SAT Essay: Piece of Cake

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>After recieving my SAT score report and viewing my essay, I was startled to see that I got a 10 on my essay. Honestly, I didnt think this essay was a 10 at all. Im sure a lot of you guys would agree after reading below. </p>

<p>Conclusion: If you write till the last line, limit your grammar mistakes, and stick to the common structure, you are likely to get a 10. </p>

<p>Heres the essay which recieved a score of 10 on the May SAT. I have typed it out it JUST HOW IT WAS on the paper w/ mistakes and everything. </p>

<p>Do people put too much emphasis on winning? </p>

<pre><code> When asked after a 2001 National Football League playoff game press conference whether he was satisfied with what his team accomplished this season, Herman Edwards replied with a statement that is now omnipresent in the sports world today; "You play to win the game." In any competitive activity, the benifits of winnin outweight the benefits of loosing by a great amount. Through the examples of The Kite Runner and a personal experience of mine in which winning played a key factor in me gaining confidence for life, I will show how it is proper to place a high emphasis on winning.
When a person doubts himself, it is important for him to recieve an invocation from a person older and more wise. This was the case in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Housenni, published in 2001. In this highly praised novel, the main character, Amir, is a boy living in Afghanistan. He is involved with the community in sports and other such recreational activities. He takes on the sport of Kite Running, which was quite a popular sport in Afghanistan for the time. Although he had grandiose aspirations of becoming a great kite runner, after his first attempt he knew he was not up to par with his competition. He desperately needed help, and his father whome he called "Baba" was just the right man for that. Baba put an exceptional amount of emphasis on winning. The mere fact that Amir's father believed Amir had potential to win brought Amir much needed confidence. The psychological effects of someone emphasizing winning clearly benefitedone in this novel. The novel is a prime example of how there can never be "too much" emphasis on winning.

In every competitive situation where there is an option of winning and loosing, who would choose loosing? This simple thought is something most people fail to realize when they say "You are putting too much emphasis on winning". In 7th grade, I was on the junior high basketball team and we were going to play in the championship game. Although we were heavy underdogs, we came out of this game as league champions. The credit of our win should go soley to our coach, who emphasized winning so much, that loosing was not an option for us. In most activities in life, on needs confidence in order to his best. In this case, a group of thirteen-year-old's assimilated behind the coaches words, and his emphasis on winnning. The results were simply magnificent.

There can never be "too much" emphasis on something that is ultimately beneficial. The more emphasis that is put on winning, the more one realizes he can accomplish his or her task. The quote by Herman Edwards is crystal clear, showing that loosing should never be an option. Next time you are competing in something, will you emphasize not winning. That is nonsense.
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<p>Yea, not the prettiest sounding essay, but hey, as long as i get my 10!</p>

<p>I'm now a believer of, If you write a lot, you'll get a good score</p>

2

<p>Good. Yeah, spelling/grammar doesn’t matter as much when you only have 25 minutes. I thought the introduction and the first paragraph were good. I think the two points might have been deducted because you didn’t really explain as much about how the coach’s emphasis on winning led to success, but I see you pretty much don’t care anymore. :)</p>

3

<p>Yup. If you do want a 12, you would have to write something a bit more explanatory and concise. But if your goaL is to get around a 9 or 10, this post may help ya!</p>

4

<p>winnin loosing whome</p>

<p>How could you misspell common words, twice? loosing? lol</p>

5

<p>lol i know, pretty embarrasing. I can make some really dumb mistakes under a time restraints. </p>

<p>But this only validates the fact that they dont care too much about grammar!</p>

6

<p>someone please answer this, if you get like 4 wrong in all of the writing section but got a 12 on the essay would u get a 800? I heard even if u get a 10 on the essay you can get 800 on the section, how does that work?</p>

7

<p>Read an SAT prep book…</p>

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<p>HarvardBound:</p>

<p>To get an 800, you need -0 or -1 (-2 rarely) for your raw score on MC, and then either:</p>

<p>If you have -0, you can get an 800 all the way down to a 9 essay
If you have -1, you can get an 800 down to an 11 essay</p>

<p>4 wrong with a 12 essay is about a 740.</p>

9

<p>thanks lolcats4. My worst section is CR, i got a 71 on psat but keep getting around the 550’s in the SAT any hints anyone? I am sorry that this post digresses from its original intent.</p>

10

<p>Nice essay. That’s helpful…boosts my confidence in the essay!!!</p>

11

<p>This is a good essay. It is long and you do not suffer from the terrible, terrible problem I can only describe as “severe awkwardness” that most SAT essays suffer from.</p>

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<p>lol my goal 4 october is to bull my way to the last line! XD</p>

13

<p>its good. I really liked the kite runner example though I thought your thesis sentence was fairly weak. To get a twelve I think you have to follow the standard 5 paragraph format. I really don’t like the SAT essay, its too conformist. I got an eight on the march one probably because the topics aren’t too thought provoking and I therefore don’t care about it.</p>

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<p>can I ask a question: how many lines do you have left if you wanna achieve 10 for your essay ???</p>

15

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<p>Zero. Or maybe one.</p>

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<p>^ Bull. I had a good 3-5 lines left and got an 11.</p>

<p>I’ve said it before: essay length means very little.</p>

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<p>No, I’m sure if you wrote a REALLY REALLY great essay you could get a 12 with 1 page blank.</p>

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<p>In a perfect world, that would be true. In our world, essay length is quite important.</p>

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<p>In the real world, quantity will never compensate for quality.</p>

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<p>I wrote a page and a sliver and still managed an eleven on my essay.</p>

<p>To me it seems that the essay graders, while being confined to a rubric, still try and grade the essays at least somewhat holistically.</p>