A helpful tip for taking exams in general is to look at the exam as an opportunity to succeed and not as an opportunity to fail. Being positive will help with recall whether there has been sufficient study or not. Negative attitudes will not only make vague material difficult to remember they will reduce chances of recalling ideas and facts that were learned. A final point is that the number 1 technique for taking any test is to be prepared and know the facts cold . There is no substitute for knowing the material.
CREDIT Dennis Congo, Certified Supplemental Instruction trainer, University of Central Florida
Keele, Glendon and Markham Campus Contact (416) 736-2100 Campus Maps
Like any other kind of writing, answering essay test questions requires practice before it becomes easier. If you find yourself struggling with exam questions, ask your professor well in advance if you can have sample questions to practice on at home. Then set a timer and practice! Several practice sessions will give you better results than a single, long session, so give yourself plenty of time to prepare for this kind of writing under time pressure.
Several other strategies can also help you write better responses on essay tests.
Read through the entire exam to plan an overall strategy.
An old story has it that a prof got tired of giving this advice to students, so he made up a long and complex set of questions for a final exam. The first instruction was to read the entire test and follow the instructions on the last page. The last page had one instruction: Sign your name and turn in the test. Only one student followed the instructions and passed; the rest failed the test because they tried to answer all the questions.
Not many profs will go to these extremes, but reading through the entire test does help you plan your approach to the test.
Once you've set up an overall plan about which questions to answer first and how much time you have for each response, read each question carefully. Perhaps the biggest problem teachers report is that students don't answer the question asked . You can't respond appropriately if you don't take the time to see what the question asks you to do, and key words typically tell you what to focus on. These are some of the most common key words in exam questions:
Warning : Teachers don't always use the most precise key word for the kind of writing that will best answer the question. Use your best judgment based on the content to decide if the question really wants you to analyze when it says "describe." If you're in doubt, ASK.
Here's another reason to practice this kind of writing: you'll identify the key words and click onto the kinds of writing you should do more and more automatically.
When we describe, we note physical and sometimes chronological details. Descriptions generally rely on sensory perceptions (compared to "analysis" that typically gets at mental abstractions). Because vision is usually our dominant sense, most of our descriptions rely heavily on visual details. For many essay questions, being asked to "describe" means writing about what you've seen.
Writing tip : Although our field of vision takes in lots of details, we organize those to help remember them. As writers, we need to make our organizational pattern obvious to readers. That's why most descriptions follow a top-to-bottom, right-to-left, etc., consistent pattern of moving over a visual scene. Sometimes, the pattern is most-to-least important, and this pattern works especially well if your description is building to a particular point.
Depending on the situation in which you are asked to "describe," you may want to organize the details of your writing according to a chronological pattern. Particularly when you are recording observations that take place over a long time, you may want to capture the sense of passing time by using time markers (e.g., first, later, finally) to organize the details in your writing.
Specific advice for OT students : You are working with models of assessment that ask you to note certain kinds of physical movement or reactions in a certain order. When the model of assessment has a built-in order, you can use that to organize the details of your description.
Substitute key words : observe or notice
A nalyze in a test question usually means "take this concept apart and look at the relationships among parts." Sometimes the analysis focuses on causes and effects, as, for example, if you were to write about media coverage and election turnout. Sometimes the analysis will focus on a time sequence, as it might in tracking the progress of a degenerative disease.
Writing tip : Because we can look at relationships among parts in several different ways, be sure to signal your reader how you're "slicing the pie." If you're writing about cause-effect relationships among parts, use key transitional words and phrases such as "because" and "as a result" to show the causal relationship. If your analysis is based on a process, use transitions that indicate an appropriate time or developmental sequence. If your analysis looks at functional relationships, clearly indicate the functions and their interactions. In short, make clear not just the parts you're looking at but why you're looking at them the ways you are in your response.
Substitute key words : examine
C ompare is probably the easiest of the key terms to recognize and respond to. Fortunately, comparisons are also common on essay tests, so they're easy to practice. Compare basically asks the writer to take two or more objects, theories, events, concepts, applications, or explanations and show the similarities between them. One warning, though: when teachers use compare on a test question, they also often mean contrast, so don't forget to point out differences after you write out the similarities between items you're comparing.
