Full plan + debrief
Two unseen questions, then the honest look back
Last term-time session. No new technique today. You prove the planning muscle works at speed, twice, then we name what is strong and pick the one fix to carry into the holidays.
Warm in
Say back the whole machine, from memory:
- The three question shapes (decode)
- The plan-in-three: thesis, then three arguments
- Where the marks live (the spine)
The work: 2 plans, 10 minutes each
Nat picks two questions you have not planned before from the question bank, ideally two different shapes. For each one, timed at 10 minutes:
- Name the shape, circle the invitation word
- Thesis in one arguable sentence
- Three arguments that build it, in order
- One quote pick per argument, from your bank
Rough day? One plan, not two, and go straight to the debrief. The holiday loop is the main event anyway.
Close it: the debrief
Look at both plans side by side and answer two questions out loud, then write them down below.
- What is strong? Name it precisely, so you keep doing it on purpose.
- What is the one fix? One, not five. It becomes the holiday focus.
Be specific. Not "it was fine" but "the thesis answered the exact question" or "every quote earned its place".
The single thing that would win the most marks if it improved. This is what every holiday piece gets checked against.
Set the holiday loop
Term sessions stop here, but the essay muscle must not go cold. The loop is simple and light: one full timed piece a fortnight, on a real past question, with quick plan sprints on the weeks in between.
One timed piece a fortnight, so the muscle never goes cold
Full runs use real past questions from the question bank: pick one you have not done, plan in 5, write in 40, then self-mark against the spine and check it against your one fix. In-between weeks are just a 10-minute plan sprint, exactly like today. That is 3 full timed runs and 2 plan sprints across the gap, and none of them heavy.
Put the loop in your calendar, right now
Five minutes, tonight. Add the six weeks above to your phone calendar: the three full runs, the two plan sprints, and exam week. Set each one as a reminder on the Sunday of that week. Then open the question bank and star the questions you have not planned yet, so run 1 picks itself.