How would I go about planning and structuring my essay in the exam?

You should have an advised time period to spend on planning and writing your essay within your exam depending on how long it is (e.g. 25 minutes planning 40 minutes writing). Firstly, read the essay question a few times to ensure that you understand exactly what it is asking. Highlight any key words within the question, for example if it was ‘Discuss the theme of parents and children in King Lear’, I would highlight ‘parents and children’ and ‘discuss’. If the question has a quotation from a poem or text in it (e.g. ‘How sharper than a serpents tooth it is to have a thankless child!’), use that to your advantage. That can be a valuable way to enrich your argument and analyse within your essay – for example here, this tells us that the relationship between parent and child within this particular play is a turbulent one. Organise your thoughts into two or three key points, e.g. the relationship between King Lear and Cordelia / the relationship between Gloucester and his sons / King Lear and Gloucester as two different fathers. I would spend the remaining time you have for planning bullet pointing underneath these three headlines, ensuring that you have enough things to say about each. I would advise using the introduction as something that you as the writer can refer back to if you get stuck, so outline the points that you are going to make in your essay within it. Use it as a guide for you as well as whoever will be marking. I think the conclusion often just comes naturally as you finish, however to avoid it being rushed I would make sure you know the main overall point you want to have made within the essay (e.g. the parents and children within King Lear have an inability to understand each other) and write this at the bottom of your plan so you know what exactly your conclusion is going to include. Keep in mind how your argument has progressed throughout your essay, and try to sum this up.