<p>You may be wasting effort and worry. Many colleges don't bother looking at the writing score; others that do are currently evaluating whether it's worthwhile and, if so, how much weight to give it precisely because mechanical scoring lends itself to formulaic responses such as those you seek rather than give any real indication of the writing capacity of the test taker.</p>
<p>Ya a really long thesaurized essay,</p>
<p>There are no definitive methods how to score an 11/12 on an Essay.</p>
<p>But you can write a long essay and hope the people who grade it are lazy enough to not read it in its entirety and just grade you on length.We saw one guy on here wrote an essay that lacks so many things score an 11.</p>
<p>does anyone know how much their dock for grammical errors. I been using egrader and consisting getting 12s but I never have enough time to revise my essay. I fill 2 solid pages but as I go back, I spot many grammical errors. Would I be screwed on the real one??</p>
<p>I believe that they are looking for 2 well developed, long examples not three less developed ones.</p>
<p>The SAT essay I wrote a year ago was about whether it's best to have high expectations or low expectations. I used only 2 examples: Winston Churchill and Frederick Douglass.
I said stuff like, </p>
<p>"High expectations have, in history, resulted in great positive outcomes. The British people had little confidence in themselves and thought that Hitler's German forces would sweep across the nation. But one man, Winston Churchill the British leader, gave a stirring speech to a worried British audience and said that Britain would keep fighting against all odds. This raised British morale. In the end, Britain emerged as a victor in the Second World War. If Churchill had low expectations, the British would have continued to have low morale and German could very well have won. So high expectations affected the course of history in a very positive way." </p>
<p>Then I did the same for the next paragraph on Frederick Douglass. (Same format: Topic sentence, example, explanation of how this example supports my thesis.)</p>
<p>Then for my conclusion I came up with this brilliant quote and used it. First I gave the normal concluding stuff: (Churchill and Douglass, two major figures in world history, have shown that high expectations can have favorable outcomes compared to low expectations.) Then I said something like, "History is said to repeat itself. If this is true, high expectations will surely always be better than low expectations."</p>
<p>And that's it.</p>
<p>So, here's my formula for success:
1. I remember before the test started I went to use the restroom, and I when I came back pretty much everyone was writing and it was already maybe 4 or 5 minutes into the session and I thought, "Oh man, there are only like 20 minutes left!" And then I sat down and read the prompt. Immediately the first thing that popped in my head was my initial reaction (Well, duh! High expectations are definitely better than low ones.) Then Winston Churchill came up, and I wrote that down. Then I spent some time and came up with Frederick Douglass, and I wrote his name down too. Then I thought about what I would say, and I came up with my thesis. I started by bringing up a very general statement (It often appears that high expectations often result in failure, and that it is better to have certainly attainable goals.) Then I gave opposition (But high expectations can have very good results.) [OK, don't say "very good" in an SAT essay; be more scholarly-sounding and specific].
And then I gave my thesis, something like, "Having high expectations is better than having low ones, because high expectations are a gateway to success, while low expectations can often lead to little success." Oh, I remember I used the word "detrimental" in my intro, like "having low expectations can be detrimental to previous condiitons." </p>
<p>OK! So, here are my steps, finally!
1. Read the prompt carefully, and come up with a general answer.
2. Think of examples (I swear, I took like 5 minutes planning what I would say, and everyone was busy scribbling stuff. I remember laughing to myself because here I was just thinking with my pencil still on the table, my booklet blank, surrounded by all the sounds of pencils scratching on paper. It was kind of distracting at first, and I remember feeling like I was behind on time and behind everyone else, but say it with me: "DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO HOW FAST OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING." Just don't. Pretend all the students in the room except you are retards, and that you know the trick that everyone falls for. Trust me: DO NOT GO TOO FAST.)
3. Do not pay any attention to how fast other people around you are doing their essay. Just ignore them and concentrate on your answer, on your essay.