Writing tip : Depending on the length and complexity of your response, you may find it easier to write everything about item A first and then to use that same sequence to write about item B. If you're not sure you can follow the same sequence in this block approach to comparison, then use a point-by-point method that allows you to make a point about A followed immediately by a point about B. Use clear transitions whether you adopt the block or point-by-point method so that your reader can clearly see how the similarities and differences relate to each item in your comparison.
Specific advice for OT students : The comparisons you're likely to focus on will be of theories or applications. Because theories are more general and applications are more specific, your comparisons may have to deal with both the abstract (theoretical level) and the concrete (specific client treatment). Practicing these complex comparisons will definitely make them easier to write.
Substitute key words : distinguish between (among), show similarities and differences
E valuate often gets misunderstood by students as compare . They're not the same. Comparing just points out similarities and differences; evaluation requires a judgment about which theory, application, approach, etc., is superior and why. Students working under time pressure are most likely to forget to write out their criteria for making the judgment in the first place. This rationale is often crucial for understanding the overall judgment.
Writing tip : Especially when you're pressed for time, keep the criteria obvious and straightforward. If one approach is cheaper and faster, and those are the two criteria anyone would use to evaluate the approaches in question, then talk about what makes one cheaper and faster. Don't forget, though, to also show what makes the alternative approaches more expensive and slower. Thoroughness does count when writing out evaluations.
If the obvious criteria are not appropriate in a specific context, though, be sure to explain why you're adopting not-so-obvious criteria for evaluating. So long as you can justify the criteria you choose and the final judgment you make, you're meeting the goals of the essay question that calls for evaluation.
Substitute key words : rank, order, justify your selection, explain your rationale for choosing
A rgue , as a key word, asks you specifically to take a position and defend it. The best arguments have a narrowly focused position statement, reasons to support the overall position, and then evidence to support each reason. If you have time, you can also look at other possible positions and support (again with evidence) why your position is better.
Writing tip : Most students have little trouble stating their overall position, but in the heat of writing under pressure students do often forget to give adequate evidence to support that position. Be sure to include not just general reasons why you hold the position but also the evidence--the details, examples, analysis--that supports your reasons. If you think of a solid argument like a house, you can't hold up the roof (overall position) with a frame (reasons for the position). And you surely can't keep out the rain without the substance (details) that covers the frame.
Specific advice for OT students : Not all arguments need to take a long time to develop. If you need to justify a particular intervention, sometimes a few details and a reference to a pertinent theoretical framework will suffice.
Substitute key words : defend, take a stand or position, justify
E xplain , like analyze, often points in the direction of cause-effect or process reasoning. But explaining isn't always limited to analysis. Like discuss, explain sometimes appears in a test question when the teacher is asking you to write everything you know about a concept or when the teacher is focusing on a specific set of relationships. Treat explain , then, as a key word that calls for more exploration of the rest of the question to see if there is additional focus elsewhere in the question.
Writing tip : Because explaining can include any of the strategies noted for analyzing, defining, or comparing, be prepared to use a combination of techniques as well as transitional devices to create coherence in these responses. And because explaining leads toward longer responses, be sure to make a list of key points to include before you begin these responses; check your list for completeness of your response at the end of the test time.
Substitute key words : tell how, discuss
D efine is another of the more straightforward of the key terms. Typically, a teacher asking you to define a term is asking for a translation of a technical term into language anyone could understand. Defining a concept calls for more elaboration, but it still builds on strategies for definition.
Writing tip : Standard definitions use a variety of strategies including synonyms, antonyms, analogies, comparisons, and explanations of where a term came from or the contexts in which it is used. If you've studied dictionary definitions for the terms, you can also build on those. Teachers are usually interested in seeing that you understand key terms, though, so when they ask you to define a term they sometimes also want you to show that you can apply it to a particular context. You can get a better sense of how long and detailed you should make the definitions based on the points allotted to the definitions and the number of words/concepts you're expected to define.
Some essay test questions are meant to gauge critical thinking. Generalize is one of those terms. When teachers ask you to generalize, they want to see you move from the particular to the general or from the concrete to the abstract.
Writing tip : If you haven't already noted some specific details elsewhere in the test, you'll find it easier to generalize if you start with some details and work your way to a higher level of abstraction.
