FREE SAT Essay Scoring

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
21

<p>Thank you so much! This is the first essay I’ve ever written for an SAT. I’m completely unaware of the “format” involved, so if you could please give me beginner tips, that would be great!</p>

<p>Prompt: A colleague of the great scientist James Watson remarked that Watson was always “lounging around, arguing about problems instead of doing experiments.” He concluded that “There is more than one way of doing good science.” It was Watson’s form of idleness, the scientist went on to say, that allowed him to solve “the greatest of all biological problems: the discovery of the structure of DNA.” It is a point worth remembering in a society overly concerned with efficiency.</p>

<p>Adapted from John C. Polanyi, “Understanding Discovery” </p>

<p>Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things in their own way? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>

<p>Have you ever wanted to do something differently than society’s predetermined “best” way? James Watson wanted to do exactly that when he was practicing biology. Because Watson defied society’s way of doing “good science,” and did “good science” in his own unique way, DNA was discovered. So when we look at today’s society and connect James Watson to it, it is quickly realized that people accomplish much more when they are allowed to simply do things in their own way. </p>

<p>When people are allowed to do things in their own way, they can accomplish more because they become more efficient when they do things in their own way. They become more efficient because in their mind, when they do things their own way, they know exactly what to do, how to do it, and why they are doing it. The third component in that last sentence is the most important. When people know why they are doing something, their is motivation to do it more effectively and efficiently and when people are allowed to do things their own way, that motivation thrives. When I say this, I speak from my own experience. For example, once I wanted to clean my room in my own way, but my parents wanted me to clean another way that they have always used. I defied my parents and did it my own way, and I was able to clean my room much faster than my parent’s way. This happened because my motivation was able to thrive because I knew exactly how and why I was doing. </p>

<p>The second reason people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things in their own way is because allowing people to do things in their own way gives them less stress. In fact, a study published just a few months ago explained how stress reduction leads to happiness increases. The study went on to explain that stress reduction and happiness increase leads to more efficient workers in the workplace and allowing people to accomplish things in their own way allows this stress reduction and happiness increase to take place. Also, another benefit of this stress reduction, explains the study, is that it leaves to an increase in life expectancy which is always a plus. </p>

<p>The final and perhaps most important reason to why people can accomplish more doing things their own way is because doing things in new, unique ways allows society to adopt better and faster paths to achieving something. First, it must be defined that society is just a collection of people. Thus, when society accomplishes more, people accomplish more. For example, back in the 1990s, America thought it was developing the best way for producing hybrid technology in vehicles. However, Japan defied America and developed hybrid vehicles in their own way. It turned out that Japan’s unique way was actually much better than the then-standard American way. They unveiled their better hybrid technology in the early 21st century with the Toyota Prius. Because Japan was allowed to make hybrid technology in their own way, society was able to prosper as new, better ways of accomplishing tasks were developed. </p>

<p>When put back into scope, it can quickly be seen that James Watson was no fool. He was smart for doing science in his unique way and this allowed him to learn about DNA. If people and society were to develop this same attitude, they can accomplish much more than what they accomplish today.</p>

<p>Again, thanks!</p>

22

<p>Eh.
This has become sort of a dead thread now, since we have no grader.</p>

23

<p>@GeneralOddone – 8/9
@Daedalus3140 – 7/8 Too colloquial. Too long to fit on page.
@kalariap – 8/9 Too general. Be specific.
@Kyrix1 – 8/9 Decent essay. Stay on topic add vocab and sentence structure.
@ccf183 – 9/10 Good essay, but I’m not so sure you will have that much space on the real test. </p>

<p>I’m very sorry, but this will be my last set of grades.</p>

24

<p>I had Professor Dave, the author of this book – [Amazon.com:</a> Professor Dave’s Owner’s Manual for the SAT: Expert, Effective, Efficient (9780615587714): David I Schoen: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Daves-Owners-Manual-SAT/dp/0615587712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342622877&sr=8-1&keywords=professor+Dave]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Daves-Owners-Manual-SAT/dp/0615587712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342622877&sr=8-1&keywords=professor+Dave) grade my essay and I was given a 6/12. Now I’m dumbfounded as to what my real score estimate is. BeatTheSAT gave me a 9/12?..</p>

25

<p>I’m with Professor Dave. 3/6 The essay goes in circles, and says very little along the way. Look at how many times you repeated the phrase “do things in their own way.”</p>

