@malfoythegreat
Just a suggestion for next time - We should just have someone assigning a prompt rather than voting on one, so that we still have that “surprise” factor. I mean, as soon as we see the prompt on the thread, we should write an essay in the following 25 minutes so that we can try to replicate test day conditions.
Also, I don’t mind which prompt we do. If I had to choose, I’d choose @malfoythegreat #1 and @clpony7 #2.
@malfoythegreat Eh, I was thinking of using a random number generator so that the result will be entirely unexpected, but your idea works as well.
All of the prompts proposed so far:
-From milopenguin:
-From me:
3) Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Idealistic people, people who pursue great ideas in hopes of changing the world, often have ambitious plans that are difficult or even impossible to carry out. These people can claim few solid accomplishments. In contrast, practical people concentrate on workable ideas and goals, even though these may not meet an idealist’s high standards. Their approach is likely to be more valuable than the approach of idealistic people.
Assignment:
Is an idealistic approach less valuable than a practical approach 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. (Jan 2011 SAT)
4) Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Thanks to the Internet, people have more access to more information than at any other time in history. People can instantly find information on almost any topic in the time it takes to type a couple of words and click a mouse. But we often know so little about the source of this information, including its reliability and the qualifications of the person who wrote it. If we do not know its source, information is not much good to us.
Assignment: Do people need to know the source of any information before they use it? 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. (June 2013 SAT)
-From clpony7:
5) Things do not change; we change." -Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Do we ourselves cause change in our lives by making certain ecisions, or are we acted upon by certain events that happen around us? (Kaplan’s 12 Practice Tests for the SAT)
6) “Failure is impossible.” -Susan B. Anthony
Is it really impossible to fail? Are some failures simply unsuccessful attempts to accomplish what we set out to do, or do all failures ultimately provide benefit, even if we can’t see it right away? (Kaplan’s 12 Practice Tests for the SAT)
-From malfoythegreat:
7) Creativity!
It is better to try to be original than to merely imitate others. People should always try to say, write, think, or create something new. There is little value in merely repeating what has been done before. People who merely copy or use the ideas and inventions of others, no matter how successful they may be, have never achieved anything significant.
Assignment:
Is it always better to be original than to imitate or use the ideas of others?
It is not true that prosperity is better for people than adversity. When people are thriving and content, they seldom feel the need to look for ways to improve themselves or their situation. Hardship, on the other hand, forces people to closely examine–and possibly change–their own lives and even the lives of others. Misfortune rather than prosperity helps people to gain a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Assignment:
Do people truly benefit from hardship and misfortune?
Oh, I’m totally open to suggestions on how to choose these! I like your surprise factor idea @milopenguin because that really stimulates the real SAT, and @Synonyms idea would work well for this too since we all brought our prompts beforehand…so I mean for tomorrow we can just randomly choose one, and from then on do the surprise factor.
Thanks for posting it all at once @Synonyms !!
@malfoythegreat That sounds good.
All right, great @Synonyms ! So do you want to figure out like the whole random number generator thing haha? Assuming you are all fine with the choosing a prompt that way! 
@clpony7 @milopenguin
I’m cool with that. @malfoythegreat
Yeah, sounds great. @malfoythegreat
Well, here’s mine. (Pretend it’s tomorrow.) I used Synonym’s first prompt.
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Idealistic people, people who pursue great ideas in hopes of changing the world, often have ambitious plans that are difficult or even impossible to carry out. These people can claim few solid accomplishments. In contrast, practical people concentrate on workable ideas and goals, even though these may not meet an idealist’s high standards. Their approach is likely to be more valuable than the approach of idealistic people.
Assignment:
Is an idealistic approach less valuable than a practical approach?
Idealism is a philosophical concept that when applied to the real world may bring it little benefit. Abstract ideals and utopian ideas that cannot practically be put to use ultimately have little value. On the other hand, a realistic course of action will usually be by fa more fruitful, because it takes into account the idea’s feasibility at face value.
For example, the so-called Utopian Socialists, including Julien Demonfort and Daniel Faust proposed a social structure that in their eyes would lead to complete prosperity and tranquility of the human race. Not only this, but Demonfort further asserted that once this peace was achieved, all animals would become herbivores, no longer wanting to kill their brethren. Finally, he set forth the notion that the oceans would no longer contain water, but pink lemonade. Demonfort and Faust put their ideas to the test and attempted to realize the most basic building block of this social structure, the alimentaire, in a small town in Virginia, U.S.A. They gathered enough followers to conduct their experiment and supplied all the appropriate materials. At first, the situation developed satisfactorily. Then, after several months, the entire endeavour fell apart because of the intrinsic instability of the ideas it was built on.