Specific advice for OT students : Often you are asked to generalize from a theory to a particular person
Substitute key words : draw conclusions
L ist suggests that you can jot down single words or phrases quickly without taking the time to describe or explain in any detail. If your teacher has made a point of asking for complete sentences on essay tests, though, be sure to ask if list means a short-item list or an extended description list.
List also often gets combined with other key words. List and explain , for instance, tells you that you don't need to spend much time labeling the items but that you do need to elaborate on their importance or their relationships.
Writing tip : If your teacher is saving your time by allowing you to list short-item answers, consider using bullets to give a visual clue about how many items you have in your final list. Especially on handwritten tests, visual clarity becomes increasingly important to teachers as they read dozens of pages.
Substitute key words : identify, note, label
R eflect doesn't appear often as a key word on exam questions, but when it does it typically asks you to express how the ideas or applications you've been studying have affected your personal point of view. Reflection is one of the more personal kinds of writing because it invites self-exploration. Of course, taking a personal perspective doesn't mean giving up any connection to outside reality. The idea is to connect your own "take" on the idea with what you've heard in class, studied in the text, or practiced in the lab.
Writing tip : Because reflection is more personal, don't try to write this response without using an "I" point of view. And don't forget to make explicit connections between your personal critical thinking and the idea or concept you've been thinking about.
D iscuss is the trickiest of the key words in essay-test questions because it doesn't give you much guidance about how to structure your response. When a teacher says discuss , it might be most appropriate to describe, analyze, or explain. If you can't get other clues from the question, your best bet is probably to ask for clarification from the teacher.
Substitute key words : consider, speculate about, write about
Especially for long responses, jot down a quick list of key points you need to cover. It's easy when writing a paragraph or two under time pressure to forget key ideas as you get involved in writing out your response. The list or notes will help you remember to include items, and you can use your notes as a checklist for completeness as you review your response at the end of the test period.
If you echo the question, you are more likely to write a response that answers the question because the question will usually spark your thinking along the right lines. For example, assume the test question asks, "If the reaction had been present, what would we have observed?" If you start your response with, "If the reaction had been present, we would have observed…," you are more likely to get right to descriptive details based on what you saw. Similarly, a test question such as, "Why would the key point you chose be the most effective?" calls for an answer that begins, "This key point is the most effective because…." The "because" sets you up immediately to get at the rationale behind your thinking.
Many teachers also prefer to have students write complete sentences when they answer essay questions on tests, so echoing the question gives you a head start on a complete sentence in your response.
Sometimes students feel too pressed for time to review anything. Generally, teachers will tell you that you're better served by writing the more important responses clearly and completely than by finishing every last question. So take some time to re-read and revise parts of your responses. (Teachers are generally willing to follow arrows to inserted points or read sentences in a certain order if you number them; these revision strategies can help you fill in detail and order the sentences in your responses for maximum clarity.)
However, it's a tactical mistake to re-read responses just after you write them. Sometimes, the ideas are still too fresh in your mind to see if the response is clear. Finishing the test and coming back to re-read gives you several advantages:
Re-reading your responses carefully will help you see
Much of the success on an essay test comes not during the test time but in the preparation time. If you know the material, you'll be able to generate your lists and notes quickly to help you write complete answers. If you fully understand the theory that a test question asks you to apply, then you'll be able to make coherent connections between theory and application. If you understand the specialized terminology being covered on a test, you will not only understand the questions more quickly, but you'll be able to use the jargon appropriately to write professional responses. Teachers know when students are padding responses to avoid answering a question, so writing skills can't carry you through a testing situation if you don't know the content.
Kate Kiefer and Anita Bundy. (1994-2024). Answering Exam Questions. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.
Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.
About the Author Stephanie Allen read Classics and English at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and is currently researching a PhD in Early Modern Academic Drama at the University of Fribourg.
We’ve all been there. You’ve handed in an essay and you think it’s pretty great: it shows off all your best ideas, and contains points you’re sure no one else will have thought of.
You’re not totally convinced that what you’ve written is relevant to the title you were given – but it’s inventive, original and good. In fact, it might be better than anything that would have responded to the question. But your essay isn’t met with the lavish praise you expected. When it’s tossed back onto your desk, there are huge chunks scored through with red pen, crawling with annotations like little red fire ants: ‘IRRELEVANT’; ‘A bit of a tangent!’; ‘???’; and, right next to your best, most impressive killer point: ‘Right… so?’. The grade your teacher has scrawled at the end is nowhere near what your essay deserves. In fact, it’s pretty average. And the comment at the bottom reads something like, ‘Some good ideas, but you didn’t answer the question!’.
