I’ll be taking the test this September and thus only have less than 3 months to prepare for the essay section. I am Vietnamese originally so I do no have much knowledge of Western famous figures and events. I’ve seen in many act sample essays that the writers insert quite a lot “enormous examples” in their essays, such as chief executives of large incorporations and their quotes, achievements, or those of professors in reputable universities and well-known artists. The prompt is variable and so is the needed example and, as I’ve mentioned earlier, I find it hopeless for me searching on the web and keep in my head an endless chain of examples to be confident to take the test, not to mention I can be at a high risk of running out of time when it comes to a prompt that neither my prepared examples would fit. Is there any solutions for me ? Some people gave me advice that I just need to prepare for myself a few examples and so be flexible to transform them into a suitable one for my essay, but I didn’t get their points, how can a few prepared examples match up a maze of prompts out there ???
I wonder if I can use example of little known people, like in my own country? Anyway, my biggest problem now is not to be able to think out a concrete, suitable example while doing the test. Hopefully you can help me overcome this. Thank you all !!!
You can make things up because they won’t fact check you
But definitely I shouldn’t make up things of well-known people, there is a high chance that they will recognize the weird in my example and therefore lower the score. Is it a good idea to create an example of an unreal figure or as I’ve said, of a real figure but in my country thus the readers hardly ever know ?
I tend to stay away from making up quotes from people, even though you definitely can. I would say something from either a person that isn’t well known or from a polling agency such as Pew or Gallup.
Even if you can’t make something up, using cultural references in Vietnam aren’t bad examples, as long as you explain and contextualize. For example, a Western grader may be able to understand if a student writes “Steve Jobs dropped out of college.” without any explanation but for a Vietnamese figure, you should explain who they are, like “So-and-so, the CEO of a large technology company in Vietnam, did this”. As long as whatever the example did clearly supports your argument, that’s all the grader looks for. For my ACT essay, I used an example of a movie star from India, and I got a good score on it. So don’t shy away from using your own culture for inspiration, as long as you make your argument clear and explain what that thing/figure is! Good luck!