26

<p>Yeah, thanks. Obviously there is work to be done :)</p>

27

<p>Prompt:Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general?</p>

<p>Although people should strive to be good citizens for the nation, one should take more responsibility for helping their own community. Example of this can be found in the schools, local businesses, and in the preservations of historical sites.
Helping our community teaches up to be independent. IT allows people to make decisions that affect themselves and others. For example, when people attend local school board meetings, they can voice their opinionsn and help be a part of decisions that affect local schools. Recently, many students from a local high schools walked out on a school day, adn marched to town hall to protest the state budget cut’s on schools. This shows how high school students are taking local action. Had the walk-out not happened, the state would probably have never reconsidered the budget cuts.
Taking responsibilty in our own community also helps other. For example, several years ago a Targe store was planned to be built in the Chinatown District. Many people in the area protested because it would hurt local businesses. Eventually city council backed out of the plan to put a Target there. Without the local community input, the city council and the Target Corporation would have ignored the negative impact it would have on local businesses.
Becoming responsible in our community is important because it affects us directly. Many neighborhoods work together to protect local historical sites from corporate construction builders. Like when my family was approached by a builder to tear down our house and build several modern town houses. My parents refused because our house is over a hundred years old. Many times the nation doesn’t recognize the value of historical sites like the people who live there or around it. Thus showing the positive impact people can have on their community.
In sum people should take charge in helping their community.</p>

28

<p>I’m just unsure on what grade it would earn. I’m a rising sophomore and I was planning on taking the SAT soon. It would be great if I could get some pointers.</p>

<p>PROMPT: </p>

<p>Many people believe that our government should do more to solve our problems. After all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads fssafer or improve the schools or help to provide any of the other benefits that we have to enjoy? And yet expecting that the government—rather than individuals—should always come up with the solutions to society’s ills may have made us less self-reliant, undermining our independence and self-suffiency.</p>

<p>Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. </p>

<p>ESSAY:
In today’s society, people often blame the government for many of the problems they face. These problems can arise in local communtities to global settings. People are quick to point fingers at the government to fix the problems. However, they should not be dependant on others. They need to take charge and resolve their own problems. People have become helpless on their own account and they feel that they require a ‘babysitter’.</p>

<p>History shows that a common man can create dramatic changes and resolve many problems. Take for example Martin Luther, the German monk who stood against the Roman Catholic Church. He questioned their beliefs and motivated people to resolve their own problems by standing up for themselves. He taught the world people should never blindly trust authority to solve their problems.</p>

<p>Recently in Libya, the people overthrew their oppressive leader by taking matters into their own hands and solving their own problem. The people worked together to resolve an issue. Ironically, the issue was their authoritative figure. This shows that people should never be completely reliant on their rulers. This incident epitomizes the power of the people when they take matters into their own hands.</p>

<p>Also, the state of the Indian people supports my belief on this topic. India is a large economic giant, but their people still live in poverty. The people look to their powerful government to fix their problems. However, India still remains a developing country in the eyes of the world. </p>

<p>Therefore, I can conclude that people should take responsibility for their own welfare. They should not be dependent on untrustworthy rulers. Each individual should feel responsible for the prosperity and welfare of the people of their country. To depend on fallible rulers is foolish.</p>

29

<p>Prompt:
“That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value.”
Thomas Paine
Assignment:
Do we value only what we struggle? </p>

<p>Essay:
It is a general tendency for everyone that we have more value and attention for the things we struggle for. </p>

<p>For some people money is jus a printed-paper that has been printed with special ink on it. This shows that they don’t know the value of it, as it is easy for them to earn it. But for the rest, money can be something they rely on as they have achieved it through their hard work. They value it as they spend this money on things like basic necessities, that are food, water, clothing, etc. This shows that the value of money they have is greater, as they struggle to achieve it. </p>

<p>Lets take another example.
There are some students who try to get admission in a good school. All they do is tell their parents they want to change their school and all the work is doe by their parents. This is really easy for them, as their parents do all the work. They don’t value what comfort they have in front of them. Whereas, there are students who work hard to get into a good school, they work on their own and they know how difficult it is. They value every bit of their hard work and things they have in front of them.</p>

<p>Love and life are two things people undervalue it till the time they don’t realize how precious it can be until it is gone or it is about to go. After realizing it we regret and wish we had done something about it earlier. In life, we need to value and appreciate everything that is given to us, no matter how hard or easy it is to obtain something. </p>

<p>Everything has value in it, all we need to do is find out how we can appreciate it and not underestimate it.</p>

30

<p>hopefully we get a grader in sometime…</p>

31

<p>PROMPT: Should people choose one of two opposing sides of an issue, or is the truth usually found in the middle?</p>

<p>Because people are biased when making decisions, a median must be presented in order to prevent an extreme polarization of ideas. According to the theory of self-serving bias, people attempt to find ways, no matter how obscure, to prove their ideas as correct. Because of obstinacy, arguments often lead to fruitless outcomes. In order to avoid this, society tries to find unbiased opinions that will come up with a fair solution for both sides of a problem. In court cases, judges efface any prior bias or knowledge they have so that judgment can be impartial. A median is needed because people are blinded by their own decisions and, in the process of trying to justify themselves, people turn a blind-eye to any truth in the words of others.</p>