If this has ever happened to you (and it has happened to me, a lot), you’ll know how deeply frustrating it is – and how unfair it can seem. This might just be me, but the exhausting process of researching, having ideas, planning, writing and re-reading makes me steadily more attached to the ideas I have, and the things I’ve managed to put on the page. Each time I scroll back through what I’ve written, or planned, so far, I become steadily more convinced of its brilliance. What started off as a scribbled note in the margin, something extra to think about or to pop in if it could be made to fit the argument, sometimes comes to be backbone of a whole essay – so, when a tutor tells me my inspired paragraph about Ted Hughes’s interpretation of mythology isn’t relevant to my essay on Keats, I fail to see why. Or even if I can see why, the thought of taking it out is wrenching. Who cares if it’s a bit off-topic? It should make my essay stand out, if anything! And an examiner would probably be happy not to read yet another answer that makes exactly the same points. If you recognise yourself in the above, there are two crucial things to realise. The first is that something has to change: because doing well in high school exam or coursework essays is almost totally dependent on being able to pin down and organise lots of ideas so that an examiner can see that they convincingly answer a question. And it’s a real shame to work hard on something, have good ideas, and not get the marks you deserve. Writing a top essay is a very particular and actually quite simple challenge. It’s not actually that important how original you are, how compelling your writing is, how many ideas you get down, or how beautifully you can express yourself (though of course, all these things do have their rightful place). What you’re doing, essentially, is using a limited amount of time and knowledge to really answer a question. It sounds obvious, but a good essay should have the title or question as its focus the whole way through . It should answer it ten times over – in every single paragraph, with every fact or figure. Treat your reader (whether it’s your class teacher or an external examiner) like a child who can’t do any interpretive work of their own; imagine yourself leading them through your essay by the hand, pointing out that you’ve answered the question here , and here , and here. Now, this is all very well, I imagine you objecting, and much easier said than done. But never fear! Structuring an essay that knocks a question on the head is something you can learn to do in a couple of easy steps. In the next few hundred words, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned through endless, mindless crossings-out, rewordings, rewritings and rethinkings.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told to ‘write the question at the top of every new page’- but for some reason, that trick simply doesn’t work for me. If it doesn’t work for you either, use this three-part process to allow the question to structure your essay:
It sounds really obvious, but lots of students have trouble answering questions because they don’t take time to figure out exactly what they’re expected to do – instead, they skim-read and then write the essay they want to write. Sussing out a question is a two-part process, and the first part is easy. It means looking at the directions the question provides as to what sort of essay you’re going to write. I call these ‘command phrases’ and will go into more detail about what they mean below. The second part involves identifying key words and phrases.
Use forceful, persuasive language to show how the points you’ve made do answer the question. My main focus so far has been on tangential or irrelevant material – but many students lose marks even though they make great points, because they don’t quite impress how relevant those points are. Again, I’ll talk about how you can do this below.
It doesn’t matter how impressive, original or interesting it is. It doesn’t matter if you’re panicking, and you can’t think of any points that do answer the question. If a point isn’t relevant, don’t bother with it. It’s a waste of time, and might actually work against you- if you put tangential material in an essay, your reader will struggle to follow the thread of your argument, and lose focus on your really good points.
