CliffsNotes CBEST - BTPS TESTING Ph.D., Jerry Bobrow Ph.D. & 8 more 2021

Test-taking strategies
The writing section

Now that we have covered the scoring for both types of essays, let’s review test-taking strategies to learn how to best approach writing essays. If you are taking the CBEST in the paper-and-pencil format, some of the test-taking strategies will be slightly different from those for the computer-administered format. The test-taking strategies are similar, but the computer-based format requires a few special considerations. Unless otherwise indicated, apply the strategies in this section to both formats of the test.

This section begins with general test-taking strategies and then gives you specific information, approaches, and strategies to tackle the writing process.

Consider the following guidelines as a road map for taking the test:

· Stay focused on the question.

· Use your time wisely.

· Use the three-step essay writing process.

· Use the standard five-paragraph model.

Stay Focused on the Question

One of the most important strategies is to stay focused on the question and to address all parts of the question prompt as you organize your essay response. To help you stay focused, write down (or underline) key words in the question prompt before you organize your writing. It is also helpful to paraphrase the question by putting the topic in your own words.

Remember that you must respond to all parts of the question. Too often students lose points because they don’t respond to all parts of the question. For example, if the question reads, “State whether you agree or disagree with Sierra Club’s opinion that the climate crisis is affecting the environment and support your position with specific examples,” you must address (1) your position and (2) give specific examples.

Use Your Time Wisely

Before you begin, briefly scan the two essay questions. Do not attempt to answer an individual question at this point. Simply scan for general content to decide which question you will work on first. Select the one with which you are most familiar. As you begin, remember to keep track of your time and pace yourself. Do not write more than you need to write.

Suggested time for each essay (if taking the entire CBEST in one day):

· 5 minutes to organize your thoughts

· 20 minutes to write the essay

· 5 minutes to proofread your essay

Remember, do not spend too much time on one question so that you will have time to adequately write the other essay.

Use the Three-Step Essay Writing Process

Although there are a number of strategies you can use to write a successful essay, understanding the stages of the writing process will help you gain control over any method you choose.

For any timed writing task, you should take three steps leading to the finished product: prewriting, writing, and proofreading. If you are able to practice the stages of the writing process, you will be able to produce a well-organized essay. Envision these three steps leading to the finished product. As you work through the steps of the writing process—prewriting, writing, and proofreading—take note of which strategies work best for you and use them to develop your own preferred writing style.

Step 1: Prewriting

Before you begin the prewriting process, remember to read the question TWICE and take notes about the topic and question prompt.

Many test-takers believe that good writers just sit down and miraculously produce an essay. On the contrary, most experienced writers know that effective writing requires prewriting—planning and organizing your ideas. The purpose of the prewriting process is to organize your thoughts and plan the order in which you will present points, examples, arguments, and so on. It may be tempting to skip this step to save time, but the prewriting process is an essential part of the essay writing process and with practice only takes a few minutes to accomplish.

Begin by brainstorming your ideas on paper before you organize and plan your essay.

Brainstorm Your Ideas

Brainstorming is an exploration process that allows you to imagine and generate ideas about your topic. Your “imaginings” will help you to compile words and phrases about the essay topic by simply jotting down as many thoughts, ideas, and possibilities as you can remember, invent, or otherwise bring to mind to address the topic.

In the following sample question, it is important to remember that all ideas are acceptable during the brainstorming process and that neatness, order, and spelling do not matter at this stage.

Example:

Political candidates have both advocates and foes. In an essay to be read by an audience of educated adults, write an essay describing your views about what characteristics make a good political candidate. Support your position with logical arguments and specific examples.

Sample Brainstorming

Organize Your Ideas Using Graphic Organizers

After generating as many ideas or examples as you can within a couple of minutes, evaluate and organize your notes by looking for patterns or themes so you can group your ideas into categories. Remember that development relies on specific facts and/or examples. Decide which examples best support your main point. Cross out those you do not wish to use and number those remaining in the order in which you will want to address them in your essay response. Add any notes regarding more specific details or new thoughts that come to mind.

Do not worry about developing everything in these notes because you will be the only one using them. Your time will be better spent developing these points in the actual writing of your essay and not in your notes. Remember, too, that you can change the order of your main points. Just consider each idea and how it might support the main topic of your essay.

