<p>Let me just tell you straight I can't write</p>
<p>And the essay somewhat kills me everytime. I read the how to write a 12 essay in ten days, but the problem is I can never find the examples to fit into the paragraphs. </p>
<p>Is there books where any topic relates to it? I know To Kill a Mockingbird is one. But any others? Thanks</p>
<p>The Great Gatsby and The Crucible will fit most prompts.</p>
<p>I can’t write either and got a 10 on the March SAT. So it’s possible for you to still do well on it. My best advice would be to make sure you use at least 2-3 strong examples, fill up the two full pages, and make sure you constantly backup your thesis.</p>
<p>You also don’t really have to use historical/literary examples to get a good score. I used Patrick Ewing on the march SAT and got a 10.</p>
<p>Don’t try and find new examples for every SAT test you practice with or take for real. As long as you can relate to the prompt and argue with some examples, the graders don’t care too much about it. As the real SAT I came around, I got lazier with my examples. For every prompt, I stuck with one example either from literature or history and usually another from “personal experience.” Occassionally, I’ll find a prompt in which I would actually put in the effort to use examples from literature and from history. Consequently, I stuck with 4 paragraph essays. Here are the things from history and literature that I used for nearly every prompt:
History:General background of WWII, causes of/events in the American Revolution, occassionally something about the Civil War
Literature:Paradise Lost (my all time favorite to use), To Kill a Mocking Bird, Scarlet Letter</p>
<p>I’ve never received a 12 for my essays, so I don’t know what my advice is worth. I took the SAT three times, and received one 10 and two 11s. I’ll tell you this: fill up two pages with “not-too-ridiculously-large” handwriting, insert some fancy vocabulary words, make your essay “grand”. There is a formula for a double digit essay score.</p>
<p>Personally, I stick to a select few examples that appear universal to me. I’ll list a few that I use on almost every essay: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Enron Scandal, Einstein, obama(here and there),mahatma Gandhi, and the wright brothers.</p>
<p>For the march one, it was about remembering your mistakes.</p>
<p>I made up a novel about a buisness man in the San Francisco area who learned from his earlier buisness mistakes and bad investments. Kinda of like Pursuit of Happiness.</p>
<p>The second fake one was about a 19th century anatolian doctor who cured a rare skin disease that causes paralysis in modern west turkey. He remembered his past failings/mal practices in trying to create an antidote to finally find the cure. Based kinda off Polio.</p>
<p>Score</p>
<p>800 (80 mc 11E)</p>
<p>Point: Use real events to make up examples.</p>
<p>Just the title haha! By that point including an author is not needed.</p>
<p>When my essay is shown on the score report tuesday, I will post it here if you want.
I was kind of laughing while I wrote it but you can be the judge on how realistic you think they are.</p>
<p>For the march test, I used The Great Gatsby (explained how Jay Gatsby made mistakes in his underground business ventures and learned form them-- total BS if you’ve read the book), Frederick Douglass (I read his biography for school’s summer reading this year; he learned from his first failed attempt at escape and successfully escaped the 2nd time), and Bryan Anderson (a triple-amputee; read about him in a magazine in AP lang class). I got a 12 essay score.</p>
<p>All three examples came from school spoon-fed stuff! You just have to think very hard and be very good at BSing if the situation calls for it. I drew a blank that test, but just started writing the intro/thesis to get going. It seems that you (OP) would benefit a lot from learning to make stuff up on the spot if you can’t find the golden example!</p>
<p>I actually had the same problem. You might want to try his book called Bellbright. A bunch of my friends and I used it. Since the book is specifically for the writing section and the essay part, it was realllllly helpful for me. They have extremely detailed videos for every essay and they just walk you through step by step and show you how to think up examples and write each paragraph. (kind of like khan, except for writing. obviously) Oh also, you’ll realize that they recycle examples to fit different topics, so you can understand the concepts for sure. But whatever happens, good luck!! :)</p>
<p>Oh also, I scored a 12. And I scored like… a 9 several months before that. It could be that I read more, but I personally think it was the Bellbright book. yepppp.</p>