How to plan a strong essay answer in the exam

Available for over a year

Writers Jean Menzies and Carl Anka guide you through planning a strong essay answer in a GCSE English Literature exam. They explain how a short, focused plan can help you organise your ideas, stay on track and write with confidence when faced with high-mark questions. The episode explores why planning matters, even under tight time limits, and how it actually saves time during writing. Jean and Carl demonstrate how to break down exam questions by highlighting key words, identifying command terms and understanding exactly what the question is asking. This episode also explores how to write purposeful introductions and conclusions, how to keep every paragraph relevant and how to check your answer stays focused on the task. Along the way, Jean and Carl share insights from their own writing habits to show that planning doesn’t need to be neat or perfect - it just needs to get ideas flowing. Suitable for: AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas and OCR. Presenters: Jean Menzies and Carl Anka Producer and Sound Design: Marc Rigg Executive Producer: Becky Green This series is an Audio Always production