In the past, in our admissions tests,

when they've been handwritten,
we've been looking for three things.

And those three things will be exactly

the same things we're looking for

now that the essays are typed.

One thing is careful reading of the question

and of any text associated with the question.

Then you'll need to plan

so that your answer really is an answer

to whatever the question was that was asked.

And then thirdly, of course,
you'll need to write the essay.

And it's at that stage,
perhaps, that the issue of typing

will become significant.

There's a temptation with typing to keep

amending each sentence

until it's perfect,
and that may be time taken away

from getting on with producing

the essay that you've planned to write.

Or perhaps worse,

you may think that the planning is not important

because you could always plan as you go.

And that's probably not a good idea,

because you may end up with a less sensible

answer to the question than if you had planned

before you'd started to produce
the typing in the first place.

So beware of too much editing

and do spend time, please, on planning.

Tip number one is to carefully read

through the guidance to candidates,

which we give for our tests

before you start the test.

You may have read it many times before,

but remind yourself of what it is
we're looking for

and that may help you when you come

to produce your answers.

Tip number two

is to read the questions
and any text very carefully,

noticing any words that they
contain that give you

clear instructions on what to do.

Words like briefly,

words like in your own words

may help you to do the sorts of things

that we're intending you to do to help us

to see how you think.

Tip number three is to spend

a little time after you've read the question

planning your answer
before you start to type it.

Make sure that you have an

outline in mind of what you're going to do
and then maybe a little more detail

about the arguments you're going to present.

We don't need elaborate
introductions or conclusions

if the essay you write
is clear enough in itself,

so spend time planning, and that will

then show up in the quality of the essay

you produce.

Tip number four is

that more is not necessarily better.

It's very rare for the longest essays

we see to be among the best essays that we see.

Often people try and produce too much

when they'd be much better focusing.

So get focus on the question.

Don't necessarily write as much as you can,

but write the best that you can

in answer to the question,
and you'll be doing exactly what we're after.

And tip number five is where practice comes in

and it's about time.

Practice timing so you get used to how long

the time that you've got for each essay,

for each question is.

You don't want to run out of time
and you want to use

as much of the time constructively as you can.

So get used to the timing of the test

because it will be pressured

and you need to be able to use it

as well as you can.

And an extra tip,

especially for those for whom taking
the test is going to involve

some sort of variation on the normal time

or the normal way in which the test is taken.

If you normally have extra time

in examinations,
or if eyesight issues are going to mean

that you need a larger monitor, for example

do please check with your test centre

in good time so as early as possible

that all the arrangements
are going to be in place for you.