Let’s imagine you’re writing an English essay about the role and importance of the three witches in Macbeth . You’re thinking about the different ways in which Shakespeare imagines and presents the witches, how they influence the action of the tragedy, and perhaps the extent to which we’re supposed to believe in them (stay with me – you don’t have to know a single thing about Shakespeare or Macbeth to understand this bit!). Now, you’ll probably have a few good ideas on this topic – and whatever essay you write, you’ll most likely use much of the same material. However, the detail of the phrasing of the question will significantly affect the way you write your essay. You would draw on similar material to address the following questions: Discuss Shakespeare’s representation of the three witches in Macbeth . How does Shakespeare figure the supernatural in Macbeth ? To what extent are the three witches responsible for Macbeth’s tragic downfall? Evaluate the importance of the three witches in bringing about Macbeth’s ruin. Are we supposed to believe in the three witches in Macbeth ? “Within Macbeth ’s representation of the witches, there is profound ambiguity about the actual significance and power of their malevolent intervention” (Stephen Greenblatt). Discuss. I’ve organised the examples into three groups, exemplifying the different types of questions you might have to answer in an exam. The first group are pretty open-ended: ‘discuss’- and ‘how’-questions leave you room to set the scope of the essay. You can decide what the focus should be. Beware, though – this doesn’t mean you don’t need a sturdy structure, or a clear argument, both of which should always be present in an essay. The second group are asking you to evaluate, constructing an argument that decides whether, and how far something is true. Good examples of hypotheses (which your essay would set out to prove) for these questions are:
The final question asks you to respond to a quotation. Students tend to find these sorts of questions the most difficult to answer, but once you’ve got the hang of them I think the title does most of the work for you – often implicitly providing you with a structure for your essay. The first step is breaking down the quotation into its constituent parts- the different things it says. I use brackets: ( Within Macbeth ’s representation of the witches, ) ( there is profound ambiguity ) about the ( actual significance ) ( and power ) of ( their malevolent intervention ) Examiners have a nasty habit of picking the most bewildering and terrifying-sounding quotations: but once you break them down, they’re often asking for something very simple. This quotation, for example, is asking exactly the same thing as the other questions. The trick here is making sure you respond to all the different parts. You want to make sure you discuss the following:
Having worked out exactly what the question is asking, write out a plan (which should be very detailed in a coursework essay, but doesn’t have to be more than a few lines long in an exam context) of the material you’ll use in each paragraph. Make sure your plan contains a sentence at the end of each point about how that point will answer the question. A point from my plan for one of the topics above might look something like this:
To what extent are we supposed to believe in the three witches in Macbeth ? Hypothesis: The witches’ role in Macbeth’s downfall is deliberately unclear. Their claim to reality is uncertain – finally, they’re part of an uncertain tragic universe and the great illusion of the theatre. Para.1: Context At the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth , there were many examples of people being burned or drowned as witches There were also people who claimed to be able to exorcise evil demons from people who were ‘possessed’. Catholic Christianity leaves much room for the supernatural to exist This suggests that Shakespeare’s contemporary audience might, more readily than a modern one, have believed that witches were a real phenomenon and did exist.
My final sentence (highlighted in red) shows how the material discussed in the paragraph answers the question. Writing this out at the planning stage, in addition to clarifying your ideas, is a great test of whether a point is relevant: if you struggle to write the sentence, and make the connection to the question and larger argument, you might have gone off-topic.
The final step to making sure you pick up all the possible marks for ‘answering the question’ in an essay is ensuring that you make it explicit how your material does so. This bit relies upon getting the beginnings and endings of paragraphs just right. To reiterate what I said above, treat your reader like a child: tell them what you’re going to say; tell them how it answers the question; say it, and then tell them how you’ve answered the question. This need not feel clumsy, awkward or repetitive. The first sentence of each new paragraph or point should, without giving too much of your conclusion away, establish what you’re going to discuss, and how it answers the question. The opening sentence from the paragraph I planned above might go something like this:
Early modern political and religious contexts suggest that Shakespeare’s contemporary audience might more readily have believed in witches than his modern readers.
The sentence establishes that I’m going to discuss Jacobean religion and witch-burnings, and also what I’m going to use those contexts to show. I’d then slot in all my facts and examples in the middle of the paragraph. The final sentence (or few sentences) should be strong and decisive, making a clear connection to the question you’ve been asked:
Contemporary suspicion that witches did exist, testified to by witch-hunts and exorcisms, is crucial to our understanding of the witches in Macbeth. To the early modern consciousness, witches were a distinctly real and dangerous possibility – and the witches in the play would have seemed all-the-more potent and terrifying as a result.
The best way to get really good at making sure you always ‘answer the question’ is to write essay plans rather than whole pieces. Set aside a few hours, choose a couple of essay questions from past papers, and for each:
You can get your teacher, or a friend, to look through your plans and give you feedback. If you follow this advice, fingers crossed, next time you hand in an essay, it’ll be free from red-inked comments about irrelevance, and instead showered with praise for the precision with which you handled the topic, and how intently you focused on answering the question. It can seem depressing when your perfect question is just a minor tangent from the question you were actually asked, but trust me – high praise and good marks are all found in answering the question in front of you, not the one you would have liked to see. Teachers do choose the questions they set you with some care, after all; chances are the question you were set is the more illuminating and rewarding one as well.
