<p>The lucky thing is that my history final was the week before the SATs, so I still remembered all these history facts from the twentieth century. So I basically wrote a mini-history paper on the events leading up to and during the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Godot, are you sure about using scholary examples give better scores than personal examples? Well, I had a prompt about how individuals can change community or nation (or something similar to that). I said that individuals certainly CAN and SHOULD for my topic sentence. And for my examples, I used FDR vs. Hoover, LouAnne Johnson (a ex-navy teacher who helped kids in "wrong" way to come back to the "right" way; I explained that this action benefited the community by making it safer), and my personal example of working in Key Club's Special Olympics. </p>
<p>I thought my examples varied enough (history, literary, and personal) because that's what I've been told to do (I forgot where.. bunch of sources). So you think I should just stick with history and literary examples only?</p>
<p>i got a 8/12 on my essay and that lowered my writing score substantially :(
i think length is probably a factor? mine was 1.5 pages with normal font size</p>
<p>I received a 12 on my essay. I used an extended metaphor throughout the essay. I also used large vocab and went into great detail with my examples.</p>
<p>are you serious that an extended metaphor got you a 12?
that's a bummer.. can you upload your essay when you receive it?</p>
<p>Yeah, I only used one example for my essay, and I received a 12 as well. I think that the number of examples is not proportional to the score, although varied examples are good. The reader is just looking for strong supporting details to a central argument.</p>
<p>My topic was about problems facing communities and nations. So, I just said that the problems were the open wounds of communities and nations.</p>
<p>Length is almost certainly a factor -- mine was short, but reasonably well-argued (if I do say so myself), and I ended up with an 8. Used scientific examples and a generally technical viewpoint, though, which might not be the best thing to do.</p>
<p>"When your son was churning out practice essays, how could he tell he was good, not just because he'd finish in 25 min?
did someone help to grade?"</p>
<p>&1&2, there was a scoring rubric (chart) in one of the old SAT-II Writing Tests, and is probably also in the shiny new SAT-I books I hope. It defined marking standards for a 1, 2..6 score. I know as a teacher that we use those rubrics to grade, so I assumed the SAT-readers do similarly. They are all the same idea, but ratcheted up for each score point. For example, under "sentence variety" it might say for l, "no variety" and for 2 "one example with a varied sentence.." and up to "5" might say: "shows mastery of sentence variety in many places of the essay, but a "6" could be "shows master of sentence variety throughout the essay." You get the idea.
Anyway, I'm just a humble elementary school teacher, but after my S wrote the first one, I read it and "graded" it the way I imagined they might, and discussed it with him against the rubric. I was slightly tough on him ;) but not blistering.
The second time, we each graded it separately. I wanted him to start thinking about the rubric as he wrote. Our scores were nearly identical!
(That's interesting, too, b/c I think I recall that if the actual SAT test scorers (2 per essay) come up with scores different by more than 2 points, they automatically hand it over to another reader.
Honestly, on that last point, I could be confusing this with another test. It's late as I write this.)</p>
<p>...(continuing above post) Also, one of the books published the complete essays of several students who had all replied to the same prompt, so my S could read what a "3" "4" "5" and "6"(perfect) score sounded like.
Another book published 2 responses to different prompts, at each score level, which I liked even better. The 2 samples took different approaches adn sounded like quite different students were writing...and yet, generated the same score. That way, the real variable was the writing style and not the examples chosen.
I think the way to learn to improve writing is to read examples of good writing. I even heard the President of Bard College speak on NPR about this.
So read other graded essays in those SAT-Writing Books.
BTW, my S didn't keep all that rubric in his head as he wrote, but by grading his own essay once, I think he did learn to keep in the back of his mind their laundry list...are my sentences varied? did I develop the thesis logically? were my examples well-chosen? etc.</p>
<p>Finally, when he was consistently writing essays that looked like 10's, 11's or 12's to me, I said, "enough!"
and after that he just practiced by outlining a mentally, or with jot notes, f how he "would have" replied, using as many prompts as we could find.
