<p>eww. i HATE minesweeper. and most to all computer generated games.</p>
<p>But I completely made up a personal essay and got an 11. I wrote about my sister Dakota. I don't have a sister named Dakota and everything I wrote about her was completely not true of my real sister. If anyone wants to PM me for it, it's cool.</p>
<p>Hmm, it seems that SAT scorers like personal stories whether it's completely BSed or not :) But I've heard from several different sources that it's the last thing you'd want to write as one of your examples. Don't know who to listen to lol.....</p>
<p>I wrote a personal example (pretty much BS) on the Dec SAT, filled up nearly one page and recieved an 8. Not great, but not bad considering that I went into the testing room thinking I would probably leave the whole essay blank for not being able to have enough time to think and plan.</p>
<p>I've never been able to write fast, and I just barely thought about what to write about before I started writing, because I knew I needed to start writing as quickly as possible in order to finish on time. I ended up writing the very last word of my conclusion seconds before the time was called. I think I got lucky and I doubt I will be this lucky on the upcoming Jan SAT.</p>
<p>is it okay to use books that one reads for pleasure to use as reference?</p>
<p>yeah of course zainuu. pretty much write whatever comes to you. that's the beauty of writing!</p>
<p>Decide your examples in first three minutes. There’s a reason why it is better to have a list of examples ready in your mind: A few books, few historical figures, real life episodes, economics examples. Tbh, I never used anything other than literature and personal anecdotes and I got a 11 in my first attempt. If you simply cannot think of anything then make up a <em>convincing</em> personal anecdote (I did in my first SAT). Also you can think about making up names, places, dates. They only have about 2 minutes to grade your essay: they’re not going to go check your accuracy of info (I did BS a bit in my first essay: made up a scientist’s name, yada yada).
For managing time, I suggest around 5-8 essays should be enough to get you on track. I was like you, finishing late (but not one hr, only 10 minutes) in the beginning, but it works out in the end. Just remember they’re not looking for a piece of art. Any idiot could score well in SAT essay; it’s not indicative of your actual college essay writing skills.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there are four pertinent points related to a fictional essay.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Your essay is being graded based on criteria related to your ability to write. Your grades in history, political science, biology, psychology etc. will be reflected in the subject area tests. Your essay reader is not likely to be proficient in those areas and will not have the time to fact-check your writing. Nor would they want to. Consider that one person’s fact is another person’s fallacy. Do the Federalist Papers represent the intentions of the framers of the Constitution? Should we take them as our guide today when we deal with Constitutional issues? The SAT essay graders don’t desire to deal with issues like that for all 1.5 million different essays they’ll read each year, and couldn’t if they did. Experienced essay readers will know there is a strong possibility that your essay evidence is fake, but they are unlikely to make an issue of it. DON’T TAKE THIS AS THE FINAL WORD. I HAVE ONE OTHER THING TO SAY ABOUT IT BELOW.</p></li>
<li><p>What essay readers WILL be looking for is your understanding of the requirements of a good essay. First, they will be looking for your understanding and insight into the issues raised by the essay prompt. Can you analyze those issues? Are your points and sub-points significant and relevant, or are they superficial, obvious and elementary? You can fake the evidence, but you can’t fake the analysis. You have to think to do analysis. This involves two things. The first is logic. Logic is logic. It is objective. (If you haven’t learned it already, you should know that the rules of formal logic are about HOW you think about propositions, not about whether or not those propositions are actually true.) The second is you, your experience and understanding of the world and the different kinds of issues and people in it. Does your awareness extend beyond yourself to the larger world around you? The answer to that will show in your analysis.</p></li>
<li><p>Your analysis leads to your major points and sub-points. Your evidence and explanation of those points come next. Here again, the reader is looking for the quality of your thinking. Are the explanations of your ideas clear and complete? Is your evidence adequate? Again, adequate doesn’t mean factual. It means relevant, significant, tied logically to the conclusions you intended the evidence to support. IF the evidence were true, would it be good evidence, logically presented?</p></li>
<li><p>After the analysis of the issues and the development of your points and evidence, comes the organization, structure and coherence of your writing. Actually, the three elements cited are all aspects of the same thing. They make your writing flow smoothly and logically through your points as the essay proceeds. Introductions, conclusions, transitions, summaries, proportion (the amount of time you spend on each point according to its importance) and unity (everything is related and fits into a single clear idea) are all important here.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, the reader checks your writing style. Word choice, sentence structure, grammar and usage, and punctuation are all relevant here.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I hope you can see that factual evidence is not really a requirement for executing a high quality essay. The CB and your reader know that, and can evaluate the essay whether the evidence is true or not.</p>
<p>So, what’s the downside to faking evidence? The downside is that experienced people can usually spot it. The CB and your reader choose to overlook it. BUT THEY MAY NOT BE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO READ YOUR ESSAY. The CB will forward your essay to the Admissions Office of the schools to which you apply if those schools request it, and the person there who reads your essay will be just as likely to spot faked evidence as your SAT reader. How will they react? I can’t tell you. But I can ask how you would feel knowing that you had your best ever scores in Math and CR and a writing section that included a great essay with fake evidence?</p>
<p>write big 
its easier to read and takes up space lol</p>
<p>Train yourself to write (neatly) without looking, and eventually, you can be reading something and continue writing.</p>
<p>You all realize this thread is several years old, right?</p>
<p>Your point being…?</p>