There is no set structure for how to answer these questions. I can give you some pointers, but essentially you're going to have to find a way that works for you. That being said, some starting points and structures can help.
The most important thing
The most important piece of advice I can give you is answer the question you're being set. Not the one you can best answer, not one you'd like to have come up. Everything you write must be related to the question. I'd suggest highlighting key words in the question including the key verb (e.g. assess, compare, evaluate). This'll get you in the right frame of mind.
Questions; what they're asking for
"Assess," "evaluate" and "to what extent" questions are essentially asking you to look at both strengths and weaknesses of a section, and then to come to a judgement in your conclusion. "Compare" questions obviously require key words such as "both","on the other hand", "in contrast" and "similarly" to really emphasise that you're answering the question.
The way that questions in this section are worded are sometimes a little tricky to get your head around. Words such as "appropriateness" and "effectiveness" are seemingly easy to understand until you start to write it down. So, learn some simple definitions. By defining a key term in the intro, you will start to think of evaluation issues to relate to it and give your mini-essay some structure. "Appropriateness" refers to suitability, and encompasses suitability to a person or group, situation, or occasion. So you could evaluate temporal validity, generalizability, ethnocentrism, etc. "Effectiveness" refers to the extent to which it brings about an effect, or achieves the desired results. So, you could talk about if it has negative or positive implications, the strength of these applications, and more specific factors such as recidivism rates or benefits to society.
Remember that this is an evaluation section; they want you to make judgements and insights, and then to illustrate these with examples from studies/theories/techniques, but you won't get marks for just outlining or describing the studies. Using key terms such as "reliability", "validity", "usefulness" and "applications"
Structure
You need a brief intro, a main body consisting of two or three paragraphs (and about five to seven evaluative points), and a brief conclusion linking explicitly back to the question.
One way some people like to structure their paragraphs is PEcEC:
Point, Example, compare, Example, Conclude
Note that the conclude section will include at least two or three evaluation points.
Final thoughts
But this isn't necessary and it doesn't work for some people. As long as you give a range of evaluation points related to the question, that you're concise, use relevant detail, illustrate with examples and conclude with explicit link back to the question, then that's all you need. Keep practising your timing too; you only have 15-20 mins for this section and if you run over, you run the risk of not having time to answer the other questions.
If you'd like to see an example of a 15 mark question (full marks), click here.
