<p>The CC forums have been invaluable in my preparation for the October SAT. I'd like to reciprocate by posting the practice essays I wrote to prepare myself. The posts will be in roughly chronological order.</p>
<p>When Socrates said he was the wisest of all the Greeks because he alone knew that he knew nothing, he identified the self-awareness of a lack of knowledge as the basis for all future learning. Unfortunately, our present system of educations grasp of this principle is inconsistent at best.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the experience of eminent physicist Richard Feynman. On a trip to Brazil, he observed that the university students studying physics were often simply memorizing definitions of terms with no real understanding of the content - they knew that piezoluminescence was the lash of light produced when pressure is rapidly applied to a crystalline substance, but could not tell him what would happen when a cube of sugar was crushed by pliers. He blamed the university tests, which only tested students using phrases they were expected to memorize, for this state of affairs. Even on his return to the United States, he found similar problems like textbooks which gave circular, vacuous definitions of fundamental physical concepts like energy.</p>
<p>The underlying problem is that examinations require students to demonstrate their knowledge of a subject. Too often, students can be taught to present this knowledge without the understanding. True learning is far harder, requiring learners to unrelentingly confront their confusion about a concept until they really understand it, and hence more painful and time-consuming. But the true scholar should best keep in mind that a recognition of his lack of knowledge is the only path to lasting scholarship. To paraphrase Euclid, there is no royal road to learning.</p>
<p>[257]</p>
<p>When one pauses to consider all the problems facing the world today, it is easy to be discouraged by the sheer magnitude and insurmountability of the problems. From issues like world peace to space travel, it often seems that no one has any idea what a solution would look like. Worse still, an examination of our history often shows long periods where we have regressed in these problems. However, I feel that the struggles we must go through impart meaning to our collective goals.</p>
<p>Take the problem of world peace for example. Through history mankind has tried to restrain his violent tendencies, seemingly to no avail. World War I was largely recognised as a pyrrhic victory even for the Allied Powers, who had little to show for the millions of young men lost in the bloodletting of trench warfare. The hopefulness that came afterwards, as exemplified by the creation of the League of Nations, was quickly dashed when World War II ran up a casualty count many times that of the previous World War as well as the horrors of the Holocaust.</p>
<p>However, such traumatizing experiences ultimately serve to remind future generations of the importance of world peace; for instance, it produced a great determination in both the US and the USSR to end the cold war in a non-hostile manner, as well as providing the impetus and urgency that allowed the United Nations to succeed where the League of Nations had failed. When the baton is passed to our generation, we would do well to remember the lessons our ancestors paid in blood to learn.</p>
<p>[266]</p>
<p>Some lessons can be learnt in a classroom, some in a seedy bar whilst talking to a middle-aged divorcee explain why his marriage failed. However, many of the most successful people in the world attribute their success to lessons they had to learn the hard way - through failure.</p>
<p>Take Steve Jobs, for example. While many might think he was born a great businessman and product visionary, the truth is far messier. The road to Jobs eventual success in Apple was paved with two notable failures. The first computer he tried to market, the Lisa, was a huge flop; it took Jobs millions in lost revenue and excess inventory to learn the hard lessons behind product design that would serve him so well in the years to come. Another failure was his hiring of John Sculley, from Coca-Cola, as his CEO. Sculleys mismanagement of the company almost led to its demise; even worse, he convinced the Board of Directors to fire Jobs! When he managed to claw his way back years later, Jobs had learnt a hard lesson about choosing the right an for the job. He held on to the title of CEO, managing the company with fanatical precision and great results, right up to the few months before he succumbed to cancer.</p>
<p>Was Jobs failures necessary for his education? After all, while it is often said that what doesnt kill you makes you stronger, these events nearly torpedoed his career and his company. Yet perhaps there can simply be no other way. In his Stanford commencement speech he said that ones life, mistakes and all, will only make sense in hindsight. In his case, certainly, he would not be nearly as successful and inspirational to us if not for his early failures.</p>
<p>[294]</p>
<p>Is each fresh crisis we encounter an opportunity in disguise? It may be hard to tell when the crisis is right before you, waiting to be resolved. Sometimes, one can only decide with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.</p>
<p>Such was the case for Richard Stallman. Stallman was a hacker in MITs Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, back when the term hacker was still used as a compliment for a programmers creativity at coming up with elegant solutions to problems. The lab had received an early prototype of a laser printer as a gift from Xerox corporation. Because it was a research prototype, it often jammed. Stallman did the expected thing and went to Xerox looking for the source code to the printer that would allow him to solve the problem, only to be turned back.</p>
