Pros and Cons of making up evidence for the essay???

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I heard that the graders can't take off points for the accuracy of your essay...</p>

<p>So if you make up believable evidence, how can it hurt you?</p>

<p>Consider the following:</p>

<p>Thirdly, going to college has been found to substantially increase one's chance of getting their ideal job. In fact, the acclaimed Dartmouth College has found that most students that attend any college or university have a 70% higher chance of being accepted for the job than those who did not continue their education after high school.</p>

<p>I mean, that's pretty believable right? Who seriously knows what Dartmouth researches?</p>

<p>Any disagreements? Do you think there are any Cons of making up evidence?</p>

2

<p>I think that making up data/evidence for essays should only be done as a last resort.</p>

<p>With this in mind, graders may not be able to take off points for accuracy, but they may do so out of spite (every person is unique).</p>

<p>I suggest if you make up evidence you do so vaguely so that it is not obvious. Here is an example of a decent concrete detail that is fairly vague.</p>

<p>APPROXIMATELY 75% of MOST inner-city housing with stay-at-home mothers on the EASTER COAST of the UNITED STATES were SOMEHOW abused during their TODDLER years.</p>

<p>See. Words like SOMETIMES and APPROXIMATELY are good. Also, make sure your area is large enough ie: United States.</p>

3

<p>I would stay away from all statistics.</p>

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</p>

<p>Exactly, which is why it is implausible.</p>

4

<p>well at least it’s MORE plausible than lying about organizations that people are more familiar with</p>

<p>e.g. swap Dartmouth with Sony…</p>

<p>Which is MORE implausible?</p>

5

<p>That wasn’t my point. I was saying that all such statistics are implausible, not that you couldn’t make up something even more implausible.</p>

6

<p>I also think statistics are iffy to make up. I’d stay with personal “anecdotes” (these are definitely OK for AP essays and should be OK for the SAT essay; the grader doesn’t know your life), perhaps a weird, unknown novel (I think making it a foreign novel might better convince the reader that it’s real), and maybe a local politician (again, foreign <em>might</em> be better, but if it’s a small US town, I think it might be OK).</p>

<p>Granted, I haven’t yet taken the SAT, so take my words with a grain of salt.</p>

7

<p>I make up all of my examples, I have not had any problems (11 and 12 on 2 essays). Just make sure you don’t go “overboard” with them.</p>

8

<p>Make up personal examples, not statistics</p>

9

<p>Me too, sometimes I just couldn’t come up with real ones, so I guess fake examples are better than a blank paper.</p>

10

<p>For my AIM test for Arizona, I made up everything on my essay. I passed but I definitely didn’t get the score I wanted haha. So no, I wouldn’t make up fake examples. Use it only if you have absolutely nothing to talk about.</p>

11

<p>Reminds me of a book report I did in high school, of a book that didn’t exist. I made up the whole story and wrote the report.</p>