Choose the organizing technique that works best for you by using one of the following types of graphic organizers to organize your brainstorming ideas:

· Clustering

· Venn diagram

· Creating lists

· Outlining

Clustering

Clustering (sometimes called webbing) is a popular and easy-to-use graphic organizer that provides a way to put all your brainstorming thoughts down on paper before you write. Clustering can help you visualize subtopics related to your main thesis topic.

It begins with writing down key words related to the main topic and drawing a circle around the words.

Take a few moments to think about all the elements of the topic and connect them to a central topic. Ideas are clustered around the key words and numbered in the order you will present them in your essay. The connecting ideas in the new clusters are thoughts and ideas that will be written in supporting sentences. They will reveal an important relationship with the original main topic.

Remember, you will not be expected to have specialized knowledge about the topic. Your supporting points can draw from experiences, readings, or observations. Notice that the connections of ideas are placed near one another and appear as connected bubbles.

Now, let’s practice clustering by taking a few moments to think about all the elements from brainstorming and connect them to your main topic.

Example:

Political candidates have both advocates and foes. In an essay to be read by an audience of educated adults, write an essay describing your views about what characteristics make a good political candidate. Support your position with logical arguments and specific examples.

Note: You do not have to use all the ideas in each cluster; simply cross out any you decide not to use. In addition, to save time, remember to abbreviate words when possible.

Venn Diagram

A Venn diagram is similar to clustering, but it helps you compare and contrast two viewpoints. It is especially helpful to clearly see the differences and similarities as they relate to supporting your position on a topic in an analytical essay.

Begin by drawing two overlapping circles, then label the headings pro and con, positive and negative, agree and disagree, and so on. Then write down the main points, reasons, and supporting examples for each viewpoint. If there are any interconnected considerations, write them down in the center space. When you are done, you may want to number these ideas in order of importance to include in your essay. The resulting list will help you think about examples that can support or weaken your viewpoint.

Now, let’s practice using a Venn diagram for prewriting.

Example (Analytical Essay):

Sierra Club defends Earth’s most precious resources and aims to reduce the global climate crisis. In an essay to be read by an audience of educated adults, state whether you agree or disagree with Sierra Club’s opinion that the climate crisis is affecting the environment. Support your position with logical arguments and specific examples.

Sample Response

The climate crisis is an extremely controversial issue, but I agree with the Sierra Club that the climate crisis is a challenge for our planet. The unprecedented environmental decline that climate change causes could result in our planet’s destruction. The climate crisis that our world is facing is an economic, political, scientific, and most importantly, moral issue that cannot be ignored.

Over time, the Earth’s climate has experienced natural climate shifts, but since the Industrial Revolution, manmade pollutants have caused toxic substances to build up in the atmosphere. The impact on the environment and human health has had a negative effect on every life form—trees, plants, animals, and humans.

Although it is impossible to confirm, climate change may be responsible for an increase in natural disasters around the world that have affected Earth’s precious resources, including patterns of rising sea levels, crop failures, and harmful living conditions. The nightly news frequently discusses the environmental threats to our planet, including extreme climate-related disasters that cause massive storms, floods, heat waves, and fires.

Recently in world news, a young girl from Sweden gained world attention for her efforts to reduce climate change. She has pleaded with politicians at world conferences and actively protested the global threats to our environment. Her passion for saving our world is an inspiration.

The consequences of the climate crisis continues to be a threat to the future of our planet and the future of many generations to come.

Creating Lists

Creating lists is a prewriting technique that helps you capture your thoughts regarding your topic. You can either write down ideas that you would like to write about, or you can label column headings pro and con, positive and negative, agree and disagree, and so on.

Creating lists is especially helpful when you’re asked to choose sides on a topic to support your position. To compare your thoughts, on a small section of your scratch paper or writing board, draw two columns. The resulting list will help you think about examples that can support your viewpoint.

Using the sample question from above, the list might look like the following example.

Example (Analytical Essay):

Sierra Club defends Earth’s most precious resources and aims to reduce the global climate crisis. In an essay to be read by an audience of educated adults, state whether you agree or disagree with Sierra Club’s opinion that the climate crisis is affecting the environment. Support your position with logical arguments and specific examples.

Outlining

Outlining is the most formal and traditional form of organizing. The main advantage of outlining is that it clearly organizes each main idea into headings and subheadings. Outlining visually displays the difference between main ideas (identified by Roman numerals), supporting ideas (identified by capital letters), and minor points (identified by numbers).