<p>Now, this was definitely a crisis for Stallman. Up until then openness and sharing of information were the norm in the young, idealistic technology world. Now, it seemed that corporations and their bottom lines were threatening to make it a closed world.</p>
<p>Is each fresh crisis an opportunity in disguise? Even if we could ask Stallman back then, he wouldnt have known. Yet years later, he cited this exact moment as the inspiration or his founding of the Free Software Movement, a movement that has been instrumental in collectivizing the efforts of a community that may well have realized their ideals were in trouble much too late, had Stallman not pointed it out to them. Today, the open-source Linux operating system provides a robust, open backbone of the internet; its development might not have been possible without Stallmans rallying call against the dangers of commercial software and insistence on a non-compromising ideology, a rallying call that has its seeds in the day he was faced with the problem of the Xerox printer.</p>
<p>[306]</p>
<p>While natural advantages certainly gives some individuals an edge over others, nature is nothing without nurture. The importance of training and willpower can be illustrated by examples from music to literature.</p>
<p>One often hears of child prodigies who, from an early age, displayed high-level, almost miraculous expertise in certain fields. Perhaps no field is more rife with that than the world of music, always looking for its next Mozart. Yet when psychologist Eric K Andersson [sic, should be K Anders Ericsson] measured the performance of students at an elite Berlin music academy, he found an amazing fact: the variation in skill levels of the students could be explained purely by how much they had practiced since young. Without fail, those at the top of the class had put in at least 10,000 hours into their instruments. Anderson found no evidence of grinders who could not do well despite putting in the time, nor risers who had achieved success without the corresponding sweat. Expert-level musicianship, it seemed, was a function of hours spent.</p>
<p>What would, I wonder, a world where nature ruled supreme look like? The film Gattaca provides a peek. In its dystopian setting, Vincent Freeman is conceived naturally by his parents and hence genetically inferior to his genetically-engineered brother Anton. When they were young, they played a game called chicken where they would race out to the ocean; the first to turn back lost. Vincent, naturally, lost, lost like he did in the game of life, where everything - education, job prospects, marriage partner - was determined by ones genes. Yet years later, when he had managed to succeed (through illegal means) in spite of his destiny, he challenged Anton to a game again, and this time won. Why? his brother asked him. Simple, said Vincent. When he swam to the ocean, never let himself save energy for the trip back - it was win or die.</p>
<p>Our real world is, of course, neither a genetically-engineered dystopia nor a pure meritocracy. In our everyday lives we might do best to pursue interests and develop talents that are innate, where we have a competitive advantage. That said, it is essential that we do not let inclination become destiny or be chained to our talents, for the human spirit is capable of much more than most would imagine.</p>
<p>[382]</p>
<p>When you come across a person who criticizes a certain moral weakness too excessively, take a closer look. That person might just be resenting a flaw he himself has, a common human trait that can be found in many places.</p>
<p>For instance, most people would unanimously agree that abusing ones power over others is atrocious behaviour, and they would never themselves do such a thing. Yet the Stanford prison experiment suggests otherwise. Volunteers in the experiment who were randomly selected to role-play as prison guards eventually started psychologically tormenting their prisoners (other volunteers in the study), so much so that the experiment had to be cut short. Nietzsche would say that the will to power, the desire to control and dominate others, is universal and innate to all humans. Yet isnt this also a trait we wholeheartedly detest in others? Many who saw the abuses of the Abu Ghraib camp were quick to condemn the guards; would they, I wonder, have been any better had they been placed in the same situation?</p>
<p>ANother example is the fact that many abusive parents are more likely to have been abused as a child themselves. While genetics might be an explanation, studies that control for parentage and included adopted children suggest that simply being abused as a child contributed significantly as well. How could this be? Abusers hated their own parents for beating them, yet could not stop themselves from doing it to their own children when they became angry. Similarly, it has been found that an alcoholic parent increases a childs risk of alcoholism, and that sexually abused children grow up to commit more such crimes. Clearly, having first-hand experience of the effects of such destructive flaws does little to prevent people from succumbing to these flaws.</p>
<p>In both cases, it seems, we are confronted with the evil inside us. We would like to imagine that we are pure, we are moral, we are civilized; the truth is, we are not. When we are forced to confront this, whether through an experiment or childhood experiences, we most resent the flaws we see in ourselves.</p>
<p>[352]</p>
<p>Whether they seek intimacy in romantic partners or in close friends, many people have a misguided notion that two people are either compatible or not. Nothing could be further from the truth. That intimacy is highly depend on circumstances and time can be seen in examples from literature to marriage customs.</p>
