Sample SAT "12" Essays

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
101

<p>can judges give a 12 essay a 10 because of handwriting?
also did anyone use a mechanical pencil on their essay? Does it work? I write better with one.</p>

102

<p>^
Well, they can give any grade they want(no one asks any reasons for the grade).
As long as the mech pencil uses number 2 graphite, it should be fine</p>

103

<p>what makes it no. 2 graphite… isn’t it just based on how dark it is? if its the same darkness shouldn’t it be the same?</p>

104

<p>I have no clue what determines the number of the graphite</p>

105

<p>nvm found answer online:</p>

<p>Question:I would like to know why schools make such a big deal about using number 2 pencils durings regents and SATs. Is there any difference between pencils? They all look the same. </p>

<p>Answers:
Nothing. The number on the pencil refers to the hardness of the “lead” (actually graphite) used in it. A #2 pencil uses more compact lead and so smudges less and leaves clearer markings than a #1 pencil does. On the other hand, it’s lead is softer than a #3 pencil, which would not leave a clear mark without pressing hard enough to tear the paper on which most tests are written.</p>

106

<p>Prompt: Does the way that information is communicated today result in people learning less than ever before?</p>

<p>Page 1: [ImageShack&#174</a>; - Online Photo and Video Hosting](<a href=“http://img814.imageshack.us/i/satessaypage1.jpg/]ImageShack®”>http://img814.imageshack.us/i/satessaypage1.jpg/)
Page 2: [ImageShack&#174</a>; - Online Photo and Video Hosting](<a href=“http://img839.imageshack.us/i/satessaypage2.jpg/]ImageShack®”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs)</p>

107

<p>do you know what score this got?</p>

108

<p>^I got a 12.</p>

109

<p>From March 2010</p>

<p>People are often advised to practice moderation in everything they do. The way to succeed in achieving their goals, they are told, is to remain balanced, controlled, and restrained. But this advice is misguided. Instead of being moderate, people should be passionate and intense. Throughout history, moderation has produced nothing extraordinary or exceptional. Excellence in any pursuit requires excess–great enthusiasm, high energy, and extreme effort.</p>

<p>ASSIGNMENT:
Is moderation an obstacle to achievement and success? 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>We have all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare, and we have all been taught that slow and steady wins the race. This applies not only to fictitious children’s fables, but to success in general; the way to succeed in achieving your goals is to remain balanced, controlled, and restrained. Moderation is key when something goes awry, “slow and steady” will give you ample time to correct your mistakes and move on. Take, for example, the contrast between the slow development of the United Kingdom and United States’ democracies versus the hasty rise and subsequent falls of the Nazi German and Communist Soviet Russian states.</p>

<p>Britain and the USA have had long histories of governmental development leading up to the systems they have today. Britain’s famed Magna Carta came in the thirteenth century and served as a strong starting point for further reforms. The British then gradually lessened the power of the monarchy, slowly enough that the issues typifying most democratic states—the role of religion in the state, the shift from agriculture to industry, the granting of suffrage and the vote—could be handled one at a time. In Britain’s case the three aforementioned issues were dealt with in the 1500s, 1800s, and 1900s respectively, giving the country plenty of time to wrap up one issue before the next came along. In the United States, first came the thirteen original colonies and the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution and Bill of Rights came after a lengthy debate on the Articles and it was not until nearly two centuries later that the United States added state number fifty.</p>

<p>In contrast, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were created extremely quickly and both ended up collapsing. Hitler’s charisma and charm allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks of the Nazi Party, and once he assumed leadership he hastily decided to take over Europe. We all know how that went. Stalin in the USSR enacted a series of five year plans designed to rapidly transform the Soviets into an industrial world power. He ended up killing even more people than Hitler, and the USSR collapsed in 1991 due to a lack of sound infrastructure and economy compounded with a poorly planned military build-up.</p>

<p>Great enthusiasm, high energy, and extreme effort all sound nice, but when it comes to getting things done, moderation is key.</p>

<p>I’ve got a really direct writing style, and while I do use a fancy schmancy word every once in a while, I do it because I think it’s the best word to use, not to impress anybody. My biggest problem with my first SAT essay (got an 8/12) was that I didn’t manage my time well and didn’t really use good examples. This time, my time management was better though I only had about 6-7 minutes for the last body paragraph and concluding sentence.</p>

