how to train students to answer essay questions effectively

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How to Write a Good Answer to Exam Essay Questions

Last Updated: July 9, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Tristen Bonacci . Tristen Bonacci is a Licensed English Teacher with more than 20 years of experience. Tristen has taught in both the United States and overseas. She specializes in teaching in a secondary education environment and sharing wisdom with others, no matter the environment. Tristen holds a BA in English Literature from The University of Colorado and an MEd from The University of Phoenix. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 648,867 times.

Answering essay questions on an exam can be difficult and stressful, which can make it hard to provide a good answer. However, you can improve your ability to answer essay questions by learning how to understand the questions, form an answer, and stay focused. Developing your ability to give excellent answers on essay exams will take time and effort, but you can learn some good essay question practices and start improving your answers.

Understanding the Question

• Analyze: Explain the what, where, who, when, why, and how. Include pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, etc.
• Compare: Discuss the similarities and differences between two or more things. Don't forget to explain why the comparison is useful.
• Contrast: Discuss how two or more things are different or distinguish between them. Don't forget to explain why the contrast is useful.
• Define: State what something means, does, achieves, etc.
• Describe: List characteristics or traits of something. You may also need to summarize something, such as an essay prompt that asks "Describe the major events that led to the American Revolution."
• Discuss: This is more analytical. You usually begin by describing something and then present arguments for or against it. You may need to analyze the advantages or disadvantages of your subject.
• Evaluate: Offer the pros and cons, positives and negatives for a subject. You may be asked to evaluate a statement for logical support, or evaluate an argument for weaknesses.
• Explain: Explain why or how something happened, or justify your position on something.
• Prove: Usually reserved for more scientific or objective essays. You may be asked to include evidence and research to build a case for a specific position or set of hypotheses.
• Summarize: Usually, this means to list the major ideas or themes of a subject. It could also ask you to present the main ideas in order to then fully discuss them. Most essay questions will not ask for pure summary without anything else.

• Raise your hand and wait for your teacher to come over to you or approach your teacher’s desk to ask your question. This way you will be less likely to disrupt other test takers.

Forming Your Response

• Take a moment to consider your organization before you start writing your answer. What information should come first, second, third, etc.?
• In many cases, the traditional 5-paragraph essay structure works well. 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.

• You may want to make a list of facts and figures that you want to include in your essay answer. That way you can refer to this list as you write your answer.
• It's best to write down all the important key topics or ideas before you get started composing your answer. That way, you can check back to make sure you haven't missed anything.

• For example, imagine that your essay question asks: "Should the FIFA World Cup be awarded to countries with human rights violations? Explain and support your answer."
• You might restate this as "Countries with human rights violations should not be awarded the FIFA World Cup because this rewards a nation's poor treatment of its citizens." This will be the thesis that you support with examples and explanation.

• For example, whether you argue that the FIFA World Cup should or should not be awarded to countries with human rights violations, you will want to address the opposing side's argument. However, it needs to be clear where your essay stands about the matter.
• Often, essay questions end up saying things along the lines of "There are many similarities and differences between X and Y." This does not offer a clear position and can result in a bad grade.

• If you are required to write your answer by hand, then take care to make your writing legible and neat. Some professors may deduct points if they cannot read what you have written.

Staying Calm and Focused

• If you get to a point during the exam where you feel too anxious to focus, put down your pencil (or take your hands off of the keyboard), close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Stretch your arms and imagine that you are somewhere pleasant for a few moments. When you have completed this brief exercise, open up your eyes and resume the exam.

• For example, if the exam period is one hour long and you have to answer three questions in that time frame, then you should plan to spend no more than 20 minutes on each question.
• Look at the weight of the questions, if applicable. For example, if there are five 10-point short-answers and a 50-point essay, plan to spend more time on the essay because it is worth significantly more. Don't get stuck spending so much time on the short-answers that you don't have time to develop a complex essay.

• This strategy is even more important if the exam has multiple essay questions. If you take too much time on the first question, then you may not have enough time to answer the other questions on the exam.

