How do you get a good essay grade? - essay topics

Tips and tricks for the essay at the central entrance exam in the canton  Read here everything you need to know about the essay
There are three topics available, one of which must be selected. The choice of the topic is already decisive. Topics for which the student already has prior knowledge are often easier. Unfortunately, however, a large proportion of essays - no matter how well written they may be - are graded unsatisfactorily because they miss the point and / or the assignment is not implemented correctly.

Thus, it is important to study the assignment carefully and take time to plan the essay before the actual writing begins. Even if this planning is not directly evaluated, it is a good sign for the exam expert and creates an impression. What is more crucial, however, is the fact that the essay is guaranteed to gain quality through the resulting structuring, rather than simply being written out in front of you. However, no more than 5 minutes should be taken for choosing and planning the topic itself. A simple mind map, cluster or short table is best suited for this.

The tasks themselves show different patterns that repeat from year to year. For example, the tense preterite or present tense is usually required. The perspective from which the text is to be written is the first-person or first-person perspective. More and more often, students are asked to write from the first person perspective of a stranger or even of an object. This is extremely challenging and should be practiced! Many students are not aware that when they write from the "I" perspective, the reader (i.e. the examiner) has no idea who this "I" actually is. Students need to learn to describe the characters in their stories - and be that characters themselves - and make them vivid.

It is also important to respond to clues (e.g., the essay must be possible in reality).

Although essays basically belong to the category "narrative", in recent years the assignment has become even more differentiated and thus massively more difficult. Thus, elements of a "report", i.e. to write factually and neutrally, as well as those of a "statement", i.e. to present pros and cons as well as one's own opinion, are included. Often, students do not recognize these "hidden" assignments and thus are unable to complete the assignment or do so poorly.

The assignment can also consist of continuing a text passage (i.e., at the beginning of the text) or incorporating it into the text (in the middle of the text). If a title is to be adopted, it is crucial to match the content to this topic. For example, in the  exam, the assignment was to write a story titled "The Old Hat," which many failed at because they didn't describe or barely mentioned the old hat, overestimating the importance of the title itself.

A very big problem is also the fact that many students do not know how to structure an essay. Often they write the whole text on one block. It is important that the content as well as the structure of the essay shows that it contains an introduction (approx. 1/5), a main part (approx. 2/5), a climax (approx. 1/5) and a conclusion (approx. 1/5). The total length should be between 1 - 1.5 pages (depending on the font size).

Although these structures can be designed individually, the strategy of proceeding according to a certain scheme has proven successful. The individual parts should answer the respective W-questions.

In the introduction it would be the description of the circumstances (Who? Where? When?), in the main part the motives of the events (What? Why?), in the climax with as many adjectives and appropriate verbs as possible the climax or resolution of the events (How?) and finally the summary of all parts, which can also be done in a later context, for example "three months later" (What?). Here, however, care must be taken to ensure that the conclusion really is a conclusion and that no cliffhangers or clues to a sequel are provided in the process.

And now, probably the most important thing of all: the ending is not the end! Students must learn to take the last ten minutes for the revision phase. After all, if well practiced and well targeted, this can account for half a grade to a full grade.

First, the entire essay should be read through. After that, three so-called "rehearsals" are applied.

  The shift test: Can the sentences be shifted and thus the sentence beginnings and the sentence structure made more exciting? For example, "I walked home whistling" can become "I walked home whistling".

The extension test: Can text passages be described more concretely? Adjectives or verbs added, nouns made more concrete? "Cheerfully whistling I walked the way home".

The omission test: Can unnecessary trivialities or repetitions be deleted? "Cheerfully whistling I walked home" (--> the way)


Finally, we would like to share a tip for spelling correction. Since normal reading through focuses more on the content than on the spelling, a secret tip is to read through the essay word by word backwards. In this way, you will discover many "obvious" careless mistakes, which we are happy to dispense with. And why? By reading backwards, one is no longer distracted from the content and can really only concentrate on the individual words. So you don't "read over" your mistakes.

Example essay:

The fright in the attic

One rainy evening I was sitting alone on the sofa, tying up my long brown hair and choosing a movie. My mom was painting and my dad was at work. So I was looking forward to a nice evening alone at home in front of the TV. Just as I had decided on an exciting thriller and was getting a big bowl of popcorn from the kitchen, I heard strange noises coming from the attic.

"It's probably just a chair falling over," it went through my head. But then I heard it again. "The best thing for me to do is to go up and see what's up there." So I tiptoed up the stairs, careful not to make a sound. In front of the door to the attic, I stopped as if frozen. I heard a threatening growl, but that was probably just the wind. Bravely, I pushed down the heavy handle and pushed against it. It creaked and squeaked terribly. It was pitch dark in the attic, and I had to be careful not to stumble against or over anything as I entered. Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind me. A shiver ran down my spine and I shook like a leaf. Out of sheer fright, I promptly knocked over a chair. I was as white as a sheet and could hardly move. Then I heard it again, this terrible growling. It came from the corner right next to me! When I looked there, my blood almost froze in my veins. There was a white something moving right toward me. "Ahhh!", I screamed, "Help!" It was coming closer and closer. Now I ran as fast as I could to the door. But it was stuck and I just couldn't open it. So I hid in the closet next to it and was safe there at first. But there it growled again and scratched even at the cabinet. I was afraid and scared and I hardly dared to breathe.
Feeling ten hours later, I suddenly heard the saving voices of my parents. I immediately jumped out of the closet and ran to my parents, who were now also in the attic, directly into my arms. I told them everything that had happened, but they just laughed. "I know who the ghost was," my father grinned, "don't you see there, in the corner?" Puzzled, I looked to where my father was pointing. Our neighbor's new snow-white cat! I heaved a sigh of relief, "She must have sneaked in when you left!"

My mom suggested, "Now let's take the cat back first and then we'll watch another movie." After this was done, all three of us made ourselves comfortable on the sofa. But I didn't feel like watching a thriller anymore, so I chose a schmaltzy love movie instead. So, despite the horror in the attic, it turned out to be a nice evening after all.