The effect of increased writing or planning time on a test of basic college level writing ability was studied. The essay portion of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test was given to students in nine New Jersey public colleges and three New Jersey public high schools. Each student wrote two essays on two different topics. The first essay allowed 20 minutes writing time. The other allowed either 30 minutes writing time, or 10 minutes planning time plus 20 minutes writing time. There were eight groups altogether, differing on ability, order of topic-writing, and order of longer time allowed. All essays were read by two independent readers and evaluated holistically on a six-point scale. The increased time limit produced very little increase in the students' essay scores, except at high ability levels (i.e., for those students who clearly would not need remedial writing instruction). Adding a 10-minute planning period before the 20-minute writing period tended to increase the scores of the high-ability students and also of the low-ability students who had recently written a 20 minute essay on a similar topic. The largest effect was associated with a difference in difficulty between the two topics used. (Author/JGL)