Essays: keep your eyes on the prize

NOTE: The MCAT no longer includes an essay.

I once had an SAT student who wrote a brilliant essay in which she evaluated both sides of an issue before deciding that there was merit to both sides, and that we could determine which side to go with based on a particular criterion, which she listed and discussed. As I said, it was brilliant, and it was better than many of the essays I receive from MCAT students. Unfortunately, she failed to adequately address the question that had been asked of her, so I couldn't give her a good grade.

When you're asked to write an essay, the first step is to be sure that you understand what you're assignment is. the second step is to be sure that you actually write to address that assignment. Both steps are important.

The first step doesn't take much: you just have to take the time to read the assignment and make sure that you understand it. Try to paraphrase the assignment question (put it into your own words) to be sure that you understand it. If you taking an exam where you're allowed to do so, and you're uncertain about the assignment, ask your instructor.

The second can be trickier, since it can be tempting to use the assignment as a jumping-off point for an essay that ultimately charges off into other territories, or to only answer part of a more complex assignment. Once we're writing, our thoughts may focus on the what's in front of us - is this fact correct, is my grammar ok - and we can lose sight of where we're actually supposed to be going.

The solution to keeping on track is to plan out the essay before writing it. Take a few minutes to sketch out the points you want to make, with their examples and/or reasoning. Look at the completed sketch to make sure that it actually matches the assignment. And then write the essay, keeping to the sketched-out plan: if a new example comes to us as we write, don't add it unless there is the time to go back and rework the original plan to include it (in other words, it's okay to add examples to a take-home assignment, but not for an in-class exam).