Advice on Taking an Essay Exam

An essay exam, if a true essay exam, provides you a platform for deploying your knowledge rather than searching for you to reproduce a specific knowledge. As a result, the focus is not on having the right or wrong answer, but on your ability to deploy material from the course in a cogent answer to a question. (Sometimes an objective exam is hijacked into an essay form. "What happened in the year 1968?" The expectation is that you will produce a specific list of things that are right and wrong. That is not a true essay exam.)

Studying for the Exam

Preparing to answer

Answering the question

Grading the exam