Hey guys right now my scores are very unpredictable I’ve scored a 2070 but the next week it drops to an 1850ish and then I get it back up to a 2000 my math is fairly consistent in the 700 range but my writing is what I’m nervous about because it can be anywhere from 600 to 700… Any suggestions on what I should do to fix that ? I know I have the potential to hit 2000 because I’ve done it before (practice tests) but honestly I’ve just been losing so much motivation I’ve brought my score up from a 1460 to an 1820 in June and now I wanna hit 2k. I feel like I’ve over studied I don’t know .
May I ask what you studied ? For writing @rockstar101
Hey! I was wondering if someone could help me structure a template for the SAT? I’ve been focusing on Math and Writing MC, that I totally forgot about the essay. On my May SAT, I got a 6 on my essay… I don’t care if you’re brutal… as long as you have a solution. OH PS. most of this is BS. So it sucks. I need help crafting a template.
Topic: Is listening more important than speaking when you’re trying to persuade someone?
When trying to persuade someone, it is vital to listen. Several examples from abstract works and history unmistakably illustrate that listening is more important than speaking when trying to persuade someone.
One event in history that supports this theme is the Munich Conference held in Germany. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had to persuade his cabinet and France to accept a plebiscite in the Sudetenland to avoid war with Germany and to do so he adopted their demands. Germany
President Eisenhower’s Domino Theory conveys a similar theme. [ I have nothing here]
Similarly, Marketing and Advertising have the same theme. [not sure how to phrase that] In order for a company to make money, they have to listen to their consumers. By listening, they’re able to put out more products on the market that appeal to their consumers.
Is Oct gonna be a difficult test???
Not if you’re well prepared. (Really, there’s no way of knowing how the curve will shake out.)
@ty4short Although it would be best if you create a template of your own, since it’s kind of really late to start preparing for a template right now, if you’re in a pinch and still haven’t found one by the time of the test, you can use mine. However, I must warn you that I have exactly zero experience taking the SAT, so I have no idea if this works or not, so, really, only use this if you have no option left.
OP: Pan and zoom tactic. Paraphrase the question in some way, then lead the readers to your thesis. The thesis doesn’t need to relate much to the question as long as you know how to pave the way to it. After your thesis, list what kind of examples you’re going to use in your essay. (Source: Tom Clement’s How to write a killer SAT essay in 25 minutes. I just summed up the instructions).
Body: 2 or 3 examples, depends on your preference and habit of writing. Personally, I prefer the 2-example structure because I tend to be long-winded. Thus, each of my examples is usually lengthy. If you are the opposite, stick with the 3-example one.
For the 2-example structure, from the various essays and tips on CC and the afore-mentioned book that I’ve read, I’ve arrived to the conclusion that the example-counterexample structure works best. Well, actually, it’s “counterexample”, but for some reason, everyone calls it counterexample here. In any case, it’s the easiest to write, for me, at least. First, ask yourself, if person didn’t follow your thesis, what would happen. That’s the “counterexample”. Then, ask yourself, if person followed your stance to the T, the situation was an ideal one, and everything went right, what “everything went right” entailed exactly. That’s your example.
In this specific topic, because I picked the opposition (speaking is more important than listening), I asked myself what the opposite of speaking was. The answer was silence. And what would happen if someone only kept silence when they were supposed to convince others? They convinced exactly no one. Since convincing someone is similar enough to influence/changing the world, you can easily twist the prompt to fit your thesis. Why did they keep silence? Fear, or lack of courage. For me, the perfect counterexample was the concept of the Last Man from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Note how Nietzsche’s original Last Man has almost nothing to do with the topic, but with a bit of twisting, like I’ve done, it will fit right in. For the example, ask what would happen if someone spoke (out)? Why did they not listen? The only case in which not listening is a legit respond is when the oppositions are a bunch of coswallop. In that case, speaking (out), from something impulsive and shallow-minded, became something that’s perfectly BRAVE, perfectly HEROIC to do. And who was brave? Who was heroic? Who spoke out against the oppressive force? Easy. Martin Luther King spoke out for his people’s rights and convinced America that racism was bad. Galileo Galilei spoke out for Heliocentrism and convinced the world that Geocentrism was a thing of the past. Charles Darwin spoke out for the Theory of Evolution and convinced the world that humanism and animal rights are necessities for the future if the human species wants to survive. The possibilities are literally endless.
Actual counterexamples are a lot harder to pull off. You’re on your own if you pick that one. Even Clement’s book didn’t recommend it and told us only to use it when you have nothing left.
In truth, had the readers had more than 2 minutes to read the essay, this kind of reasoning and blatant disregard for historical context/the author’s actual intentions wouldn’t have stood a chance, but then we have only 25 minutes to write an entire essay.
Because you’re short on time, I recommend that the examples you prepare beforehand be malleable, easily twisted into whatever topic they’re going to ask. For example, one of my favourite “counterexamples” to use is Nietzsche’s Last Man. Because Nietzsche was being his usual cryptic BS-ing self, the idea itself is vague and undecipherable, making it perfect to be tailored to some of our own BS-ing so that it would fit our thesis. The same’s with Kafka’s works. Because most of them are both cryptic and tragic, they are perfect for our purpose of making them the “counterexamples”. In contrast, the staight examples usually follow the usual rules of drama in a classical romantic story (character pursues goal => character meets obstacles => character overcomes obstacles => character lives happily ever after), historical figures, great people, storybook heroes with happy endings are preferred. Some examples I chose are Charles Darwin, Galileo, Alexander Fleming, and Nietzsche’s Ubermensch. Again, you can twist the example to your needs either through emphasizing on different things from the normal narrative of the story or through pure BS-ting depends on the prompt. Lies are more believable when they’re " loosely based on true stories", after all.