• If you feel like you are straying away from the question, reread the question and review any notes that you made to help guide you. After you get refocused, then continue writing your answer.
• Try to allow yourself enough time to go back and tighten up connections between your points. A few well-placed transitions can really bump up your grade.

Community Q&A

• If you are worried about running out of time, put your watch in front of you where you can see it. Just try not to focus on it too much. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you need more practice, make up your own questions or even look at some practice questions online! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Look up relevant quotes if your exam is open notes. Use references from books or class to back up your answers.
• Make sure your sentences flow together and that you don't repeat the same thing twice!

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• ↑ https://www.linnbenton.edu/student-services/library-tutoring-testing/learning-center/academic-coaching/documents/Strategies%20For%20Answering%20Essay%20Questions.pdf
• ↑ https://success.uark.edu/get-help/student-resources/short-answer-essays.php

About This Article

To write a good answer to an exam essay question, read the question carefully to find what it's asking, and follow the instructions for the essay closely. Begin your essay by rephrasing the question into a statement with your answer in the statement. Include supplemental facts and figures if necessary, or do textual analysis from a provided piece to support your argument. Make sure your writing is clear and to the point, and don't include extra information unless it supports your argument. For tips from our academic reviewer on understanding essay questions and dealing with testing nerves, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Answer Essay Questions – The Ultimate Guide

• Posted by Brian Stocker MA
• Date November 30, 2007
• Comments 7 comments

Everyone Loves Essay Questions!

“I hate essays!” This battle cry is famous to most students. That’s because essay questions are either easy or difficult. Either way, there’s no certain formula. Even if you think you know the answer - don’t be overconfident - the critical part is how you make your essay worth reading. So how do you do it?

Audio Version of this Post

Tips for Writing an Essay

Read the question more than once. Some questions can be tricky so make sure you understand it to the letter. A lot of students commit error by simply not reading instructions very well. They read and then write a long essay, only to realize very late that they did not understand the question correctly.

Familiarize yourself with your professor or teacher’s style of organization, if you can. As students, it’s your role to know how your teachers want their essays answered.

Mentally go through your lecture notes before writing anything on your paper.

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.

Use the terminology of the course . Be professional in knowing what type of words to use in a particular topic or subject.

Read and go back to your previous paragraphs after you are finished with one paragraph. This will help you determine your flow of thought and if you are really making a point or giving an answer.

Don’t include ideas that are off-topic.

If there are too many ideas in your outline , cut out the least important ones. As much as possible, make your idea concrete and pointed, with arguments or statements that is easy to understand.

The body of your essay should have a summary or statement.

Support your summary or statement with adequate details and specifics. If you do not know how to add details, just expand on your generic idea.

Avoid jumping from one point to another.

Avoid vague descriptions if necessary . Include specifics to get your message across.

Review the question again and again so you will not lose your thread of thinking.

If you have time to make revisions, do so.

Use all the time you have to complete your essay. Review and re-check your answers before submitting your paper.

If you have nothing to write and don’t know what to write , don’t leave your paper blank. Write something at least.

Get the Complete Guide to Studying

Get the complete guide to taking notes, taking a test complete guide to multiple choice, essay check list.

Here is a great Checklist for answering Essay Questions from Tennessee State University:

Use the following as a guide when writing answers to discussion questions and as a checklist after you have written your answer.

1. Do I understand the question?  What am I being asked to do? 2. Do I have a plan?  What are my major points and how am I going to present them? 3. Does the reader know, just from reading the first sentence of my essay, both the question and how I will answer it? 4. Are my major points clear and do they stand out? 5. Do I support my argument with facts and examples? 6. Do I make clear and sensible transitions between major points? 7. Is my answer clear to someone who knows nothing about this? 8. Have I answered the question completely?  Have I fully covered all of the major points required to completely answer the question? 9. Is there irrelevant material? 10. Do I have a conclusion and summary statement? 11. Have I proofed my essay for common spelling and grammatical errors? 12. Is my handwriting legible?  Is there room for comments or additions?

Glossary of Essay Exam Terms

When taking an exam the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with all instructions. At times this can be confusing especially if you do not understand the terms. Below you will find some common terms used on essay exams. Learning these terms is a key step in successful completion of most essay exams.