Image credits: banner ; Keats ; Macbeth ; James I ; witches .
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Strategies For Specific Question Types
You can gain even more confidence in your test-taking abilities by understanding the different kinds of questions an instructor may ask and apply the following proven strategies for answering them. Most instructors will likely use various conventional types of questions. Here are some tips for handling the most common types.
**Used from Creative Commons: Chapter 6: Preparing for and Taking Tests . in College Success. Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at : http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view . License : CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
More tips for success.
Strategies for answering questions, learning objectives.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
—Albert Einstein
In many respects, test-taking is a skill. If you learn some key strategies, you can be quite successful in taking tests. There are many skills and strategies you can employ to help you be a better test taker:
Brigham Young University (BYU) has a put together a set of general guidelines for test preparation, along with specific strategies for doing well on different kinds of tests. Read BYU’s test preparation recommendations here .
Another list of strategies, widely used, is LAB B2OWL—an acronym to help you remember critical aspects of successful test-taking strategies. Watch the following video, which describes the strategies in detail. Then review the main concepts in the table, [1] below.
You can view the transcript for “Exam Strategies – Test Skills” here (opens in new window) .
LAB B2OWL | DESCRIPTION |
L | LOOK: Look over the entire exam before you start. Take care to read the directions, underline test words, and circle questions you don’t fully understand. |
A | ASK: If you have any questions at all, ask. For example, if the exam doesn’t indicate total point allocation, be sure to ask your instructor. |
B | BUDGET: Budget your time based on the point allocation for each question. For instance, let’s say your exam has one essay question worth 50 percent, and 5 identifications worth 10 percent each. If you have two hours to take the test, this gives you one hour to complete the essay, and 10 minutes for each of the five short-answer questions. You will have 10 minutes in reserve to review your work before turning it in. |
B2 | BEGIN X 2: Begin with an easy question in order to build your confidence and get warmed up for the rest of the exam. Begin each answer with a thesis topic sentence. Restate the question in a single sentence to help you focus your answer. |
O | OUTLINE: Be careful to write a quick outline for your essay on a separate page before you begin. This will help you organize your facts and focus your ideas. It might also serve to show your professor where you were going if you don’t have time to finish. |
W | WATCH: Watch for key testing words like , , and . These help you understand what your professor will be looking for in an answer. |
L | LOOK: Finally, look over your exam before turning it in to make sure you haven’t missed anything important. |
The infographic, below, depicts key strategies you can use to improve your performance on tests. If you carefully examine the illustrations in the infographic and connect them with the text, you will likely remember these techniques in the future when you most need them.
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The Penn application process includes a personal essay —which is sent to most schools you apply to—as well as a few short answer prompts . We read your words carefully, as they are yet another window into how you think, what you value, and how you see the world. Through your writing, we get a glimpse of what you might bring to our community—including your voice and creativity.
Remember, you are the expert on your story. This is an opportunity for you to reflect and understand who you are now, and who you want to be in the future. You have the agency to choose the information you want to share. This is your story: your experiences, your ideas, your perspective.
When answering these prompts, be precise when explaining both why you are applying to Penn and why you have chosen to apply to that specific undergraduate school. Some of our specialized programs will have additional essays to complete, but the Penn short answer prompts should address your single-degree or single-school choice.
Transfer Essay (required for all transfer applicants): Please explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring to another institution. (4150 characters)
For students applying to coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer this question about your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay.
Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. What do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare? (150-200 words)
To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about Penn Nursing’s mission and how we promote equity in healthcare . This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of our values and how they align with your own goals and aspirations.
The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150-200 words)
To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about the academic offerings within the College of Arts and Sciences . This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of how the study of the liberal arts aligns with your own goals and aspirations.
Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it. (150-200 words)
To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about the foundations of a Wharton education . This information will help you better understand what you could learn by studying at Wharton and what you could do afterward.
Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn. (150-200 words)
To help inform your response, applicants are encouraged to learn more about Penn Engineering and its mission to prepare students for global leadership in technology . This information will help you develop a stronger understanding of academic pathways within Penn Engineering and how they align with your goals and interests.