110

<p>^</p>

<p>Did this get a 12?</p>

111

<p>Yes it did :D</p>

112

<p>From December 2010:</p>

<p>ESSAY PROMPT: Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment:</p>

<p>Technology has dramatically increased the speed with which we can communicate and share information. Some people are critical of this development, claiming that rapid communication, often made possible by some form of technology, discourages people from focusing at length on any one topic, shortens their attention spans, and prevents them from truly learning about the world and people around them. But what is wrong with how instantly and easily information is communicated thanks to the wonders of modern technology?</p>

<p>ASSIGNMENT:
Does the way that information is communicated today result in people learning less than ever before? 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>ESSAY:
The age we live in is the information age. Technology had progressed so rapidly that we have the ability to gain access to a plethora of information in the blink of an eye. However, all of this progress has also brought a curse with it; information today is heavily censored and edited before it is presented. Thus, the way that information is presented today has resulted in people learning less than ever before and leaving them with ambivalent opinions.</p>

<p>The Vietnam war ear was one of the most candid eras in terms of journalism in America. The common citizen could gain information about the war readily through sources such as the radio and television. Gory scenes from the battlefront that were completely unedited were shown to the public. Newspapers assiduously stuck to the truth about the war. Thus, the information about the war, including the number of casualties, total expenses, and even how many soldiers were at the battlefront, were conveyed in a frank and direct manner. This enabled the average person to gain a wealth of information about the war, and thus allowed them to make informed opinions about it. In fact, this exemplary journalism was the catalyst for people’s disapproval for the war. In short, the way information was presented back then resulted in great awareness about the war.</p>

<p>However, the way information is presented today sharply contrasts with the way it was displayed in the Vietnam War era. Nowadays, information is heavily filtered and processed before it is presented, resulting in an ambiguous piece of information. Today’s media is primarily concerned with entertaining the public and remaining annoyingly equivocal. Newspapers no longer present clear-cut opinions on any issue, for fear of controversy. The written articles are edited a thousand times before they are published, leading to just an incomprehensible glob of text. News channels, such as Fox news, are primarily concerned with entertaining the public and showing the news in a biased manner. Such partisan “infotainment” channels are no longer concerned with veracity; rather, their main goal is to make as much money as possible. Thus, the way information and news is communicated has been severely degraded.</p>

<p>Even though we have the power of technology at our beck, we fail to utilize this great medium in order to convey information about the world. In fact, we were much better off when we weren’t inundated with a thousand different sources of so-called “fair and legitimate” news. Maybe if we reverted back to our original principles of truthfulness, we can help people to gain more knowledge than they are right now.</p>

113

<p>^got an 11 btw</p>

114

<p>nice…i would have given it a 12</p>

115

<p>bump…</p>

116

<p>For my Jan. 2011 essay –

[ImageShack</a> Album - 2 images](<a href=“ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs)
I received a 12.</p>

<p>My essay is probably evidence that content is insignificant in comparison to style. I had no clue what to write about so I used personal reflections, half of which I made up on the spot. I’m almost ashamed to post my essay since it’s probably my worst essay I’ve ever written, but CollegeBoard failed and gave me a 12 anyways.</p>

117

<p>March 2012 essay:</p>

<p>CABS ARE HEEERE
Jersey shore, fat people, skinny people, stupid people, small people. Stupid cliche phrases. Stupid cliche opinions. Thoughtless.
AW YEAH JACUZZI YEAH
CABS ARE HEEERE
Jersey shore, fat people, skinny people, stupid people, small people. Stupid cliche phrases. Stupid cliche opinions. Thoughtless.
AW YEAH JACUZZI YEAH
CABS ARE HEEERE
Jersey shore, fat people, skinny people, stupid people, small people. Stupid cliche phrases. Stupid cliche opinions. Thoughtless.
AW YEAH JACUZZI YEAH
CABS ARE HEEERE
Jersey shore, fat people, skinny people, stupid people, small people. Stupid cliche phrases. Stupid cliche opinions. Thoughtless.
AW YEAH JACUZZI YEAH</p>

<p>Pretty sure that got me a 12</p>

118

<p>@Aayaa
I’m confused…</p>

119

<p>This essay of mine received an 11. Could anyone give me any advice with which I could improve??</p>