4. Think of big words to use in your intro.
5. Start off with a general statement.
6. Slowly lead into your thesis (look at my intro sentences for an example).
7. State your thesis, and state what you will talk about in your body paragraphs (In my intro, I gave my thesis, and in the next sentence I said something along the lines of "This is exemplified in examples from two major figures in history: Winston Churchill and Frederick Douglass." (Notice the word "exemplify.")
8. Topic sentence of paragraph 1.
9. Example.
10. Explanation (for instance, I said, basically, Oh, look at what Churchill did with high expectations. And then I said what might have happened if Churchill ahd low expectations). So basically support your point. How does your example support the thesis?
11. Transition (it makes the essay sound more scholarly). I said something like, "(my thesis) can also be seen in the American south, almost a century before Churchill."
12. Repeat steps 8-10.
13. Conclusion: Start by summarizing (Churchill and Douglass have shown that...)
14. End with a good lingering sentence or quote so that the readers says, "Oh, this essay is just brilliant! Well-thought out, well-written, and shows that this person learned something in school. This essay is fantastic for only 25 minutes. This deserves a 6."
And if you get 2 6's you get 12, which is perfect.</p>
<p>*** IMPORTANT: ***
Really, the readers want to know that you can follow the instructions in the essay, that you can think critically and think fast, and you can craft a well-organized and well-written (topic, example, explanation, transition) essay in the time given. I can imagine the readers, once they read a great essay, say to themselves, "This essay is outstanding! And only in 25 minutes!" </p>
<p>So, this is my formula for a great essay.</p>
<p>But please, please, please remember these most important things:
1. In the thesis, answer the question and go beyond. If it says, "Are high expectations better than low expectations," don't say, "High exp...are better than low ones." Explain why. (High expectations are better than low ones because high ones result in great success, while low ones can often exacerbate the situation) (Notice the word exacerbate).
2. PLAN YOUR THESIS, PLAN YOUR EXAMPLES BEFORE YOU START WRITING! You want the first sentences to lead into your thesis. If you change your thesis after you write your first sentences, they might not flow very well into your thesis. I speak from experience.
3. This is also very important: Don't go too fast, but also, don't go too slow. Go at a medium pace, so that you finish your essay maybe 30 seconds to a minute or 2 before time's up. Go over your essay and change maybe a thing or two. This is a reason why you should plan everything before you write--so you don't have to make so many corrections later.</p>
<p>These 9 words summarize everything:</p>
<p>Know what readers want, and give it to them.</p>
<p>Here's one last story:
I took the SAT at a local community college and the chairs swiveled, and it was kind of annoying. Ok, here's my story (I get sidetracked a lot). Well, it's more like a trick. So my proctor was just really not formal. He was fat and wore a black T-shirt that made him look like a mess. And he had a bad hair-cut and a messy beard. He looked kind of like Hagrid.
Well, before I went into the room I looked at what the class course was and it was called "Fundamentals of Real Estate," and I thought, "Well, this is a community college." I pretended that my proctor was my professor and that I was his student. The tests he all handed out were tests he made up. And I pretended that I would really give him an outstanding essay. I knew at the back of my head it was the SAT, but I found that this made-up scenario really helped keep myself calm. </p>
<p>So, how did my essay do?</p>
<p>I got an 11. </p>
<p>So, keep these points in your head and practice and read your essays over and grade them yourself and see how you can make it better, and good luck on your retake! You can do it!</p>
<p>^that was advice I gave a year ago that I kept because I knew that someday I would reuse it.</p>
<p>P.S. About the using big words: that's just icing on the cake. It's not crucial or anything, but it does help convey the message that you know what you're talking about.</p>
<p>I got a 11, and my essay was nothing great really.</p>
<p>Make sure you WRITE A LOT. Very important.
Use a good mix of vocabulary, it does count.
And I personally recommend using 2 examples instead of 3, because then you can do a thorough job of explaining and offer more insight.</p>
<p>And also, this might seem really basic but its important - divide your essay into intro, 2/3 main paragraphs and conclusion.</p>
<p>wow. good post dchow.</p>