<p>Last SAT, I wrote my essay with confidence that I got a 6. But I got a 4. I am retaking it, and I NEED to know the recipe to success from experienced test takers. </p>
<p>Last time, the topic was: Is doubting and being suspicious of someone okay even if his or her actions seem good?</p>
<p>I wrote the standard 5 pgraph essay, w/ an intro that starts broadly and ends with the thesis that says YES, its OKAY. Examples:
-Alexander the Great doubted an aide who turned out to be a bad guy
- In Great Expectations, Joe doubts this one dude (forgot name) who ends up trying to kill PIP, and Joe saves the day (remember when Pip is lured into an old shack in forest?)
-Lastly, I kinda made up an example about how a group of lawyers were suspicious of Bernie Madoff, and their suspicion proved correct and beneficial to society. </p>
<p>It was a meaty essay, few grammatical errors, good vocab. Did they catch my lie? Or something else about my template? </p>
<p>What is the ideal template? </p>
<p>Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Do you mean 6 as an individual score or 6 out of the possible total 12?</p>
<p>6 as in 12/12. And TS, just keep doing what you’re doing. Just remember to be extremely specific with your examples and have analysis. That’s basically all you need to get a good essay score.</p>
<p>Did you use a bunch of “SAT words” ? And did you fill up the entire 2 pages? You are using the ideal template so maybe your essay just wasn’t written as well as you thought?</p>
<p>Maybe there were too many grammatical errors to prevent you from getting a 6, or some of the examples weren’t relevant enough? There are many possible reasons to explain why you got the score you weren’t expecting.</p>
<p>So my template is the ideal one? Because I see tons of advice saying thesis goes first, one example is enough, etc. </p>
<p>And another thing-- I recently came across a REAL sat essay prompt online:</p>
<p>Prompt #2 on <a href=“http://examdude.com/march-2011-–-sat-essay-prompt/”>http://examdude.com/march-2011-–-sat-essay-prompt/</a></p>
<p>What the heck?? Why is the prompt on PHOTOGRAPHY instead of open topics like morality, society etc.?? Are the prompts getting more specific? How am I supposed to use my classic book collection and historical anecdote collection to talk about PHOTOGRAPHY???</p>
<p>Dat sh** cray.</p>
<p>There isn’t an ideal “template.” A five-paragraph essay is fine, but not everyone will use it.</p>
<p>Yeah, seems like the topics are getting a little more specific (geared towards technology?) but they are still broad enough to encompass nearly everyone’s background. You might have to forgo using certain examples and think of other ones. It’s kinda difficult to cite an 1823 novel on an essay about reality television, right?</p>
<p>Even though I did pretty badly on my SATs (got a 1970 and 2000), managed to get an 11 on the essay both times. Just use up every inch of space and mainly what did the trick,in my opinion, were my examples. Both times my examples were purely fictional. Made up my own date,region,freedom fighter,authors,philosophers.etc. Just weave whatever you make up right into your essay. Try starting your essay with a quote (could me made up as well) and credit it to some complicated name sounding Chinese philosopher :P</p>
<p>Haha— now i’m not worried that my 8/12 was because I made up crap about Bernie Madoff.</p>