accuplacer essay tips

accuplacer essay tips

Effective Strategies for Writing a Successful Accuplacer Essay

1. Introduction to the Accuplacer Essay

At a minimum, the Accuplacer essay asks students to respond to a question and make an argument. Initially, test takers have seven minutes to read and digest the question; then, sixty minutes work time. Response length and organization do not influence scores, so write a five-paragraph essay. Onscreen instructions guide students through a reading and planning period. Test takers then handwrite or type a sample essay. Finally, a computer scores the essay. Topics do not require specially considered content because students must respond to a prompt, not a general subject. Scores range from one to eight.

For more than 30 years, the College Board has offered the Accuplacer tests to institutions of higher learning. These tests assess subject area knowledge and, in the case of the writing exam, determine a student’s readiness for college-level composition courses. The writing exam, of course, is an essay. This essay is scored in three steps, with two readers reading and scoring the essay and then a third reviewing by hand. Since a computer score determines essay placement, students only receive a score, not feedback on the essay’s content or the correctness of the argument. Given the exam’s importance, students need to understand that the Accuplacer is a test, not a classroom assignment, and precision in answering the prompt is critical. This is easily accomplished with some effective writing strategies. Finally, students need to learn to see the test from an academic’s point of view: consultants that teach the test all have master’s degrees, at minimum, in a relevant field and understand how student essays compare with real freshman students’ ability to write coherent prose.

2. Understanding the Prompt and Guidelines

This could result in misunderstanding the prompt, and ignoring these important instructions could be a fatal mistake, especially if one is taking the essay as a placement test. An outlined thesis works as a blueprint for a good essay. If students need to be certain: as they are writing the essay, they should be able to look up to examine the thesis and verify that the essay’s supporting points are consistent with it. After restating the prompt and studying the guidelines, drawing a spider diagram can help a student visualize the how of their essay. The next good step for the writing process is to start writing. A good structural essay has a strong and coherent thesis, focused and purposeful support, and logical organization.

Understanding the prompt is of ultimate importance if one wishes to get a good score for the essay. This may seem very easy, but all too often, students misread the prompt, causing them to move in the wrong direction with their essay. As a result, well-organized essays that are theoretical and goal-oriented are not scored as high as they could be. The smartest way to figure out the prompt? Underline key words in the prompt, reread the prompt, and then restate the prompt in your own words. These actions help the student focus his essay and organize the points to best support his position. Also, it would be a mistake to overlook the guidelines as stated in the Accuplacer essay.

3. Structuring Your Essay for Clarity and Coherence

Content and Length of Paragraphs Short paragraphs of 3-5 sentences are adequate to work with your Accuplacer essay. Focus on only one idea, and develop it as fully as possible to help demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between the thesis and supporting examples. Always end a thought using a good concluding sentence — setting the stage for developing ideas or arguments in your next paragraph helps transitions. After composing a draft of your essay, consider each body paragraph – taking into account the thesis/topic, topic sentences, details, clarity, and evidence. Editor’s Tip: A strong topic sentence often has a controlling idea.

Paragraph Flow and Development Good essays contain both topic sentences for each paragraph and a focused, developed discussion. The topic sentence should tell the reader what the subject of the paragraph is, as well as setting the tone for that subject. The rest of the paragraph will continue building upon this idea by providing evidence, examples, and information. Finally, a concluding or transition sentence pulls the paragraph together and leads it into the next paragraph.

Developing a sound paragraph structure is essential to creating a winning essay. You can’t expect the reader to wade through a mass of confusing, unorganized thoughts that aren’t well supported with specific examples, reasons, and details. A well-organized paper that uses well-developed paragraphs and topic sentences — not to mention the use of correct grammatical elements, like punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and so on — is key to writing an effective essay.

4. Incorporating Evidence and Examples to Support Your Ideas

Many people believe that these examples can only be used if they have great reputation or money. This, however, is not true. You do not need to use only examples from people or groups who have had tons of money and work published in order to prove your point accurately. You can use any type of examples and evidence that comes to mind and you should allow yourself to use as many types of evidence that are readily available in the course of answering the question. You do not want to be close-minded as to where examples come from; you just have to be prepared to explain them. No particular reputation is awarded in advance-doubling the evidence available to support your ideas and resulting in a much more colorful and interesting essay!

In any academic writing, it is imperative that you provide concrete and relevant evidence in your essay to support the ideas and arguments you claim you will present. These examples can come from a variety of different academic or other resources such as books, speeches, articles, studies, news stories, or films among many others. Remember, an essay with no supporting evidence is forever in the realm of the theoretical! Make sure that you offer a wide variety of evidence and examples to support your viewpoints or arguments. This is important when you need to properly assert and prove your point of view or show that you have properly researched and understood the topic presented.

5. Revising and Editing Techniques for a Polished Final Draft

Revision should be seen as a process of deciding what needs to be done first, and, if it was done by another, could be said to be incomplete. Then proceed methodically to correct those parts of the assignment—whether in structure or on the sentence level—that do not fit the intent of the essay. It is important that the writer understand that global issues (those issues pertinent to structure, coherence, and other overarching problems) should be addressed before local issues (those issues related to surface errors). Fortunate the reviser who begins addressing local issues too soon, because of the fact that the writer will perform multiple revision plans, student midterm revisions will be of one unified draft. But, for the majority of revisions, the division needed is one of multiple stemming from draft 1.0.

As important as drafting—perhaps more so—is the process of revision. In revising, a student makes decisions essential to the coherence of the work on many levels. Sentences must be correct in grammar and appropriate in diction, the idea must be integral, and the paragraphs must flow in a logical sequence so that the whole idea is accessible to the reader. In successfully revising, the writer often pays more attention to global rather than local issues. In other words, at first the writer may assess whether the argument is sound, whether paragraphs connect as they should, and what the overall strength of the essay is as an expository unit.