<p>Take the practice of arranged marriages, common in the past centuries and still prevalent in many parts of India today. The modern 20-something-year-old would surely cringe at the notion of having his spouse be chosen by his parents, and in some cases at birth. Yet are we today, with our television shows that promote the idea that there is The One ideal soulmate for us with whom we need only meet to fall instantly and irreversibly in love with, really better off? Nearly half of all marriages in the US end in divorce. In contrast, studies have found that many, if not most, arranged couples slowly grow to love each other over the years. It is not fate, but time and persistence, that makes such marriages work, something that marriage counsellors try hard to tell their clients, often to no avail.</p>
<p>In literature, we see the same thing in the countless examples of friendship and brotherhood forged y trials of fire. Perhaps none is more iconic that the devotion Sam shows to Frodo in Lord of the Rings. While Sam had started off merely as Frodos gardener who followed him on his journey, in the end he risks his life to fight off the spider Shelob, who was holding Frodo captive. Other examples abound in literature; Ender and Bean, for instance, develop a close friendship in Enders Game from having fought as brothers-in-arms in times when the situation seemed helpless. That crises are transformational is a common theme in literature; often, what is transformed is not just the hero, but also the companions he takes and friends on the journey.</p>
<p>Perhaps we have forgotten this in our daily lives, and simply need to be reminded of this timeless truth occasionally. In doing so, we will be more likely to treasure the friends and partners we have in our lives, the ones we have shared joy and suffering with, the ones we have forged irreplaceable memories with.</p>
<p>[377]</p>
<p>There are few among us who do not have some goals they would give almost anything to achieve. For some, it may be money, or positions of power; others might spend all their time studying in order to enter their dream college. What happens when we do succeed? Much as one would like to imagine this as some sort of paradise, the truth is that success can often be disastrous.</p>
<p>History abounds with examples of individuals or groups who went too far. An example is the behaviour of the Allied Powers in World War I. This was the first total war where entire economies were dedicated to the war effort and entire cities bombed to the ground; naturally, when the Allies finally won, they wanted revenge. They placed onerous demands for post-war reparations on Germany and, what is more, humiliated her by placing restrictions on her maintaining armies in the future, and to add insult to injury, took some of her territory. But this policy backfired. The treaty of Versailles was universally hated in Germany, and a few short decades later it was this that allowed Adolf Hitler to gain power, rearm Germany, and launch World War II. Had the Allies paused to consider what the best course of action was rather than being emboldened by success and imposing such harsh conditions, the tragedy of World War II might just have been avoided.</p>
<p>In literature, too, we see examples of success having unexpected consequences. In Enders Game, the top brass of earths unified military do all they can to win the war against the Formics who had invaded Earth 50 years previously. Their actions include tricking the titular character, Ender Wiggin, into commanding the fleet as it attacked the Formic Home Worlds all while Ender thought he was merely playing at simulated war. No one stops him when he destroys the Formics home planet and thus wipes out the entire race. No one, that is, until Ender himself, wracked with guilt, publishes anonymously a book that emphatically describes the Formics, causing humanity to regret, in the end, the war as the worst possible mistake, a monstrous genocide. Humanitys propensity to lose focus on the big picture and win at all costs is starkly illustrated here.</p>
<p>Of course, many of us must deal in our daily lives with issues much less weighty than those outlined above. Yet the lesson is still fully relevant, and we would do well to always be careful of what we wish for.</p>
<p>[416]</p>
<p>It takes great skill and determination to achieve the dreams most of us set out to achieve. For the rare few who are able to do something, what is left? An exploration of both real and fictional examples demonstrate that those exceptional enough to have achieved their goals are rarely content with resting on their laurels; they seek new, greater challenges.</p>
<p>Take Elon Musk, for example. Ever since young Musk had wanted to both become rich and contribute to humanity, a formidable task indeed. At the age of 15, he led his family in emigrating from apartheid South Africa to the United States; ten years later, he had achieved his goals, having co-founded what would later become Paypal, making himself a millionaire many times over. Yet this could not be enough. What, asked Elon Musk, are the greatest challenges facing humanity today? He identified renewable energy, electric cars, and commercial space travel as the top three, and then proceeded to found or invest in companies in all three areas. Today, his SpaceX corporation is the only private company which has successfully re-supplied the International Space Station, and has as its ultimate goal nothing less ambitious than a manned voyage to Mars.</p>
<p>In fiction, we have Ender Wiggin from Orson Scott Cards Enders Game series. As a child commander, Ender was tricked into commanding the military fleet of all humankind to defeat an alien race, the Buggers. Thinking it was a simulation, Ender destroyed the home planet, wiping all of them out. Distraught when he finds out, Ender finally achieves his goal of undoing his act of genocide by finding a last remaining specimen some twenty years later. Yet Ender was still dissatisfied that humanity could not live peacefully in harmony with other alien species, and could not completely exorcise his ghosts. He spends his life as a Speaker for the Dead, telling the unvarnished truth about the deceased upon requests, and in the end passes away without having achieved his ultimate goals.</p>