• Compare (also Compare with): Discuss the similarities between two or more given subjects.
• Contrast: Discuss the differences in two or more given subjects.
• Criticize: Explain the value of a finding or theory. Include both negative and positive aspects based on implementation. This could be the ease of which it is applied, examples of false findings, etc…
• Define: Describe precisely a term’s meaning as it applies specifically to a given subject.
• Describe: Use exact detail to explain a given term. This may call for the use of examples, definitions, or discussion of the term.
• Diagram: Use a visual representation of relevant information to explain implementation of a term. This usually calls for an explicit chart or graph which is thoroughly labelled. In some cases it may call for a detailed plan as well.
• Discuss: The literal meaning of discuss is talk about. To do this in an exam you must thoroughly explain your subject with words.
• Enumerate: Form a list of relevant points and explain each point. This may result in an outline like answer.
• Evaluate: Discuss the pros and cons of the application of your given subject from a professional point of view. This differs from criticize because personal opinion should be avoided unless instructions specify otherwise.
• Explain: Define the given material and give examples of how and why it is important to the subject.
• Illustrate: Use a visual aid or a clearly defined example to explain a given subject.
• Interpret: Explain the given question, include you personal feelings on the subject as well as a solution.
• Justify: Use factual information to argue you view of the situation presented in a given problem.
• List: Brief but thorough list of information that explains the given topic.
• Outline: much like writing an outline for a paper. Answer the question by creating an outline that highlights the main ideas and key points of those ideas.
• Prove: Discuss the topic in a way that readers are convinced to support or reject the idea discussed. This is done through presentation of facts or the step by step illustration of logical thinking.
• Relate: Discuss the connection between two or more events, people, problems, etc…
• Review: Close examination of a problem accompanied by brief comments that explain the main points.
• State (also Give, Specify, or Present): Explain the major points of a subject in brief for. There is typically no need for further explanation.
• Summarize: Create a brief description that highlights the major points of your subject.
• Trace: Explain the progress of the given subject from conception to current date. Highlight anything that is considered a major topic as well as the reason for any changes.

Don’t!

Last piece of advice – Don’t get your parents to edit it!

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Every thing was educational. Had a good feeling on how to deliver good papers.

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Strategies and Tips Regarding Essay Questions on an Examination

What is an essay question.

When we think of an essay, we tend to think of a multiple-page written response to some question, prompt or scenario. However, essay-type questions can be brought into exam situations and can be quite beneficial in assessing student understanding. Regarding the definition of an essay question, one that has been helpful in deconstructing some of the core components of this type of questioning comes from John Stalnaker (1951). In his book, he defines an essay question to be

“ A test item which requires a response composed by the examinee, usually in the form of one or more sentences, of a nature that no single response or pattern of responses can be listed as correct, and the accuracy and quality of which can be judged subjectively only by one skilled or informed in the subject.”

Based on this definition, there are a few criteria that inform us on the characteristics of an essay question.

• Something in which the examinee (or student) has to compose or create, rather than select from a list of options
• It inherently includes some form of writing, usually in the form of multiple sentences
• Answers are not bound by a single response or pattern of responses
• It can only be evaluated or judged by someone informed or skilled in the subject

Maybe input an example of what an essay question might look like under these different criteria

Why are some advantages for essay type questions?

Essay questions bring a lot to the table when thinking about the purpose of your assessment tools. There are many different advantages to why we should use essay type questions on a midterm or a final exam. However, keep in mind that these advantages are context specific, and are presented to help you discern whether these will aid you in the assessment of your learning outcomes

• Essay questions can help assess higher-order thinking and critical thinking skills
• Essay questions can also assess in-the-moment writing skills
• Essay questions can evaluate student problem solving and reasoning skills

By understanding the advantages of an essay type question on a midterm, test or final exam, educators are then able to better assess whether these types of questions are useful for their purposes and learning objectives

What are some disadvantages towards essay type questions

• Can assess limited sample of the range of content.
• Can be difficult to grade and be administratively more costly to implement
• Can lead to bad writing habits, due to the lack of feedback and editing processes

Possible misconceptions regarding essay type questions

• Essay questions are always better than multiple choice questions when assessing higher order thinking

Just because you are providing students space to write more does not automatically mean that higher order thinking is being tested and evaluated. Poorly written essay questions can test rote memory, and can lend itself to a more factually-based answer. At the same time, well-crafted multiple choice questions can test higher order thinking (as described above). Therefore, it is important to be cautious when assuming essay questions automatically test higher order thinking.

