Ensure that you have studied the material thoroughly and have prepared for possible essay scenarios. Students who pay careful attention in class and take good notes should be able to discern possible topics that may be covered on the exam. Create outlines for each of these and study them thoroughly to the point that you can recall the basic outline without looking at it on paper. This will help you when you write, as it removes much of the pressure of having to recall the information for the entire essay.
Proceed to the essay on the examination first and write down an outline before going on to the rest of your test. Use a piece of scratch paper, if allowed, or the margins or back of your exam to create your outline. If you have multiple essays to write, create an outline for each one before you begin writing. If the essay subjects do not correspond exactly to what you prepared for, do not despair. Simply modify your existing outline to meet the needs of the question.
Restate the question in the thesis sentence of your essay. The thesis is already provided for you within the essay question itself. Your job is to simply tell the teacher that you know how to answer the posed question. For instance, suppose the question is, "What are the implications of cloning as an ethical dilemma in medical science?" Respond to this type of question by stating it again: "The emergence of cloning in genetics has ethical implications that pose a dilemma for medical science."
Write a brief introduction to your essay following your thesis statement. The introduction should simply provide the reader with a little more background information regarding what the essay is about, but it should not give away its entire content.
Support your main thesis by writing the body of the essay. This should be approximately three to five paragraphs with each paragraph providing a supporting fact or detail relating to the main thesis. Use statistical data and factual material whenever possible to support the assertion of your thesis.
Conclude your paper with a summary of the information contained in the introduction and body of the paper. The conclusion should tie up any loose ends in the paper and reemphasize the main point of your thesis statement. In essence, the conclusion should indicate to the reader that what you provided in the body of the paper is a definitive response to the question posed.