OK so I have been a little weak in the Essay portion of the SAT and I really just want at least a score of 10 on the essay.
I am using Shaan Patel’s “SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps: Perfect-score SAT Student Reveals How to Ace the Test” book. In that book, I read the essay advice and I found it to be pretty good actually. Basically he made an intro template, topic sentence template, and summary template before even taking the SAT. He also outlined like 12 Literature books, 8 Historical figures, and 6 Modern events, meaning he memorized details and main ideas about all of them so that he could use them as an example on his SAT essay right away. I am just going to do the 4 paragraph format instead of five (1 intro para, 2 long body paras, and a summary para vs 1 intro para, 3 body paras of medium length, and then a summary para). So instead I am not focusing on the Modern Events and I’m just going to outline maybe 6 good classical books I have read for the Literature portion and just 6 Historical figures . My question is: Is this a good idea? This book is from 2006 so I doubt that many kids will be using these templates, so I’m not worried about that. I’m just wondering if this is an effective method. The fact is, I’m not good at thinking on the spot nor am I a good write so this would help me immensely. But I don’t want to waste my time doing this if it isn’t effective because I have 10 days until the test and it will take a considerable amount of time to make all those outlines.
And my last question is regarding vocab…has anyone used “Hot Words for the SAT” 4th edition? How is it? I am just wondering whether I should restudy the 2k vocab words that Elite has given to me or just this book. Thnx in advance for taking the time to read all of this :D.
That sounds a little extreme to me. If you’re really in need of the framework and its language before you go in, you’d be highly dependent on memorization of all those particulars. I’d say do the work for two pieces of literature to get practice at doing it in. Then let your mind relax, and tell yourself that you are familiar with many great works, and you have the strategy that the test employs, and don’t stress.
“A little weak,” is probably a little solid for many young people, and you want … to strengthen, or to kill it?
I think your plan for the essay makes sense and you may not even need to memorize facts from 12 different topics. Start with 8 and see if that’s enough… Just make sure you write at least 5 or more practice essays. Also, spend a little time coning up with outlines for old prompts. The real key is using what you’ve memorized to make a compelling argument. Don’t just rehash facts; tie them together well to support your thesis.
Studying vocab doesn’t make sense for everyone. Many people can get more efficient results from learning how to figure out sentence completions even when you don’t know many of the words, using textual clues etc. If you want to memorize vocab words, the best way for most english speaking people is to make lists of words you don’t know from old tests. The second best method is using either Direct Hits or the book by Larry Kreiger. If English is not your first language maybe use those long lists; otherwise they’re probably overkill.
Also, if you have effectively memorized 2,00 words and you know how to properly answer sentence completion questions you should be close to perfect by now.
@GirlChild: Yes, you are right that I may be stressing too much. I just really want a 10+ on the essay because I wouldn’t want my essay score to ruin my overall writing score, especially since the essay is something that can be prepared for extensively beforehand. The examples I plan to memorize will be used for assistance in case I can’t come up with good examples, but I don’t plan on being fully dependent on them.
@CHD2013: I agree that 12 is maybe too much, so I will start with around 8 as you suggested and see what happens from there. You are also completely right that the 2k vocab words I memorized should help me enought with the vocab, but I guess I always have this irrational fear that there will be a word that I don’t know (for example, 2 words that I didn’t know were “locution” and “epistles” which caused me to miss that question and my overall CR score became a 790 which made my overall practice SAT score a 2390 which is great but those 10 points would have been nice lol). I guess I’ll just review the 2,000 vocab words and look at Direct Hits/Larry Krieger’s books.
I have the hot words for Sat books and it’s helpful if you don’t know where to start. The book basically put words into cluster so it will be easier for you to remember all those esoteric words
As for the essay
Getting an 8 ir more isn’t difficult
The correlation between length and score is very high so if you write about 400+ words it will be a 9 or 10
Remember, you can totally BS examples, which helps a lot if you aren’t well read or suck at history
Best of luck
The essay score doesn’t hurt you that much…my first try I got a 9 essay and an 800 in writing. Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to game the system for a 12 if an easily achievable 8 or 9 will do the job.