• Essay questions eliminate guessing

There is a large concern when constructing question types that provide answers to students (such as multiple choice, true/false, or matching) where students can come to the correct answer based on luck or guessing. There is also an assumption that when students are writing an essay question, guessing has been eliminated, which is a misnomer. Essay questions can lend itself to a new form of guessing, or what researchers call “Bluffing” (Thelin & Scott, 1928). Bluffing is when students provide vague or generalized content in order to pad or add credibility to their writing. Many times, when grading large amounts of essay questions and when time is a factor in grading, it can seem that students who write a lot have a deeper understanding of content. However, succinct writing can be just as, if not more, effective in answer an essay prompt. Therefore, instructors need to be aware not only when constructing essay questions, but also during the grading of the potential of bluffing.

• Essays develop writing skills
• Essays encourage students to study and prepare more deeply

Strategies on how to construct effective essay questions

• Start with your own learning outcomes

As stated before, it is important to always think about the intentions and learning objectives of your assessment tool. Are you hoping to assess a baseline of knowledge, or is this a tool to be used to assess critical thinking and problem solving skills. Writing out explicit, clear and concise learning objectives will aid in how you create your essay questions. Understanding what you want your students to express will help you work backwards in creating your essay question.

• Limit subject matter (create boundaries)

Many times when students are given an essay question in an examination, it can feel extremely overwhelming. If we provide too vague of an essay question, students will feel the desire to write everything they know about the topic, many times to the detriment of actually answering the question. Therefore, providing clear boundaries and limitations (in your question and scenario) will help students focus their answer. Instead of having a need to write everything down, they will be able to formulate a clear response to your question if your question is clearly stated.

• Use verbs carefully and selectively (and make sure the verb interacts with the object of the verb)

Not all verbs are the same! Be mindful of what you want students to do. If you want students to provide an explanation, verbs like describe or explain might be useful. If you are hoping for students to provide their own interpretations with supportive evidence, verbs like analyze or evaluate.

• Situate the intended learning objective into a problem

This is similar to the previous idea of writing out your learning objective but takes it one step further. Since you have already written out your learning objective, use the same language for the essay question. If you are hoping for students to demonstrate their own opinions on a certain topic, feel free to use that language “demonstrating personal opinion” so students know what your intended learning outcomes are.

• Understanding limitations of writing in a time-based assessment

Essay questions are not essays. Essays go through a process of drafting, editing and revision. Essay questions on a test very rarely get edited, and generally do not start from a place of an outline or skeleton. Understand that your students are under considerable time pressure and many of them will start writing immediately even before drafting an outline. Therefore, be mindful of the time pressures of the writing and adjust your grading accordingly. Be clear as to your expectations on the quality of writing, the use of bullet points and short form, and other ways students can save time on the actual writing. Also be mindful of how many essay questions you can effectively put on an examination. Even if each question could be answered in 30 minutes, the more you add, the slower students will be to answer subsequent questions due to mental and physical fatigue.

• Promote feedback and training (to avoid poor writing habits)

One possible shortcoming of essay type questions is that they can promote bad writing habits. This is mainly due to the fact that students, very rarely, concern themselves with strong writing skills when completing an essay question on an examination. Therefore, it is up to the instructor to ensure that writing quality does not degrade during essay-type questions on a test. Integrating writing support during the course is not enough, for writing an essay or an assignment might be quite different than writing an essay question in a short period of time. Some strategies that might be helpful would be to encourage students to read the feedback on their essay questions. Furthermore, options can be provided for students to re-submit their essay questions (without knowing the answer key) after getting their marks back for a small, almost insignificant bonus in order to promote the editing and reflective process that is more evident in essay writing. Moreover, providing students with practice on how to effectively write essay questions, and even allocating grades to writing style and effectiveness on the actual essay question itself will help encourage students to not neglect one large aspect of these types of questions. One of the best ways to promote strong writing is to provide quality writing and have students deconstruct the piece of work. Giving the opportunities to be reflective and to try to take something as subjective as writing and create some objective guiding principles will aid in student writing development.

