Results in a few short weeks. Went into it with a plan this time and hopefully it pays off. Spent time reviewing all four prompts and making brief outlines and recalling relevant quotations/anecdotes that would help flesh out responses. All that front end work left little time to go back and edit for clarity. I don't think my answers were overly verbose (hopefully).
Preparation
To pysch myself up, I reviewed the preparation I've done over the last few months:
I. Books Read. Of Mice and Men, The Things They Carried, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm.
II. Sources Consulted. Signed up for a course/resource online, bought and reviewed CSET English test prep book, a book on theatre, read bits of Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why, watched and annotated a 2012 Olympics TV advert,
III. Practice Writing and Other Activities. Attempted three or four timed writing exercises, made outlines of potential prompts. Created dozens of note cards with definitions, facts and details.
The Day Of - Attack Strategy
1. Know what the prompts are asking for and thoroughly deliver it.
2. Provide relevant examples (anecdotes) but avoid the theoretical
3. Find the problem and solve it (especially in the details of students work provided).
4. Use the language of an English teacher.
5. Don't be afraid to synthesize, compress, reorder or rework your own experience in fleshing out answers.
6. Use bullet points to save time
7. Write as much as needed and gently edit at the end of the testing period.
8. Be positive.
Did all this pay off? Stay tuned for details. Hopefully, I won't find myself like this poor fellow when I get the results...
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