<p>Is this a good opening paragraph for an SAT essay?</p>
<p>Should people be judged on their potential rather than by their experience and achievements?</p>
<p>Although a person’s past achievements can provide a valuable glimpse into her future ability to succeed, the most important indicator of future success is a person’s current motivation and integrity, her current willingness to tackle challenges and to push back her own limits. While past accomplishment can certainly point to certain character traits that often help lead to success, such as innate talent, it cannot accurately measure her current willingness to work hard, which is the single most important factor in future accomplishment. By focusing primarily on past experience and furthering the aspirations of those who have succeeded in the past over those who have not been so successful, our society deprives itself of future leaders who, although perhaps less accomplished than their competitors with brilliant resumes and top-tier graduate degrees, nevertheless deserve equal opportunities if they are willing to work hard. A person’s desire to further herself through hard work can change throughout her life. So, too, should her opportunities, for past accomplishment is not a reliable indicator of current motivation.</p>
<p>Either you’ve misunderstood the question or your answer is silly. You refer to this: “person’s current motivation and integrity, her current willingness to tackle challenges and to push back her own limits” and “current willingness to work hard.”</p>
<p>If I am to contrast that to “experience and achievements,” then what I picture is a person sitting on a couch saying, “Yup, I’m willing. Bring on the work. I’m watching the TV now, but as soon as I see some work that needs doing, well, I’m going to do it.” Is that really what you mean? That the best indicator of future success is a person’s plans?</p>
<p>Or do you intend for me to imagine a person whose “willingness to tackle challenges” has already been demonstrated by a pattern of tackling hard challenges? If that’s the case, then you are not describing potential at all; you are describing a person with actual experience. (Perhaps the contrast you are drawing is actually between the long-term past and the recent past? As in, “We should judge a person based on their most recent accomplishments” ?</p>
<p>Either way, I really can’t tell which kind of person the introduction refers to. In short, you really need to clarify your terms.</p>
<p>We place far too much emphasis on experience and achievement in our society. We tend to judge people based on what they’ve done rather than on what they can do. But looking only at someone’s experience and achievements ignores how that person may develop or what that person may become. We can only determine people’s true worth by what they are capable of doing, not by what they have already done.</p>
<p>Assignment: Should people be judged by their potential rather than by their experience and achievements? 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>@WasatchWriter This is original prompt. It might make my response more clear.</p>
<p>For example, a person who screws up high school shouldn’t be barred from later success. If that person, perhaps in his or her 20s, decides to study hard, go to a community college, transfer to a good university, that person shouldn’t be viewed as permanently incapable of valuable work just because his/her early record is less than impressive. A silly example, perhaps, but I think that may clarify my point. Obviously, the examples I would use in the rest of the essay would clarify my meaning. </p>
<p>Its too long. You’re gonna need more time for the other 4 paragraphs</p>