<p>basically, my whole life i've been a slow writer, so in preparing for the april SAT, i was always short on time but nothing ever cam out too bad</p>
<p>and so during the test i was writing and i look up about 3/4 of the way through my first body paragraph and see that there's only 7 minutes left....and basically i freaked out like i never have before....i was shaking and couldnt write for a few minutes....i couldn't think clearly, and i do know what the hell i wrote....i ended up calming down with about a minute left but the damage was already done and i ended up with an 8, and reading the essay, had i finished normally i probably would have ended up with an 11....</p>
<p>but then during the AP comp exam i had a similar panic attack in the beginning of the essays but i got over that more quickly and since there is more time it wasn't as damaging....</p>
<p>but basically, i'm looking for any advice on how i can stay calm and not freak out again on the june SAT...i'm very nervous that it will happen again</p>
<p>also, if not anxiety advice, how can i write faster??</p>
<p>How big was your first paragraph? Sometimes I try to cram too much in one paragraph. Being overly detailed can slow you down.</p>
<p>How much did you devote to planning? The recommended time is five minutes. I used a little bit more, but my "outline" was fairly developed, thus saving time in the long run. You probably just need to set up a time budget, so to speak. For example, say to yourself "I'll spend 5 minutes planning, 5 minutes on the intro paragraph, 5 min on the first paragraph, 5 min on the next, and 5 min writing a short conclusion and doing a quick read-through."</p>
<p>Don't spend 5 minutes planning.
If you were able to get an 8 with what you described you must be a good writer. Do a lot of timed practice essays so you have an idea of your pace, and go in with some ideas of topics that can be used for other essays.</p>
<p>What helped me become more confident with my timed essay was actually doing practice prompts and timing myself and forcing myself to finish in 20 minutes instead of 25 minutes so that on test day I could be willing to compensate for the extra time I would probably take due to testing anxiety as well as other extraneous variables.</p>