<p>I'm trying to figure out why the essay grading was kind of harsh. i know a lot of good writers who got like 7-9 on the essay grade (as well as cc kids obvs) who thought theyd do much better on it. do you think that writing about a personal event over a book, over historical, over etc, etc helps? are there any topics that they love/hate? i guess its too early to know now. i was wondering what your thoughts are on this, and if you took the sat your essay grade and what you wrote about.</p>
<p>I thought I'd get a better essay score (I got a 9, with 720 as the section total), because writing has always been my strongest side. I used one political and one hypothetical/personal example, but didn't have time for a third, which I think is what hurt me. I did include an introduction and conclusion, used vocabulary words, and my grammar was immaculate. I definitely think that my examples brought down my score, but I expected at least a 10. </p>
<p>By the way, this was the 'opinion of the majority' essay topic.</p>
<p>I only used two examples, one historical and one literary, and got a 11. Use noncontroversial examples. If you use historical and literary examples you can appeal to both the history-oriented and literature-oriented graders, providing you use the examples properly.</p>
<p>Hecatonchires -- Yes, that's something I need to keep in mind for next time. I was proud of my political argument, but it was probably too sensitive a topic to write about (the 2004 election, illustrating that sometimes the majority is only marginally bigger than the minority).</p>
<p>I got a 10 on my essay which is much better than I thought I did. I only had one real example which was the Revolutionary War about how the majority didn't want to break away from England but the minority pushed it through anyway. I guess thats a good example but I was supporting majority rules so I'm still stunned on how I got the score I did on my essay. I'm not saying it was easy I'm just skeptical about how they are graded because I didn't even finish my essay. So all in all, I'm trying to say that it was probably the luck of whoever got to read your essay.</p>
<p>Writing is my strongest point for sure and always has been yet, I got an 8 on the SAT. I took Kaplan's free administration of the test and got a 12. I was really mad when I got an 8, i was like ***.</p>
<p>It was probably because I had 2 good examples (lord of the flies+civil war) and then one terrible one..</p>
<p>I got a 12, wrote 4 paragraphs, and had 2 historical examples. I think it is OK to have a very straightforward conclusion, and mine was 3 sentences I think, maybe 4.</p>
<p>I got a 12 using three very different examples - one literary, one contemporary technology, and one in the arts. The key is to have a strong thesis and use analysis to connect your evidence to your thesis.</p>
<p>Maybe you should have written about how High School English teachers should control majority rule, and be in charge of everything in life. Just a little sucking up, but I got a 12.</p>
<p>I really believe a wrote a killer thesis...but I only used historical references...I got a darn 10, 710 on the writing overall.</p>
<p>I thought my essay was pretty shabby actually - I had only two examples (both historical) and didn't get to finish my conclusion at all, leaving it off in the middle of a sentence.</p>
<p>I received a 12 on the essay. I was pretty confused, but I can't say that I'm not pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, the thesis. I couldn't decide what my opinion actually was, so I was like err...it depends!!</p>
<p>That's why you suck up to the HS English teachers reading ur essay.</p>
<p>You'd think that after 10 years of schooling I'd finally have learned that.</p>
<p>this is pretty interesting</p>
<p>i honestly thought my essay wuz da bomb, and when i rewrote it for my friends to see cuz i bragged about it so much, they agreed with me that it wuz good, or atleast better than theirs. Well, i got a 9, while they got 11's. And trust me, my friends essays sucked, bad.........It depends on who's grading the friggin thing. If they're nice, then your set.</p>
<p>What do you mean by a strong thesis? Do you mean a very straight-forward, opinionated one? Could you give us the one you used in the March SAT?</p>
<p>I don't think it's so much the thesis that matters, but how you back it up with examples.</p>
<p>Wow. I did all these things and I still got an 8. I used Romeo and Juliet and the Spanish American War as examples. Good reason why majority rule is not always best (people are often too swept in the furvor of popular opinion). I'm getting a regrade and straightening this all out. I am a little ticked about this.</p>
<p>I had the creativity one, and got an 11 (but somehow managed to f up my grammar beyond belief & ended up w/ a 680).</p>
<p>but anyway, i used 3 examples, but ran out of time.</p>
<p>i had two that were very good (i used military technology & business) & my 3rd one was abt 2 setences w/ a 1 sentence conclusion that said something along the lines of "and that's why creativity is more important today" (but just a tad better).</p>
<p>So it is possible to get a good score w/o 3 solid examples & a solid conclusion, although it may have prevented me from getting a 12.</p>