<p>Few among us are able to match the exploits of these heroes both in fiction and in real life. Much as we might like to think that, if only we were millionaires, we would retire happily to enjoy life, the very ambition that drives people to greatness will also never let them rest.</p>
<p>[385]</p>
<p>Many people say that the secret to happiness is to avoid comparing what we have to what others have. Such comparisons, they say, will only lead to endless jealousy and dissatisfaction. However, sometimes, we really must compare ourselves to others to know how fortunate we have been.</p>
<p>Take Bill Gates, for example. As a young man he was almost purely focused on achieving success in business, and at that he succeeded spectacularly, becoming, at one point in time, the richest person on earth. Yet today he is out of the running, and no longer runs Microsoft, the company he founded and that provided his wealth. Did he lose all his money in a stock-market crash? No. Bill Gates, in fact, gave most of his money away through his Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He has said before that he realised how fortunate he was after seeing the suffering experienced by people in third-world countries. This led him to realise how meaningless accumulating net worth was; today, he works hard to convince other billionaires of the same thing.</p>
<p>Another example can be found in Kazuo Ishiguros Never Let Me Go. In the dystopian setting of the novel, Kathy and Tommy live in Hailsham and know that they are clones, destined to have their organs harvested. At the begnning of the novel, they try hard to create works of art that they believe will get them deferrals from organ donation. Yet there is no such program. By the time they realise this, Kathy has been assigned to care for Tommy, who i s about to donate his last organs and to die. In that moment, they finally come to realize that youth is fleeting and life is short, and accept their fates calmly. After all, as Kathy says, we are all already complete.</p>
<p>Just as the characters in Never Let Me Go only gain closure by watching their friends die and thereby learning to treasure the short time they had to live, so too does the reader learn how valuable his freedom and autonomy are. Often, we really must see how much luckier we are than others, fictional or otherwise, to truly be satisfied with our lot in life.</p>
<p>[367]</p>
<ol>
<li><p>25 minutes is a very short amount of time to write an essay in. When I first took the SAT, I had lots of experience (from school) in writing essays where I was given 60-120 minutes, and didn’t bother practising. Big mistake; I got a 6/12 for that. Writing an essay when you have 25 minutes is completely different from when you have the luxury of time, and you have at least practice enough to get used to it.</p></li>
<li><p>Aim for 400 words (2 full pages). I got this piece of advice from CC and it seems to hold up in practice. Of course, when you increase the quantity of your output, you must decrease the quality; this is inevitable, but try not to let it decrease too much. The official sample essays should give you a good idea of what to aim for.</p></li>
<li><p>Decide on your canonical format. When I started practising, I thought I could develop 1 example very well. It turns out that I wasn’t able to do this, so I decided to switch to using 2 examples, which worked much better. </p></li>
<li><p>Interpret the question broadly. For example, a natural interpretation of the prompt “do we only value what we struggle for?” would be to interpret “we” as individual persons, and perhaps to compare hard-earned money to lottery winnings. But why not include societies and nations in “we”? This allows us to write much more interesting essays and also to draw from a much larger range of examples.</p></li>
<li><p>Use examples you already know well. I found it extremely difficult to learn new examples just for the purpose of incorporating them into future essays; the prompts are specific enough that you need to learn quite a lot about a subject if you want to avoid writing off-topic. I had already read biographies of Steve Jobs and Richard Stallman (among others), and used them whenever applicable.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>most importantly,</p>
<ol>
<li>Decide what you want to get out of your essay practice. Are you writing too little because you spend too much time thinking of examples? Then monitor how long it takes you to generate examples and try to reduce it. Spending too long crafting sentences? Make a conscious decision to put down words on the page before you are comfortable. If you want to improve, you must exert some amount of pressure on yourself, feel slightly uncomfortable.</li>
</ol>
<p>Interesting and informative…</p>
<p>Would you mind telling us what you scored on the essay as well as on the other sections of the test?</p>
<p>(You imply that you got 6/12 for the essay, but was that from a previous effort or after accessing the resources here?)</p>
<p>I found this to be noteworthy:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Writing more doesn’t have to water down your paper. It just feels “inevitable” because most kids run out of ideas. The solution (which is far more easily said than done) is to not run out of ideas.</p>
<p>I got 6/12 from a previous attempt. After practising and retaking, I got 11/12. My total score was R: 760 M: 800 W: 780</p>
<p>As for the quality-quantity tradeoff, I was thinking of the quality of the individual sentences. For me at least, I find that writing good sentences is very hard under time pressure, and even professional writers often spend more time editing than writing.</p>