To be useful, ideas have to be built on a strong foundation of fact. Idealists build their ideas, in comparison, on a sort of quicksand The real world is not ideal, hence it doesn’t accommodate to ideas built solely on ideals. This is why pragmatic goals are nearly always the most successful.
Ironically, the only part of the body paragraph that I made up were the names. So if you’re curious, it’s Charles Fourier you need to look up. Looking forward to hearing from you guys!
@clpony7
3-4/6. I tried to replicate how actual test markers would mark this essay. I spent about two minutes reading the entire thinking; I didn’t try to perceive it from all sides of the argument; and I didn’t check the accuracy of your arguments (they seemed legitimate).
This is the Scoring Guide I used: https://sat.collegeboard.org/scores/sat-essay-scoring-guide
My only criticism would be:
Other than that, your essay is well done!
Here’s mine that I did a few days ago.
Prompt: Is a perfect society possible or even desirable?
"A perfect society is impossible, or at the very least, not feasible because all humans are different and thus, hold different values and opinions which others may disagree upon. Such attempts to create an ideal society have been attempted in the past: the Ancient Greeks, the Romans and the convicts of the British have all tried to reorganize their diverse populations so that a “perfect” society could exist in harmony.
The Ancient Greeks strove to improve and even perfect their complex society, though their unprecedented measures failed to establish this perfect society which they envisaged. Pericles, a prominent statesman in Athens during the Golden Age, introduced a series of reforms which attempted to bring about social equality. These reforms of 464 B.C. allowed the Athenian citizens to vote on new legislation. Pericles was the first to introduce direct democracy which aimed to create a harmonious society. While the perfect society was able to maintain itself of a short period of time, it inevitably collapsed as a result of revolts and wars, such as the Helot Revolt and the Peloponnesian War. These conflicts results as the citizens demanded even further equality – something which the aristocrats were reluctant to abide by. Therefore, while Pericles may have established a very short period of near-perfection in a society, due to the conflicting perspectives of the citizens and aristocrats, his ideal society fell.
The Romans also attempted to stabilize and perfect their Republican society. Sulla, a notorious Roman dictator, shifted the majority of the power to the aristocratic senate, in hope that the well-educated and wealthy people of Rome would be able to govern the Roman Republic in an appropriate manner. While Sulla might have had benevolent intentions (that is, to establish peace under the leadership of the educated citizens), his plan to create a perfect society failed. Plutarch describes the dissatisfaction of the plebeians how were angered by their lack of influence in the Roman government. The aristocrats of Rome, the patricians, introduced legislation that was antithesis to the values held by the plebeians. Such legislation included a fixed price on corn, which the plebeians disagreed with as there would no longer be a competitive market. Due to the disagreements between the patricians and plebeians, Sulla’s reforms which aimed to establish a perfect society did not succeed.
When the first convicts from Britain arrived in Australia, they attempted to reinvent themselves and their surrounds so that they could live in a place free of sins. In 1788, Captain James Cook arrived in his ship, “Endeavor,” and brought with him criminals who had committed petty crimes such as stealing bread. Once they had landed in Sydney Cove, they were met by the indigenous people of Australia. While the convicts attempted to live in peace with the Aboriginals, within the first few months, conflict arose as a result of the significant differences in their culture. The Aboriginals regularly but unintentionally stole from the properties of the convicts, believing that the convicts also valued “cooperation” and “sharing.” Disgusted by the behaviour of the Aboriginals, the convicts retaliated and killed approximately ten thousand Aboriginals simply because they had unknowingly stolen goods such as fruit. Therefore, it is evident that due to the variance in values of the convicts and the Aboriginals, a peaceful and perfect society could not have been established.
Through a thoughtful analysis of the Ancient Greek, Roman and early Australian societies, it is clear that “perfect” societies simply cannot exist due to the difference in values of different types of people."
@milopenguin Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, my weakest spot is being able to fit into the 25 minutes. That essay was imho one of my better ones and I still was racing the clock.
