanted him there.

Here you have put forward your argument on the most important factor, but have shown your awareness of the involvement of other factors that led to Hitler being put in power.

Don't worry if you don't know anything about Nazism or the Weimar govt, if you do, fantastic, but if you don't then I hope you can see how the structure of the plan is just a few pointers that ultimately saves time in an essay. :smile:

EDIT: I only just noticed that you're doing the German options for AS, so this should all be crystal clear for you! :biggrin:

Reply 2

The_Goose

18

You only need 15 minutes to write a good 20 mark essay in history. You spend about 4 minutes planning 4 on each theme this should take you up to 16 minutes then 4 minutes conclusion. 20 minutes. spend 5 minutes planning part B and 30 minutes writing it this gives you a little more time on each theme and make sure you write a conclusion.

Introductions are basically worthless at AS so don't bother, and if you do cut it to a sentence, you don't need the build up

good luck

Reply 3

allieRAWR!

14

The_Goose

Introductions are basically worthless at AS so don't bother, and if you do cut it to a sentence, you don't need the build up

good luck

I wouldn't say that, it all depends on your writing style. If you possess the ability to do so, you can really incorporate your intro into your essay. I find when being timed this is especially important, as I can dive right in into the essay, making every sentence count, meaning as little time as possible is wasted.

What I do it rather then writing a really big plan, just get the highlighters out and outline the important words. Make sure you really undertstand the question and its demands, so you know what direction to take. This might help you focus abit more too, preventing wavering midway. Once I've done that, I make a small spider diagram with all my ideas, it means I can get it down really quickly, and this kind of walks me through what I'm going to do.

Reply 4

The_Goose

18

allieRAWR!

I wouldn't say that, it all depends on your writing style. If you possess the ability to do so, you can really incorporate your intro into your essay. I find when being timed this is especially important, as I can dive right in into the essay, making every sentence count, meaning as little time as possible is wasted.

What I do it rather then writing a really big plan, just get the highlighters out and outline the important words. Make sure you really undertstand the question and its demands, so you know what direction to take. This might help you focus abit more too, preventing wavering midway. Once I've done that, I make a small spider diagram with all my ideas, it means I can get it down really quickly, and this kind of walks me through what I'm going to do.

what i mean is if the question is "Why the the reds win the civil war" (russia question for example) don't start like this

"There a has been a long running debate amongst historians for many years as to why the reds won the civil war. Many people believe that the answers are clear cut, however other believe that it may have many different causes; including trotsky, lenin an the weaknesses of the whites. In this essay I am to discuss the different reason why the white won the civil war and hope to display a valid argument showing different viewpoints. In this essay i aim to conclude my opinion of this debate after discussing the evidence. The first viewpoint I will discuss is..."

seriously I've seen this done for the 20 marker.

Reply 5

allieRAWR!

14

The_Goose

what i mean is if the question is "Why the the reds win the civil war" (russia question for example) don't start like this

"There a has been a long running debate amongst historians for many years as to why the reds won the civil war. Many people believe that the answers are clear cut, however other believe that it may have many different causes; including trotsky, lenin an the weaknesses of the whites. In this essay I am to discuss the different reason why the white won the civil war and hope to display a valid argument showing different viewpoints. In this essay i aim to conclude my opinion of this debate after discussing the evidence. The first viewpoint I will discuss is..."

seriously I've seen this done for the 20 marker.

If you're someone that writes these kinds of introductions, then yes, you're wasting your time, but if you have the ability to make your intro a worthy part of your essay, then it's something you should definately do, regardless of what level of History you're doing. But yes, it's probably either do it and do it well, or don't bother.

Reply 6

The_Goose

18

allieRAWR!

If you're someone that writes these kinds of introductions, then yes, you're wasting your time, but if you have the ability to make your intro a worthy part of your essay, then it's something you should definately do, regardless of what level of History you're doing. But yes, it's probably either do it and do it well, or don't bother.

that was my point, just better put. I suck at getting my point across

Reply 7

evilmoo

OP

Thankyou so much, this is all very very helpful!

I'm a lot clearer now on what I should be doing :smile:

Writing to a time limit

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