How do you plan the GED essay in 45 minutes?

Forty-five minutes can feel like plenty of time until the clock starts. Then it goes fast. A plan is what turns those minutes into a clear essay instead of a rushed one, and it is a skill you can practice. This post shows how to plan the GED essay inside the 45 minutes, step by step, with a sample time split and a simple outline you can reuse.^[1]

The time you have

The essay must be finished in no more than 45 minutes.^[1] Planning is not extra time on top of that: an official practice prompt says the 45 minutes are for planning, drafting and editing together.^[2] Even so, GED's own guidelines tell you to plan before you start writing.^[1]

There is a good reason for that advice. GED Testing Service lists not using an outline or plan to write from as one reason students struggle with the essay.^[3] A few minutes of planning saves time later, because you never have to stop in the middle and wonder what comes next.

What your plan is for

As our post on how the GED essay is scored explains, the essay is scored on three traits, each worth 0, 1 or 2 points: your argument and evidence, how you develop and organize your ideas, and clear, correct English.^[4][5] A good plan helps with all three. It fixes your argument before you write, it gives your essay a shape, and it leaves time at the end to clean up your sentences.

One way to split the 45 minutes

Here is one way to split the time. It is our own suggestion, not an official GED plan.

A college writing center's sample plan for a 50-minute in-class essay gives ten minutes to outlining, thirty minutes to writing, and ten minutes to editing and proofreading.^[6] GED's advice is to leave five minutes at the end for proofreading, because conventions are part of the score.^[7] Our plan takes its planning and writing minutes from the college plan (10 and 30) and its check at the end from GED's advice (5). Together they make 45 minutes:

• About 10 minutes: read the prompt and the passages, weigh the evidence, and make a quick outline.
• About 30 minutes: write your essay from the outline.
• About 5 minutes: proofread and fix what you can.

Practice this split a few times, then adjust it to fit how you work. Some people read faster and write slower, and that is fine. What matters is that every part gets some of the time.

Step by step

GED's own step-by-step approach puts planning in the middle: you analyze the prompt, read closely and weigh the evidence, then plan and organize, and only then write your claim and draft.^[4] Here is that order in plain words.

Step 1: Read the prompt

Before you read the passages, read the prompt carefully. Know exactly what it asks you to decide, so that you read the passages with that question in mind.

Step 2: Read the passages and weigh the evidence

Your plan should pick the side that is better supported by evidence, which is not always the side you agree with.^[1] As you read, notice what each side uses to back up its claims. Does it give facts, numbers, examples or clear reasons? Or does it lean on strong feelings and broad statements? Jot a few words next to each strong piece of evidence you find.

Step 3: Make a quick outline

Your outline does not need full sentences. It needs a few words for each part:

• Your claim. In an argument essay, your thesis, or main claim, belongs in the first paragraph.^[8]
• Two or three ideas. GED advises fully developing two or three ideas instead of mentioning many things without detail.^[7]
• Evidence for each idea. Note which part of a passage you will use, and a few words on what it shows.
• A closing. One line on how you will sum up.

Here is a simple outline shape you can reuse for any prompt:

1. Opening: name the issue, say which side is better supported, and name your reasons.
2. Body paragraph 1: the strongest piece of evidence on that side, and why it convinces.
3. Body paragraph 2: a second piece of evidence, and why it matters.
4. Body paragraph 3: a weakness in the other side's evidence.
5. Closing: restate your claim and the main reason for it.

Step 4: Write from your plan

Now write, one paragraph for each part of your outline. A full answer often needs 4 to 7 paragraphs of 3 to 7 sentences each.^[1] That adds up to roughly 300 to 500 words of writing.^[1] The five-part outline above fits inside that range.

In each body paragraph, do three things: state the idea, give the evidence, and explain what the evidence shows. Do not skip the explaining: give it at least a sentence or two.

Step 5: Proofread

Leave about five minutes at the end to proofread, because conventions are part of the score.^[7] Read slowly, one sentence at a time. Check that each sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with the right end mark (a period, a question mark or an exclamation point), that each verb matches its subject, and that no two sentences are joined by a comma alone.

Practice the plan

Planning gets faster with practice. Try the five steps on a practice essay this week, with a timer running, and notice which step takes you the longest. Then work on that step.

On OpenEssayMe you can improve your writing, write practice essays and get feedback on each trait, so you can see whether your plan is working. For the full picture of the test, see our GED RLA test guide.