• Keep the writing of the essay as accessible as possible

One of the biggest fears of students is misunderstanding the question, which leads to providing an answer that does not represent their true understanding of the content. This becomes exaggerated with English language/Multi-language learners. When constructing your question, do your best to remove any unnecessary fillers and keep the prompt as succinct as possible. Very similarly to writing a good stem for multiple choice questions, any jargon or unnecessary information should be removed to reduce the amount of extraneous cognitive load and possible points of confusion.

• Be clear about the criteria of grading

Students should be aware of the criteria in which they are being graded. Now, unlike essays, many times students are not given the opportunity to review the grading rubric or criteria ahead of time. Therefore, it might be beneficial for students to know ahead of time how they might be graded (on general themes such as writing style, clarity, having a strong thesis statement, etc). Furthermore, on the actual essay question itself, it may be wise to provide a breakdown of what is expected and how the grades will be allocated. If you do provide a short breakdown of the grading scheme, keep it short and succinct as many students will just glance over it due to the time pressures of the test.

What about providing the questions ahead of time

Many educators believe that one way of dealing with the time crunch is to provide students with essay questions/topics ahead of time prior to the actual examination. Furthermore, some instructors will allow students to bring in “cheat sheets”, or work that has been written prior to aid them in the creation of their written answers. However, there are many pedagogical and administrative issues that come with providing questions ahead of time.

Administratively, instructors have to ask themselves, if they are providing questions ahead of time, why they have chosen to use these essay questions on an assessment tool like a midterm or test, rather than an essay assignment. Having more time, and the opportunities to edit, re-evaluate, and even resubmit a piece of writing will be more beneficial to students’ writing abilities than a one-off essay question on a test. Furthermore, providing students with more time to write the piece of work will generally lend itself to a higher caliber of work that reflects the students’ full capabilities. Therefore, educators need to ask how their learning objectives are better accomplished with this version of an essay question on a test rather than an essay assignment.

Pedagogically, it may seem beneficial to provide students with the essay questions ahead of time. Moreover, many instructors will provide a larger sample of essay questions, and only chose a subsection of them on the midterm. This may seem useful in helping students from just memorizing a script, while still assessing their mastery of the content and their critical thinking skills. However, the research has shown that by providing students with choices (specifically in the context of essay-type questions), assessments can become less valid and less robust in measuring the overall ability of your class. Some of these reasons include the fact that some of your essay questions might be easier than others, therefore students who chose to write a “harder” question may be at a slight disadvantage. Furthermore, students may waste time choosing a topic to write on (even if the questions are given ahead of time), which provides additional cognitive strain on the student that affects the sensitivity of your assessment tool. Lastly, if students are given the option on the actual test, the assessment may suffer in its reliability to capture the performance of your class. If students answer different questions, then it becomes difficult to assess if all students are equally knowledgeable about the topics covered on the test.

Essay Questions Writing Activity Sheet (PDF)

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• Focus and Precision: How to Write Essays that Answer the Question

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.

Top tips and golden rules

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:

1)     Work out exactly what you’re being asked

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.

2)     Be as explicit as possible

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.

3)     Be brutally honest with yourself about whether a point is relevant before you write it.

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.

Put it into action: Step One

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 witches are the most important cause of tragic action in Macbeth.
• The witches are partially, but not entirely responsible for Macbeth’s downfall, alongside Macbeth’s unbridled ambition, and that of his wife.
• We are not supposed to believe the witches: they are a product of Macbeth’s psyche, and his downfall is his own doing.
• The witches’ role in Macbeth’s downfall is deliberately unclear. Their claim to reality is shaky – finally, their ambiguity is part of an uncertain tragic universe and the great illusion of the theatre. (N.B. It’s fine to conclude that a question can’t be answered in black and white, certain terms – as long as you have a firm structure, and keep referring back to it throughout the essay).

