Making up historic figures for SAT writing?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Uhh.... is it bad if you make up a historical figure if you can't think of anything? They aren't realllllllly going to check are they?</p>

2

<p>They only have two minutes to read each essay. I wouldn’t worry.</p>

3

<p>Nope! :wink: You can’t be penalized for faulty facts; you’re being graded on quality of writing only- according to ETS, at least…although I suspect that completely fabricated or incorrect historical references may bias your reader. Either way, good luck!</p>

4

<p>Just make sure it answers the question. Don’t go crazy though!</p>

5

<p>I’d say don’t go crazy and make up a President, but a fictional social leader, labor union leader, reformer, or even a senator will be obscure enough that they will likely may think they just don’t know about it. In this case, they may even give you points for an example that seems to show thought and a deep understanding of the topic when you really just made it up on the spot to tailor-fit the topic.</p>

6

<p>don’t make it obvious</p>

7

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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/04education.html?_r=2[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/04education.html?_r=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Wow hotinpursuit…thanks for the info, very very nice find. Judging by the posts I’ve read on this board, most CC’rs are not aware of this piece of information. Though, lying on the essay may not be a smart thing to do since many colleges refer to it as an admission criterion. Then again the colleges know that test-takers are allowed to make stuff up :confused: hmm…I wonder if they’re going to care…</p>

9

<p>Lmao…
that’s awesome.</p>

<p>So, I could make up a fake president with qualities that has perfect qualities and experiences that “coincide” with the prompt? ;)</p>

10

<p>^
Don’t do something obvious like make up a fake US president.
But a fake president from another country that is relatively unknown (Romania, New Zealand, Uruguay) would work fine. The grader is not going to spend his time corroborating your examples.</p>

11

<p>Well, keep this in mind. The essay can be subjective because it is graded by teachers. If the teacher sees a fake president, or something fake, they will probably automatically think worse of your paper…</p>

12

<p>But, if the graders just think that you know something that they don’t, they won’t think worse of your paper because they won’t know the example is actually fake.</p>

13

<p>you know the actual scorers grade essays that have been emailed to them via attachments…they’re a couple seconds (or less) from Google just in case they want to do a random spot check ;)</p>

14

<p>^Yeah, but they DON’T CARE. Really. They have like a million essays to grade. They aren’t going to spend a second longer on your essay than they have to.</p>

15

<p>let’s hope not</p>

16

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<p>I agree with the first point, and I disagree with the second. Facts would not improve your score AT ALL on the SAT essay. They’re not looking for your historical knowledge; they just want to see if you can write fluently and interestingly with examples that are well organized. When I used Clinton in my SAT essay, I didn’t bother saying when he became President, which President he was, blah blah blah. I just said “President Clinton’s experience furthers my point” and moved on with the historical anecdote.</p>

17

<p>they’re not, why would they waste their “valuable” time on such an insignificant thing for them?</p>