For students applying to coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer the program-specific essay below.
** Numbers marked with double asterisks indicate a character count that only applies to transfer students applying through Common App.
Why are you interested in the Digital Media Design (DMD) program at the University of Pennsylvania? (400-650 words / 3575 characters**)
We encourage you to learn more about the DMD: Digital Media Design Program .
The Huntsman Program supports the development of globally minded scholars who become engaged citizens, creative innovators, and ethical leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally. What draws you to a dual-degree program in business and international studies, and how would you use what you learn to contribute to a global issue where business and international affairs intersect? (400-650 words)
The LSM program aims to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the life sciences and their management with an eye to identifying, advancing, and implementing innovations. What issues would you want to address using the understanding gained from such a program? Note that this essay should be distinct from your single degree essay. (400-650 words)
Describe your interests in modern networked information systems and technologies, such as the internet, and their impact on society, whether in terms of economics, communication, or the creation of beneficial content for society. Feel free to draw on examples from your own experiences as a user, developer, or student of technology. (400-650 words / 3575 characters**)
Discuss your interest in nursing and health care management. How might Penn's coordinated dual-degree program in nursing and business help you meet your goals? (400-650 words)
How do you envision your participation in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) furthering your interests in energy science and technology? Please include any past experiences (ex. academic, research, or extracurricular) that have led to your interest in the program. Additionally, please indicate why you are interested in pursuing dual degrees in science and engineering and which VIPER majors are most interesting to you at this time. (400-650 words)
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The Morning recently invited its readers to submit questions. Below, we’re publishing a selection of them, along with answers from Times staff members. (We also published some answers in today’s edition of The Morning .)
We edited some questions for brevity.
Do you have any data about the evolution of the English language? I know right now that language is evolving rapidly because of TikTok and the younger generations’ apprehension toward using millennial lingo. The change seems more exponential from 1900 to 2024 than from 1300 to 1500. — Divya Thomas
John McWhorter, an Opinion writer (and linguist): It can certainly seem as if English is changing faster than in the past, but mainly because of the blizzard of new terms and new slang. In terms of the actual heart of language — sounds, structures and basic words — English changed much faster from 1300 to 1500.
From 1300 to 1600, for example, Middle English became Modern English, which was different enough that Shakespeare and Chaucer would have found it dicey to converse beyond an elementary level. Vowels transformed so vastly that a word once pronounced “MAH-day” became our “made.”
For all our neologisms like “diss,” “because X,” “X-adjacent” and “I’m good,” no transformation like that has happened in English for a very long time. Time traveling back to 1900, we would find that people used some words in different ways, and people would often sound a little funny in terms of accent. But they were speaking the language we speak.
Why is it that so many children and adults end a normal sentence with an inflection that makes it sound like a question? Where are the teachers and parents who should be correcting them? — Joan Kool
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When answering essay questions, which of the following words would you watch for? None Commonly Always Analyze. Analyze. How long should your resume be? No limit on length One page Two pages A few paragraphs. One page.
Words to Watch for in Essay Questions The following words are commonly found in essay test questions. Understanding them is essential to success on such questions. If you want to do well on essay tests, then study this page thoroughly. Know these words backward and forward. To heighten your awareness of them, underline the words when you see ...
Note how many essay questions you have to answer and how difficult each question seems. Then allocate your time accordingly. Read the question carefully and underline or circle keywords. Watch for words that describe the instructor's expectations for your response (see Table 6.1 "Words to Watch for in Essay Questions").
prompt, they often find that it answers many of their questions. When you read the assignment prompt, you should do the following: • Look for action verbs. Verbs like analyze, compare, discuss, explain, make an argument, propose a solution, trace, or research can help you understand what you're being asked to do with an assignment.
The content words are the "meat" of the question - these are things you can research. Effective communication is considered a core skill in higher education and is usually conveyed through the medium of academic papers and essays.Discuss the process of writing academic essays and critically examine the importance of structure and content.. You will often be asked to talk about "the role ...
Start with an introductory paragraph, use 3 paragraphs in the body of the article to explain different points, and finish with a concluding paragraph. It can also be really helpful to draft a quick outline of your essay before you start writing. 3. Choose relevant facts and figures to include.
