Best way to Practice Essays

<p>What is the best way to self-practice essays for the SAT/ACT and AP Exams?</p>

<p>Do you guys type your practice essays or write them by hand?</p>

<p>As for grading, besides from posting the essays here, how else do you derive a grade?</p>

<p>If someone could post a brief outline or tutorial detailing how they practice essays, I'd be grateful. :)</p>

<p>I think it's better to practice essays by hand, because that's what you'll do on the real SAT. You can try grading by yourself using the SAT essay scoring rubric, but it's difficult to grade your own essays. It helps, after you've completed an essay, to ask yourself whether you think you made a reasonably good argument and have enough evidence. Read some essays that got high scores (You can find them on the CollegeBoard website.) and compare yours to those.</p>

<p>Definitely practice by hand. Typing unrealistically increases your speed, so it isn't as accurate. Also, give the scoring guidelines and your essay to someone that you know but who isn't like your best friend, and have them grade it. If they're your friend, they might be more lenient so as not to hurt your feelings.</p>

<p>The only thing I have trouble with in essays is coming up with my examples, so I look for sample prompts online and give myself a minute or so to decide what I'd write about.</p>