<p>A constantly recurring event in my family depicts this necessity of a median in decision-making. Whenever my parents had an argument, I pretend to sleep in order to avoid all of the chaos. As a result, my parents nearly divorced because they were unable to accept any other belief besides their own. My parents never came up with a solution and remained oblivious to each other for awhile. When their animosity reached a high point, I decided to interrupt and show both truths from my mom and my dad. My parents, realizing that they were wrong, quickly reconciled and had no remnants of bitterness afterwards.</p>

<p>An opinion that considers all aspects of a situation can help people understand each other more easily, but this applies to personality as well, as demonstrated in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott-Fitzgerald through Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy. Gatsby is the epitomme of the nouvea-riche and a hopeless romantic. Blinded by love, Gatsby never considers the effects of his actions on others and eventually dies due to his temerity. Daisy is the opposite of Gatsby in terms of background, but is similarly blinded by her own actions. daisy lives in her own fantasy of superficial wealth and in order to maintain her refined image, kills Myrtle and remains hopelessly apathetic and irrational. However, Nick, a medium in between the poor-to-rich Gatsby and the ostentatious Daisy, is able to embrace reality, think about the actions of himself as well as those of others, and think through his own emotions. While Nick lives comfortably at the end of the novel, Daisy remains hopelessly lost and Gatsby is dead with no one to care about his departure.</p>

<p>These examples depict the necessity of a “middle truth”. Without a medium, a solution would be impossible due to the irrational whims of society and the reluctance to accept other opinions.</p>

32

<p>Assignment: Are people likely to succeed by repeating actions that worked for them in the past?</p>

<p>“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a good motto. It means that if something is successful, it should continue as is. If certain actions were successful for a person once, they are highly likely to bring success again.
Good luck rituals are a good example of this. For instance, the first time I took a standardized test, I used five black pencils and wore a black wristband purchased at a great concert. Although I was very nervous, I passed the test with a score high enough admit me into an elite honor society. So of course the next standardized test I took, those same pencils and armbands came with me! Even just imagining that these regular items were part of the key to my success made the testing easier. This ritual gave me the confidence to push through my test-taking worries and do very well on my standardized tests.
Another good example of this involves the Walt Disney company and their movie making strategies in the '90’s. Coming away from a successive train of box-office failures in the eighties, the company was desperate to once again claim the spot as the world’s most successful family movie company. Instead of lamenting their failures and focusing on the problems that made their recent movies unsuccessful, the Disney company instead focused on what made their movies successful during their heyday back when the company’s founder Walt was alive --commitment to story-telling of the highest quality. Remembering the methods used for some of their biggest successes from way-back-when, Walt Disney regrouped and relaunched its cartoon movies. The result was the extremely popular and unforgettable films like Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Tarzan, and Beauty and the Beast. By focusing on what had worked in the past instead of what didn’t, Disney became more successful than ever.
Repeating actions that were successful in the past usually does result in success today. Whether repeating familiar rituals merely creates a good feeling of confidence (like in my standardized test-taking) or repeating previously successful tactics creates winning films, there’s no denying that retracing one’s steps and doing what has worked before is a good idea.</p>

33

<p>Great!
I will be posting my essays soon. :)</p>

34

<p>so i usually write in 3rd person and use actual historical examples. but i heard from an sat grader to write in my own voice, be creative, and use 1st person. i usally get 10-12 but i feel like writing in my own voice is too colloquial. so here it is</p>