    I.Introduction/Main Idea/Thesis

      A.Subordinate Idea

      B.Subordinate Idea

   II.Expand Main Idea

   III.Expand Main Idea

      A.Subordinate Idea

      B.Subordinate Idea

        1.Example

        2.Example

Example (Descriptive Essay):

Fine arts are an essential part of school curriculum and can play an important role in a student’s creative academic life. In an essay to be read by an audience of educated adults, describe how fine arts have impacted your life (e.g., music, dance, art, sculpture, painting, drawing, writing, poetry, computer graphics, etc.).

A simple outline may look something like this:

Course: Music 101—How Mozart Impacted My Life

    I.Caused me to change my major

      A.Hated economics but never knew it

      B.Music raised my spirits—new outlook on life

   II.Broadened my life

      A.Began attending concerts—became more social

      B.Got out of the house

      C.Appreciation for a new art form—now more open about other things as well

   III.Developed new skills

      A.Learned how to listen better

      B.Began learning to play French horn

        1.Made new friends in community orchestra

        2.Met my present husband, who played first chair French horn in community orchestra

Organizing an outline like the preceding one (it need not be this formal) can help you write a well-structured, well-planned essay.

Whichever way you choose to prewrite—by brainstorming, clustering, using a Venn diagram, creating lists, or outlining—the important thing is that you think and plan before you actually begin writing your essay.

Step 2: Writing

The actual writing step of the essay should take approximately 20 minutes of the total 30 minutes allowed. The recommended writing model for the essays is the five-paragraph model, which has three main sections: an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Five-Paragraph Model

The five-paragraph model format looks like the table on p. 40. Remember to always connect supporting points back to the main idea, main position, or main argument.

Five-Paragraph Essay

Paragraph One: Introduction

A strong opening paragraph is essential. It invites the reader to read on. An effective first paragraph tells the reader what to expect in the body of the essay. Try to avoid a long introduction; you’ll want to keep it about the same length as your conclusion. The first sentence of the introduction is a general description of your essay’s main purpose. The next sentences focus on supporting points of your topic.

Organize your prewriting ideas from general to specific. One easy-to-master, yet extremely effective, type of introduction is a GENERALIZE-FOCUS-PREVIEW structure.

· Generalize—The first sentence provides a general overview of the assigned topic or question, establishing its importance.

· Focus—The second sentence focuses more specifically on the subject you have chosen to discuss and states your position.

· Preview—The last sentence provides the specific points you will discuss and develop in your essay (in order).

Paragraphs Two, Three, and Four: Body

Paragraphs two, three, and four should begin with a unifying sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. Writing the body of the response involves presenting specific examples or reasons (three are usually sufficient) that elaborate on the supporting points briefly mentioned in paragraph one. You can use several paragraphs to accomplish this, but make sure that each paragraph

· has at least three sentences.

· stays on topic.

· does not ramble.

· follows your prewritten notes.

Be realistic about how much time you have to write. Very short paragraphs may make your response appear insubstantial and scattered. You should spend more time on the three body paragraphs than on your introduction and conclusion paragraphs, but keep the writing concise and to the point.

Transitional Words

Another aspect of organizing the body is to provide transitions that guide the reader through your essay. Words and phrases like first, initial, and a primary consideration indicate the beginning of a chain of logical thoughts. Words and phrases like another, also, and in addition let the reader know you are continuing with the development of your reasoning. To show another point of view, words and phrases such as although and however help provide contrast.

Paragraph Five: Conclusion

The conclusion should complete your response to the question. A good conclusion will add a sense of closure and structural integrity to your writing.

While these short essays do not require an extensive conclusion, the words finally or lastly may be used to let the reader know that you are drawing your essay to a close. Your conclusion should be about the same length as your introduction.

The conclusion can function to

· sum up your main point and supporting ideas (from your introduction).

· clarify any points presented that may need further illumination.

· add information not mentioned earlier.

· complete your response to the assigned question.

· make a recommendation or prediction.

· contain a relevant quote.

Step 3: Proofreading (Editing)

Always allow a few minutes to proofread your essay for errors in grammar, usage, and spelling. If you detect an error, either erase it cleanly or simply line it out carefully and insert the correction neatly. Keep in mind, both while you are writing and while you are correcting, that your handwriting must be legible. Watch the clock! Once the time is up, you will be unable to make any more changes.