<p>I've been told throughout my SAT prep courses that "perfect" essays are usually about personal experiences. So these essays use personal examples to pursuade the readers. However, the SAT books as well as CC mention "real" examples from books, events, etc for examples. Which one is usually better and why?</p>
<p>Any example that is revalent to the topic is good enough. Usually personal experiences can have more depth to them. You can pretty much make up anything for personal experiences. Even if a teacher has read the book or character you mentioned, he or she won't necessarily grade better because if you say anything wrong about the character, you will have points taken off just as you would on a normal test for that teacher. Go with personal experience, you can't go wrong, you can vary it up, make it funny, interesting, and stand out from the other essays. I'm not saying don't use them because if you have a perfect example from history or literature, use it and if you use it correctly, you're golden.</p>