<p>My SAT teacher said that in order to get a 12 the essay should be formal and complicated like a newspaper editorial. I was trained to write sentences as long and difficult. However, I saw a bunch of essays of 12 contain fluent sentences which are easy to read and understand. I was also confused when my teacher told me that I need to comment on all of the examples I used, and that comments are far more important than the examples themselves, but many essays of 12 I saw write a lot about examples and only comment in the final paragraph. What should an essay of 11 / 12 consist of (I mean the difficulty of sentences and the ratio of example:comment)? Thanks a lot~~</p>
<p>first off, is it feasible? No. using words such as “albeit,” “erstwhile”, “thus”- considered “formal” words- would make you sound pretentious. My recommendation is this: write how you normally would. If you like to use advanced vocabulary in your typical essays than do so, but if not, I would advise against it. Either way, be careful because a formal essay in a 25 minute time frame is quite ludicrous in my opinion.</p>
<p>I disagree with the assertion that you should “write how you normally would.” The first time I took the SAT in January, I wrote how I normally do. I have a reputation for being a skilled writer, so I was quite surprised to see that I had only scored an 8. I then decided to check out some of sample 12 essays on the e-nets and noticed a serious difference between the style of my writing and that of 12s. Essentially, it boils down to a matter of writing a ‘canned essay.’ On Sparknotes, there is an SAT essay template. By following it religiously, I was able to bump my essay score up to a 12 the second time I took it. The style may have made me sick to my stomach, but it is what the SAT graders want.</p>
<p>Also, consider your choice of examples. In my 12 essay, I wrote about the Civil Rights Movement, the First Continental Congress, and Shakespeare’s Richard III. I figured no one could give a bad grade to an essay about the Civil Rights Movement. </p>
<p>That said, if you’d like a copy of my essay for style, I’d be happy to oblige.</p>
<p>It should be formal to an extent but definitely not complicated. There’s a bold line between simplistic writing and obfuscated writing. You shouldn’t be over-complicating your essay just for the sake of trying to sound smart; if the grader doesn’t know what the hell you’re talking about, you’ll just get a lower score. It’s better to rigidly follow a template like ahammond said. By “comments” I think you mean analysis. Yes, it is true that you need to adequately analyze your examples and connect them to the thesis. Just summarizing a novel won’t do you any good if you don’t show how it supports your thesis. Also, like ahammond said, don’t pick touchy examples like abortion, gay rights, religion, etc. The reader is supposed remain unbiased but why take the chance?</p>