Don’t use overly generalized examples such as your last one. With neither basis nor context, an overly generalized example requires you to BS more, making it easy for the readers to realize that you’re BS-ing.
Prepare some examples beforehand. That’s a must unless you’re really good at BS-ing under pressure. While Clement’s book said that you should pick your thesis according to your example, what it meant to say was that you should pick your thesis according to your POOL of examples. If your pool of examples has many people who did heroic things to change the world and not a whole lot who persuaded other people through the power of listening, go with the speaking, even if it requires insane t r o l l logic and a whole lot of BS-ing to do so.
Within each example paragraph, you can start by explaining why your example support the paraphrased thesis, going right to the heart of the issue. For the above topic, you can write something along the lines of: “In persuasion, speaking is more important than listening, for in speaking out one’s idealism for the world to hear, one can change the world for the better, as was demonstrated by Galileo Galilei when he uttered the now famous quote “And yet, it moves” against the Church’s kangaroo court after he had been put under indefinite house arrest for daring to speak against Geocentrism. […]” Then, you can get on with the obstacles and the accomplishments, in the case of the straight examples, or failures, in the case of the “counterexamples”. Finally, end the paragraph with, again, why your example supports the thesis, thus supporting your stance on the prompt. Remember to name drop phrases, words, or synonyms of words from the prompts every now and then (I usually do so 3 times per body paragraph), just to remind yourself and, more importantly, the readers that “Hey, this example proves my thesis, which answers the prompts PERFECTLY!”, even if it’s probably going to be a lie.
At least, that’s the template I arrived at after quite a bit of trial and error. You can check AcademicHackerz’s videos for more possible templates.
(Sources: Clements’ book, various CC how-to threads, the most notable of which was AcademicHackerz’s thread, which no long exists, example essays from CB, old essays from various people on CC that got 12s, and personal experience gained through getting various people to grade my essays.)
ED: Restate thesis. Zoom out. Paraphrase your answer to the prompt. The reverse of the OP, basically. You can end with a quote, made-up or not, or something. (Source: also Tom Clements’ book. I just summarized it.)
While this template probably won’t be getting you an 11 any time soon, nevermind a 12, it should suffice for an 8 or a 9. I think.
Hey @deyvid For writing, I first analysed my score from last real test. I always answer sentence completion questions correctly but I had problems with the rest. I practiced a lot of questions esp from cracksat site’s real SAT papers and that helped me eradicate passage improvement errors and I found that my sentence improvement problems lied around question 25 to 29 of the 25 min writing section, so I give more attention when answering that part of the paper. For essay, I learned literature and history examples as many sources accentuate the fact that these type of examples are more credible and viable than examples from personal experience and pop culture. Last time I got 8 by demonstrating examples from fabricated personal experiences and pop culture but this time I’m hoping to get at least 10 by using historical and literature sources. Also use intro - example-example-example-conclusion method for paragraphing and try your best to ensure a smooth flow and connection between them and try to employ acquired new vocab from critical reading prep, making sure the diction is consistent with the meaning you’re trying to convey.
I know there are only 2 days before the exam, but any last minute tips? I’m not half as smart as you all and the scores that you are all disappointed with I would take in a heartbeat. 
I would like a 1950 if at all possible. Any quick websites/videos for the math section? That’s my worst section by far. Thanks!
Try the PWNtheSAT website
@HighSchoolerDana
Use Erica Meltzer’s grammar book. You could likely finish it in a concentrated four-hour session, but her website is also really helpful if you’d prefer not to buy any more books. For math, I thought practice was all I needed, but PWN’s book and website are both highly vouched for.
Quick question guys! I was wondering if anyone here used Shaan Patel’s essay template? He received a 12 with it so it seems good…do you think I can also get a 12 or at least 10+ using it? What if the grader has already seen the template, would I receive a lower score?
Use the sample from Academic Hackers i can guarantee that.
@tina23 if your examples are not working just forge some to suit the topic a friend encountered that same problem and he improvised he had an 11 on the essay.
October tests are known to be the easiest but the scale is really harsh a wrong on the math section might fetch you a 760 intead of maybe a 780 so just make sure you dont make silly errors. I pray we’ll all perform extremely well so that we can get into our dream schools.
Hey, guys. I’m taking the SAT in Thailand tomorrow LOL (well, because i live here :P) Anyway, good luck everyone~
Although she (enjoyed traveling) to different countries, Sophia (made it a point) never to visit a place (where) citizens were (denied of) the right to free speech. (No error)
Before (becoming) deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, Ellen Ochoa took (part in) four space flights, (which she logged) more than 950 hours (as) a mission specialist and flight engineer. (No error)
ANSWERS: D, C
(Some kind soul please explain to me why! Really appreciate your help! God bless you!)
I’m pretty sure that the first question has an idiom error. I think it should be ‘denied for’
And, the second one… past perfect? She logged more than 950 hours before she took part in the space flights… So… yeah
First question: denied to (idiom)
second question: HAD logged, because this action occured before a specific action in the past. In such case, we use the past perfect.
Guys I’m so worried I’d mess with that one question in math. If I don’t do well in math I have low chances of getting the score I used to get in tests T_T
@SATscorer 1) deny sb sth. No preposition. Source: the Oxford dictionary. You can check the online version for yourself.
2) in which she logged [time]. Putting the sentence back into proper order, we have "she logged [more than 950 hours (as) a mission specialist and flight engineer] four space flights. This sentence makes no sense, so it’ll have to be “she logged [more than 950 hours (as) a mission specialist and flight engineer] in four space flights.”
The sentence just means that her total flight time was 950 hours, so the logging and the flying are basically pointing toward the same action. Using simple past is correct.
@Synonyms is correct. In the first sentence the word after “denied” should be "the.’ No need to add the word “of” or “to.”