Help: My SAT Essay Grade

Test Preparation
1

<p>I'm not one to post personal questions unless needed, but I am puzzled with the grade I got on my essay. Would you be so kind as to grade my essay and provide some feedback? Thanks. </p>

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[quote]

ESSAY PROMPT</p>

<p>Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below:</p>

<p>Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with the past and integrate past and present.</p>

<p>Adapted from Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation</p>

<p>Assignment: Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present? 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.

[/quote]
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<p><a href="http://img119.echo.cx/img119/6822/essay14qt.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://img119.echo.cx/img119/6822/essay14qt.jpg&lt;/a>
<a href="http://img119.echo.cx/img119/9464/essay24jj.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://img119.echo.cx/img119/9464/essay24jj.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>I would say that's probably a 7. I imagine your essay required three people to grade it. You sound like a competent person, but you really didn't crank out the goods. You have only one example, which is basically just an english paper book summary. You also did not take a position, at first you said that memories hinder the ability to progress, but you ended by saying how one can free his or her self by removing the shackles of society or something to that extent which only sounds good in english class. Your grammatical errors and use of diction were adequate, so I'm sure they gave you at least an "adequate" score (6 or above).</p>

3

<p>I took a 1 second glance at your essay, and already found two things wrong with it.</p>

<p>1) Bad handwriting
2) Not whole 2 pages</p>

<p>I'm guessing these two things lowered your essay score</p>

4

<p>It's borderline off-topic. Much of your paper is telling a story, and not proving a thesis. I think you spent too much time giving background, and not enough trying to sell your argument.</p>