<pre><code>Life is full of learning; we learn from our history, our personal mistakes, and even our major failures. However each time we are met with such an obstacle, we manage to stand up and move forward with time as part of our responsibility. Even in the pursuit of education, especially to those who are studying for the SAT, students who willingly face their failures learn not only to move on in hard situations but also to improve themselves to excel in their studies.
I am an unmotivated student, perhaps even a lazy student. I tend to be the type of kid who does the minimum amount of work to scrape by with a 90.01. But do not be deceived. I am lazy, but most certainly not dumb. I figured out all by myself that my junior summer would be like no other in the past. I would be spending hours upon hours studying in an air-conditioned chamber while my friends tanned under the heat of summer. My negative attitude towards studying for the SAT was a failure in itself.
Like all other Asian parents, my parents enrolled me in an elite SAT boot camp, ironically named, Elite. There was no desire within me to wake up early in the morning, attend five hours of torture, only to be released home to find hours of homework waiting to be completed. I did my homework like all other “elite” students, but didn’t spend time to absorb the things I learned. This was failure number two.
On Monday mornings of each week, “elite” students took a full length practice. It was absolutely the worst time of the week to take a five hour test, but I managed to complete all the tests half-asleep. Week after week, I did not make much improvement. I failed to take these test seriously and I guess I reaped what I sowed on the day of the Oct. 6 test.
I woke up that fateful morning determined to score a 2000. I was pumped, stuffed myself with a little too much sugar, but was more than ready thinking I’ve prepared more than enough. However, I was also more than wrong. Everything that could’ve gone wrong on an SAT test went wrong. I erased my thesis seconds before the 25 min were up, leaving my essay thesis-less. I bubbled in the section 4 in section 5, and my pencil broke 3 times. I don’t believe in Karma or anything of that sort, but I sure realized I was reaping what I sowed during the summer. By not taking those practice tests seriously, by being careless in homework, and by having a negative attitude, I was setting myself up for inevitable failure.
Looking back, I realized my failures at Elite were bound to manifest in my less than desirable score. This past learning experience has helped me realize I need to change my attitude and be diligent in the things I do, whether it’s educational or a hobby. Even though I haven’t taken a 2nd SAT test yet, I am studying diligently right now as a direct inspiration from my failures. I also learned a failure itself is not important to the learning process; it is the realization of a failure and the willingness to change your failure or flaw that will lead to success in life, regardless of the task that lies beforehand.
</code></pre>

35

<hr>

<p>Essay Prompt
Nowadays nothing is private: our culture has become too confessional and self-expressive. People think that to hide one’s thoughts or feelings is to pretend not to have those thoughts or feelings. They assume that honesty requires one to express every inclination and impulse.
Adapted from J. David Velleman, “The Genesis of Shame”</p>

<hr>

<p>Assignment
Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>

<hr>

<p>So here’s my essay!!</p>

<hr>

<p>In modern American culture, nothing is kept private. Almost everything is posted through Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. Many teenagers treat their Facebook as a place where they share their inner thoughts, emotions and activities. This is one of the many downsides of a modern social network where nothing is kept private and everything is shared. In my opinion, people should in fact make more of an effort to keep things private.</p>

<p>In the past, before the modern days of the internet, people, especially teenagers, would tend to not share their personal lives with anyone they barely knew. They would keep their problems and issues in between friends and family and and would want to feel a sense of privacy and security. But now, in the age of the internet, people post private pictures and thoughts with all of their internet “friends”, these friends could be anyone from family to someone that the user had met at a party and decided to keep in touch with.</p>

<p>One of the easiest ways to get harassed in the twenty first century is by having someone who dislikes you, read all about you and make fun of you because of your “personal” feelings and thoughts. The private bubble or wall that mostly everyone had and felt ten years ago is for the most part gone and people can take advantage of others because of it.</p>

<p>In a world where people tend to keep more things private, people would be more enclosed and secure and wouldn’t have to worry about how other people might think about them, especially if none of their personal thoughts and feelings are on the internet for almost everyone they know and don’t know to view. People’s lives would also be simpler, knowing that they are not being judged by everything they say, think or do on the internet. </p>

<p>People for the most part, are hooked online because of countless rumors being spread about the people who aren’t. For example, one of these rumors is that people who do not own a Facebook are more likely to be a psychopath than someone who does not own one. This is one of the many pressures people have to be connected online and this is why I think that people should make more of an effort to keep things online.</p>

<hr>

<p>Thank you guys!</p>

36

<p>bigyonb
4. You have a point of view but it is not supported by any well developed reasoning and examples</p>

<p>Position on prompt good. Example- social media. How many of these do you think the grader just read? Probably 60. Will your 61st be better? Not likely. </p>

<p>2nd para: a lot of people are on-line and share things. Who cares? Not supporting your thesis</p>

<p>3rd para: people can harass you based on stuff you post on line. meh. but at least its support for your thesis. Would be better if you had a specific example</p>

<p>4th para: if people didnt share things then they would have to worry about people knowing things. Ahhh, yeah. So now your reasoning is non-specific harassment and worrying about possible harassment?</p>

<p>5th para: people are on-line because of rumors if they are not. What? “…I think that people should make more of an effort to keep things online.” What!? Isnt that the opposite of what you are arguing?
The conclusion is where you sum up your arguments and state they the prove your thesis. You shouldn’t be introducing new off-topic information.</p>

37

<p>janicel: What was the prompt for this one?</p>

38

<p>woops, *offline. Yah, I wrote the last paragraph in the last minute just so I could have five paragraphs. Should these essays be five paragraphs?</p>

39

<p>Should it be 5? Why not unless you are a 5 AP Eng person. </p>

<p>A 5 para structure is excellent for the SAT essay. The last paragraph is you summarizing and reenforcing the points you just developed in your 3 examples. Dont go introducing off-topic information at the end.</p>

40

<p>4/6. Vague thesis, and a poor conclusion. Fix that up and it will be a 5/6.</p>