On those, I listened to him..and if his logic or examples could be improved, I'd say so. But we didn't grade that.
You could do this with a teacher, parent or super-good writing friend.
Or, if necessary, alone...</p>
<p>BTW, he got lots of his best examples by watching The History Channel.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions - thanks so much! writing at that hour - it's more than a random act of kindness :)
that's some dedication both you and your son showed. i'll have to bite my bullet pen and work 2Hard to mimic your appproach. it might work for me if i stick to it. the good part is that i can watch The History Channel now (with a little of MTV mixed in). the bad part is I have a couple of super-good friends, but neither of them is super-good writing. :(</p>
<p>"...if you got a total 7, that means one person gave you a 3 (out of 6) while a second person gave you a 4 (out of 6). Or, conceivably, a 2 and a 5, but usually I imagine the 2 scores are closer together!"</p>
<p>If the two scores vary by more than a point, they are sent somewhere (not back to the first two graders) for further grading. You might still end up with the sum of 2 and 5 but it might end up being higher or lower depending on what the new grade is. (My sat test prep teacher was one of the people who taught the essay graders. He told me this information himself.)</p>
<p>check this out:</p>
<p>It helps to see what the SAT scorers think is a terrible, okay and great essay. </p>
<p>To see a range of examples, all graded 1-6, see this collegeboard link. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the sample essays.</p>
<p>I can't write it out in a line, b/c this site somehow cuts it off, so i'll put it in a column, but you type it out as a line:</p>
<p>collegeboard.com/
student/
testing/
sat/
prep_one/
essay/
pracStart.html</p>
<p>Three examples are NOT needed. I took both the SAT II Writing and the New SAT (earning 800 and 12 on both essays) using an opening thesis, two detailed, relevant examples and tying it all together with a conclusion. Three examples may seem like a good idea, but I would argue it serves a time suck because students have to think of the third reason which reasons to be less strong than the first. Furthermore, each example will be developed to a lesser extent.</p>
<p>DITTO, dearsiryes
The more i read everyone's "please grade my essays" here on CC, the more it seems that there's not enough time to do 3 examples well. The scorers are looking for depth, details, and critical thinking about the examples.</p>
<p>Who's telling everyone to use 3, anyway? My guess is that there are teachers out there (I am one, so I know how we think) who see the SAT guidebooks saying,
"choose 2 or 3 examples" and assume 3 is always better than 2. NOT SO.</p>
<p>You only have 25 minutes. </p>
<p>The test directions will tell you to "choose examples from literature, history, science(I think) or personal experience to support your claim." "Examples" means plural, so TWO.</p>
<p>First page of my essay (12)
<a href="http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4774/essayimageaction4kv.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4774/essayimageaction4kv.jpg</a>
Second page
<a href="http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/7089/essayimageaction21rl.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/7089/essayimageaction21rl.jpg</a></p>
<p>Prompt: A colleague of the great scientist James Watson remarked that Watson was always "lounging around, arguing about problems instead of doing experiments." He concluded that "There is more than one way of doing good science." It was Watson's form of idleness, the scientist went on to say, that allowed him to solve "the greatest of all biological problems: the discovery of the structure of DNA." It is a point worth remembering in a society overly concerned with efficiency.</p>
<p>Adapted from John C. Polanyi, "Understanding Discovery"</p>
<p>Assignment:</p>
<p>Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things in their own way? 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>honestly i would try to abstain from using personal examples and modern-day examples (like a new movie that was just released)</p>
<p>As an SAT tutor, I encourage all my students to form a list of 5 characters they CAN always pull on as examples in an SAT essay. The list inevitably includes:</p>
<ol>
<li>MLK Jr.</li>
<li>Abe Lincoln</li>
<li>George Washington</li>
<li>Mahatma Gandhi</li>
<li>Achilles/Hester Pyrnne/Holden Caulfield</li>
</ol>
<p>Know what the person did and why it was important. That way, when the test starts, you ALWAYS have examples and the essay is easy. I make sure my students are done with the planning phase of the essay in under two minutes, so they can start writing the rest of the way.</p>