Important Words In Essay Questions - Take Me To Manoa
Note how many essay questions you have to answer and how difficult each question seems. Then allocate your time accordingly. Read the question carefully and underline or circle keywords. Watch for words that describe the instructor's expectations for your response (see Table 6.1 "Words to Watch for in Essay Questions").
answer the question. Identifying the key words first will help you earn the most points you can. When the question includes the following key words: Describe Discuss Explain List Outline Prove Review State You should write all the relevant information you know about the topic. When the questions includes the following key words: Criticize ...
Create an outline of thoughts and related topics in connection with the essay question. By doing this you are helping yourself create a more organized answer. Construct an idea in each paragraph. Go back to your essay outline if you think you are repeating yourself or not making sense at all.
A list of important words in essay questions has been given below to help students answer essay questions with the kinds of responses that instructors seek. These words are called KEY WORDS! One suggestion many students have found helpful is to mark all the KEY WORDS in all test directions and question before beginning to answer. This makes it ...
Make sure you understand the question. Pick out key phases and words, underlining them if necessary. Only when you are sure you understand the question should you go on to the next step. 2. Organize your answer. Make sure that you are answering the question as it is asked. Don't go off on a tangent. Outline your answer before you start writing.
Then put the information in a logical order. Stage Four: Restate the Question—To begin writing the answer to the question, rephrase the question in your opening sentence. It is important to repeat many of the words found in the question to show your instructor that your answer is clear and on target. Stage Five: Use Transitional Words—As ...
t" and end with a "conclusion". Stream of consciousness writing (puttin. things on paper as you think of them) will result in a mediocre grade at best.DOCUMENTED: Contrary to the True/False or Multip. Choice Question, your essay answer must go beyond a simple statement of fact. The professor is looking for the.
Most essay questions contain an action word that you can use to help you organize your response to that question. In general, there are six of these action words. Click the actions to jump to that section. Define; Analyze; Cause & Effect; Compare & Contrast; Process Analysis / Describe / List
Definition of Question Words with Examples. Words such as 'explain', 'evaluate' or 'analyse' - typical question words used in essay titles - provide a useful indication of how your essay should be structured. They often require varying degrees of critical responses. Sometimes, they may simply require a descriptive answer.
Answering Essay Questions Made Easier. Instructors frequently remark that a major reason that students don't receive higher grades on essay exams is because they do not follow directions even when these directions are included in the question. These instructors add that many students don't seem to know how to recognize words in ques-tions ...
Answering Exam Questions. Contents. Introduction. Read through the entire exam to plan an overall strategy. Look at each exam question to identify key words. Think about what kind of writing the key word or words call for. Make notes to yourself of the points you want to cover in the response.
Step Four: Practice makes perfect. The best way to get really good at making sure you always 'answer the question' is to write essay plans rather than whole pieces. Set aside a few hours, choose a couple of essay questions from past papers, and for each: Write a hypothesis.
Careful planning is critical to answering essay questions effectively. Note how many essay questions you have to answer and how difficult each question seems. Then allocate your time accordingly. Read the question carefully and underline or circle keywords. Watch for words that describe the instructor's expectations for your response (see the ...
B. BUDGET: Budget your time based on the point allocation for each question. For instance, let's say your exam has one essay question worth 50 percent, and 5 identifications worth 10 percent each. If you have two hours to take the test, this gives you one hour to complete the essay, and 10 minutes for each of the five short-answer questions.
When answering these prompts, be precise when explaining both why you are applying to Penn and why you have chosen to apply to that specific undergraduate school. Some of our specialized programs will have additional essays to complete, but the Penn short answer prompts should address your single-degree or single-school choice.
answer the easiest questions first. The process of reaching logical conclusions by employing logical reasoning is called: deductive reasoning. We have an expert-written solution to this problem! When answering essay questions, it is recommended that you watch out for words such as "compare," "contrast," and: evaluate.
When answering essay questions, watch for words such as: The key to answering essay questions is to decipher terms that can lead you... One way that you can answer these questions as to copy and complete the:.... How should you answer them? If you've come here in search of answers to these questions, you've come to the right place. Now, we may ...
Ideally, the lead item for the following day's newsletter is already written by 11 a.m. We can then fact-check and edit it by midafternoon. Most days, we think it's fine if the lead item isn ...