<p>So I'm having this problem writing essays in 25 minutes. Like, everything is fine except the timing. My brain also seemingly malfunctions (goes blank) as I'm beginning the essay-writing process. I've read AcademicHacker's thread, and I have pretty much all my examples, but somehow none (or only 1) of my examples are applicable, and I have to go out of my way and think of 2 more (which somehow takes up 5+ minutes). Given the time, I can easily write a good essay, but 25 minutes just doesn't cut it.</p>
<p>The bottom line is, is just practice practice practice good enough, or should I do something else (e.g. get some new examples)? I realized this problem when I started doing some essay prompts out of Barron's writing workbook. So what I'm thinking about is giving myself as much time as I need (reasonably) for the first few essays, then start giving myself less and less time.</p>
<p>Also, something completely unrelated: I've heard that filling up both pages is really good. Thus I'm thinking about photocopying the essay pages out of the blue book and writing my essays on those to give me a good sense of length. Is that a good idea? Are the essay spaces in the blue book the same as those on the actual test?</p>
<p>This is a pretty long post already, but here are some of my examples. Any additions? (books only if i can wikipedia/sparknote them)
scarlet letter, 1984, night, animal farm, fahrenheit451, of mice/men, greatexpectations, grapes of wrath (if I have time to read it), random war with made up generals,most recent stuff, galileo, the pearl, great depression, trojan war, piltdown man, julius caesar</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>