<p>Prompt: In his essay “Self-Reliance,” philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson posits that for every gain an individual or a society makes, and for every step taken towards more advanced technology, something else is lost. “The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet…it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy.” Choosing in favor of one thing means that a person or society is by definition rejecting another option.</p>

<p>Assignment: What is your view of the concept that people reveal a great deal about themselves through the choices they make? In an essay, support your position by discussing an example (or examples) from literature, the arts, science and technology, history, current events, or your own experience or observation.</p>

<p>Choices, the mundane decisions that shape our lives, do a great job of showing who we are. Some people are seen as idealists, some as realists, others as liberals, and others as conservatives all due to the choices they make. Holden Caulfield, from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Neo, from the science-fiction movie The Matrix are both paragons of the concept of choice-dependent futures and choice-dependent personae.</p>

<p>Neo, the protagonist of The Matrix, reveals his outlook on the world through the choices he makes. When he agreed to know the truth of what he thought to be “reality” it could be inferred that subconsciously he knew that there was more than that which he saw around him. In the Matrix Reloaded, the sequel, Neo makes a choices to save Trinity, his love. This decision reveals how a personal issue “vis a vis, love” supplanted strict prudence in his decision making. Neo’s sacrifice in the final movie, The Matrix Revolutions, mirroring that of Jesus, shows his desire to save. Neo’s judgment is revealed to us a selfless as his conscience compels him to sacrifice his life.</p>

<p>Holden Caulfield is another example of how choice impacts one. He gets expelled from Pencey for failing, he shuns society, and he is essentially tormented by the ubiquitous mundanity of society which he labels as an amalgam of “phonies.” His decisions like asking a prostitute to come to his room or calling his ex-girlfriend on the phone completely inebriate or even getting into fights with people as he very frequently does show his lack of wisdom and his puerility. Holden, as one can conclude, ends up, not surprisingly, in a psychiatric ward somewhere in California recounting his story to the reader(s).</p>

<p>Choice reveals a lot about who someone is and his/her outlook on society (at least what we would expect it to be). Free will directly correlates with this issue of choice. Neo and Holden were both shown to the reader(s) or moviegoer(s) that the finality of their “stories” is due to choice. With regarding the future of anything as Neo said quite well “the problem is choice.” Greek philosopher, Heraclitus once said “A man’s choices are his fate…”. Choices inevitably and inexorably are the summation of who we were, who we are, and who we will be.</p>

120

<p>Practice SAT on the collegeboard website. This essay was scored by the e-rater® automated scoring service provided by Educational Testing Service.</p>

<p>Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private?</p>

<p>Throughout the United States there exists a school of thought that privacy is of the utmost importance and one of the most crucial rights given to us by the Constitution. In the Amendments, Americans are given the right to privacy along with the rights to free speech, bear arms, and the right to protection from double jeopardy. These Amendments are upheld by the courts every single day, as they are as sacred to American freedom as holy texts are to religions. Privacy is a right, not a requirement, and should be a choice made by the individual.
Kurt Cobain, one of the inventors of grunge music, once said “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” Basically, he’s trying to convey that simply because one thing is true doesn’t make its opposition false. In this same way, just because privacy is possible, doesn’t make it required. People in the world - especially in the United States - have the right to say what they believe and be who they may be. If people prefer to maintain their private lives a secret, that is their human right. However, if they prefer to self-express through clothing, speech, and lifestyle, that is an ability that is given to the residents of planet Earth.
When we are given something, it is not expected of us to use this thing. Such is the beauty of the human race: we have the ability to execute conscious, rational decisions about how we wish to live our lives. We can elect to live in complete isolation or we may choose to shout our feelings from the rooftops. Thanks to social media, the internet, and human interconnectivity, private things don’t always stay private. This creates the necessity for a right to privacy, however it does not create a necessity for privacy itself.
The choice of secrecy is a good one. But the ability to toss it aside and bare one’s soul is an even better choice. Through this we are able to expose ourselves to the world, regardless of whomever we are, and hope that we are accepted. We can be rich or poor, Democratic or Republican, private or public. We are given these choices because they are what makes us human, what allows us to expand beyond the parameters. We live in a world where more and more things are becoming accepted, a world where people can come out of a variety of closets, shed all privacy and declare to the world, “This is me.”</p>