More on Essay Themes

We had a good turnout at the review session and several students asked me about the essay themes I had posted. The key question was whether or not it would be ok to just prepare for one theme. I gave some responses but have thought about it before. Here is what I think is best:

1) The more you can prepare for all four themes, the better. None of the themes are there to trick you. However, they only give a general idea of the question, not the specifics. A question might combine a couple of themes. So preparing all four themes would be a good idea.

2) I would not recommend just preparing one theme. There is a chance the theme you prepare might only appear with another theme. If you are short for time than you could conceivably only prepare a couple of themes in detail and glance at the others. I wouldn't suggest that.

Basically, after more thought, to be fully prepared for the test, take a detailed look at all four themes (please disregard what I said about preparing only a couple in the review session). If you prepare all four than you should be in good shape. If you don't, you will be leaving things more to chance.