<p>How many minutes did you spend brainstorming examples? Also, after you come up with the examples, how did you explain it to make it connect with your thesis? I am having some trouble with that.</p>
<p>I took the SAT twice and the ACT once and got 10+ on all three. I usually don’t like outlines, but I’ve found it really helps to spend two or three minutes on one. Also, I already have a general outline that will fit any essay, which goes like this:</p>
<p>I. Intro
A. Broad statement
B. narrow down and allude to examples that will be used
C. Thesis statement
II. Example 1: literary
A. Introduce book
B. example from book
C. Connect example from book to thesis
III. Example 2: historical
A. Introduce event
B. specifics of event that pertain to thesis
C. Connect event to thesis
IV. Example 3: psychological*
A. Introduce psychological principle
B. explain how it connects to thesis
V. Conclusion
A. Sum up examples
B. restate thesis</p>
<p>*feel free to use anything else. I took AP psych and found that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can fit basically any essay prompt somehow.</p>
<p>As for how to connect with the thesis, I’m not quite sure what you’re asking because that’s a pretty broad question. If you clarify I’ll definitely try to help. I think an important part of being able to connect to the thesis is knowing how to pick the right examples. You really only need to know one or two books and one or two historical events that can be applied to any essay prompt, but if you pick the wrong books, you might end up stuck with an example that doesn’t fit well.</p>
<p>Gahh, I tried to indent the letters in the outline, but it automatically pushed them back to the start of the line. Sorry about that!</p>
<p>I got an 11 on my most recent sat essay. I think it’s really important to just start writing and to focus less on planning. I spent probably a minute thinking of a thesis and a few examples. It’s really important you have a clear thesis and really try to think of as many examples as you can. It also helps if you can find a book you can weave into most prompts. I’ve used Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt on multiple ap exams/sats, haha, somehow it just works. I would also read up on basic philosophy theories. e.g., existentialism. ameliab12 has a good outline, but I think that really would take too much time to do all of that.
A simple one sentence thesis is best for connecting examples. Don’t make it too complex.
Finally, what will help you score an extra point (said my AP english teacher :p) is if you introduce a counterargument and undermine it. “While this and this is true, it is more important/pragmatic that [thesis]” that was confusing, but hopefully you know what I mean. As for examples, one literary, one nonfiction, one from your personal experience and one from current events/philosopy/psychology does the job. Good Luck</p>