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:

• Do you agree that the status of the witches’ ‘malevolent intervention’ is ambiguous?
• What is its significance?
• How powerful is it?

Step Two: Plan

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.

Step Three: Paragraph beginnings and endings

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.

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
• Write a rough plan of what each paragraph will contain
• Write out the first and last sentence of each paragraph

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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How To Answer Exam Questions: Practical Tips

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We have helped 10,000s of undergraduate, Masters and PhD students to maximise their grades in essays, dissertations, model-exam answers, applications and other materials. If you would like a free chat about your project with one of our UK staff, then please just reach out on one of the methods below.

Exams are an inevitable part of university life, testing your knowledge, understanding, and critical thinking skills. Whether you're facing multiple-choice, true or false, short answer, or essay questions, knowing how to answer exam questions effectively can make all the difference in your performance. In this guide, we'll explore strategies to help you confidently answer various types of exam questions, ensuring you make the most of your study efforts.

Understanding Different Types of Exam Questions

These questions present several options, with only one correct answer. While they may seem straightforward, they require careful consideration to avoid falling for traps.

With only two options, true or false questions demand precision and attention to detail. They may appear simple, but they can be deceptively tricky.

Short answer questions typically require concise responses that directly address the prompt. They test your ability to communicate ideas succinctly.

Essay questions are more open-ended, allowing you to explore topics in depth. They assess your analytical skills, critical thinking, and ability to articulate complex ideas coherently.

Strategies for Answering Exam Questions

1. Read Instructions Carefully

Before diving into the questions, take a moment to read the instructions thoroughly. Pay attention to any specific guidelines regarding formatting, word limits, or required components.

2. Manage Your Time Wisely

Allocate time for each question based on its complexity and point value. Don't spend too much time on any single question, and always leave a few minutes at the end to review your answers.

3. Analyse the Question

For every question, identify key terms and instructions. Understand what the question is asking and consider how you can tailor your response to address each component effectively.

4. Plan Your Response

For essay questions, consider drafting a brief outline before writing your answer. Organise your thoughts logically, outlining the main points you want to cover to ensure a coherent and structured response.

5. Be Concise and Clear

In short answer and essay questions, aim for clarity and brevity while addressing all aspects of the prompt. Avoid unnecessary verbosity and focus on conveying your ideas concisely.

6. Provide Evidence and Examples

Support your answers with relevant evidence, examples, and citations where applicable. This demonstrates a depth of understanding and reinforces the validity of your arguments.

7. Review and Revise

Take the time to review your answers before submitting your exam. Check for spelling and grammatical errors, ensure your responses are coherent and well-structured, and make any necessary revisions.

How to Structure Exam Answers

Read each option carefully, eliminating obviously incorrect choices. Pay attention to qualifiers such as "always," "never," "sometimes," as they can significantly alter the meaning of the statement. If unsure, use educated guesses based on your understanding of the material.

Avoid making assumptions; base your answer solely on the information provided. Pay close attention to qualifiers such as "all," "none," "some," as they can change the truth value of the statement. Be cautious of double negatives, as they can lead to confusion.

Begin with a clear and concise answer that directly addresses the prompt. Provide supporting evidence or examples to bolster your response. Lastly, ensure your answer is relevant and stays within the specified word limit.

Start with a strong introduction that outlines your main argument or thesis statement. Organise your essay into coherent paragraphs, each addressing a specific aspect of the prompt. Support your arguments with evidence from course materials, lectures, and external sources where appropriate. Conclude your essay by summarising key points and reinforcing your main argument.

Answer Exam Questions With Confidence and Precision

Answering exam questions is an art that requires careful preparation, critical thinking, and effective time management. By understanding the nuances of different question types and employing strategic approaches to tackle them, you can maximise your chances of success. Remember to stay calm, focused, and confident in your knowledge and abilities.

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