As for yours, I have trouble finding ways to critique that! You have a lot of details and volume, which I’m sure impresses the judges. There were a few sentences that didn’t seem to flow right ( “Plutarch describes…”) and I would’ve used “but” instead of “though” in the first Ancient Greeks sentence, but again, I’m nitpicking. I guess some people would also tell you to try and connect the paragraphs through phrases like “on the other hand”, “likewise”, etc. But really, compared to the sample 6 essays I’ve read, I doubt this would be less than 5-6/6.
@clpony7 Thank you for the critique! I’m quite sure that those mistakes are a result of the lack of time - I don’t think I’ve ever had time left to check over my essay.
Even you can just squeeze in one more example, I think that should be good enough to get you into the 5-6 range. Your example was very well written - perhaps even “too” well. If you’re struggling with time (to be honest, so am I - I always take an extra 1-2 minutes to put together a conclusion), I think you just have to set time limits for yourself. E.g. 1 min - Thesis + Example; 3 min - Intro; 2x8 min - 2x Examples; 3 min - Conclusion; 3 min - Check.
@milopenguin Yes, of course, I understand about the time constraints. I’ve reread my essays before and found outrageous mistakes that I didn’t even realize I made.
Thanks for the tips. I need to buy a watch so I can take it to the actual SAT and pace myself.
@clpony7 3/6 at most. Sorry about that, but you made some classic mistakes in the essay:
@milopenguin Upper 5 to 6/6. sigh I wish I can write as well as you do…
@Synonyms No worries, thanks a bunch for the critique. This is my only source of critique, so your suggestions mean a lot. One question though: in my cursive handwriting, that essay was a bit past the 1.5 pages mark? Do you think 2 lesser developed (if that’s even possible) examples would be better than one? What would you recommend doing to make the intro/ outro more effective? Sorry for the questions; you just sound like you know what you’re doing.
@clpony7, I wouldn’t worry about any minor grammar errors. Apparently you can still achieve a 6 even if you have a few MINOR grammar errors. I’ve heard that exam markers spend about 2 minutes on each essay, so they won’t be fussing over minor errors that much.
@Synonyms, thank you! Do take into account that I usually go over the time limit by 2-3 minutes for each essay - I wouldn’t even have a conclusion without these extra minutes. I need to start hammering down the time limit on myself. Hopefully in the next few essays I’ll have time left over to check my work as well.
@clpony7 Can you make your handwriting a bit smaller? I think it’s usually required to have at least 4 paragraph in your essays. The most recommended essay structure is 1-3-1, as in, the intro, 3 examples and the conclusion. However, while AcademicHacker doesn’t endorse the 1-2-1 structure, some people reported that they felt more at ease with the 1-2-1 structure and scored better with it. The final conclusion seems to be to go with whatever you’re more familiar with. While 1-3-1 is preferred, if you just can’t seem to find it in yourself write in that structure, go with the 1-2-1 one. However, the 4 paragraphs seem to be the absolute requirement. The optimum length, from what I can gleam from various CC threads and Tom Clemens’ book, is about 1.75 pages.
A lesson I’ve learned from AcademicHacker’s advice is that you should cut down on excessive information, no matter how interesting it may be, and only write down the information relevant to your thesis. With enough practice, you can cut down the length of your first example and make room for your second, or even third one, if you’re up to it.
For the intro and conclusion, I’ll summarise Tom Clemens’ advices about those parts here:
-Intro (3 to 5 sentence): The general idea is pan and scan.
+Set the scene: a quote (from the blurb or make-up), a philosophy, the prompt (paraphrased, of course), anything that will set the stage. (1 sentence).
+Thesis. (1 sentence, 2 or 3 if you must need some spinning from the prompt to your thesis).
+Transition: list of topics or examples you’re going to discuss. (1 sentence)
-Conclusion (3 to 5 sentence): the mirror image of the intro.
+Transition (1 sentence).
+Recap of thesis (1 to 1 sentences).
+General statement to finalize the idea: usually a quote (make-up or real), or a philosophy. Some thing that will put a definite end to your whole essay. (1 sentence).
Clemens recommends pre-fabricating contents, esp the intro and conclusion, at home beforehand. On the test, you’ll just have to plug in and make minimal changes to the pre-fab contents. Someone on CC suggest relating the intro and conclusion to something grand, like humanity or human civilization or some such.
Also, I only know what I’m doing. In theory. I’m still struggling to apply those theories to reality… To quote Lewis Carroll: “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”