<p>I've been ready a lot here on the essay section -- my weakest part. AcademicHacker's guide seems like a very good one, but one of the things he does not say is to include a paragraph refuting or discounting the opposing point of view. I read in several different guides that this is important for the ACT. Is it important for the SAT too?</p>
<p>No, you don’t need to have that. </p>
<p>In fact, your argument could be total BS but as long as you sound confident, use fancy sentence structure, and use key words that remind the reader of your thesis, you should score high. The most important thing is probably to write the full two pages. The SAT essay is scored, in my opinion, based on how you write and not what you write.</p>
<p>For my essay, I had no clue what to use for my examples so I made up three personal experiences that never happened to me. I also completely made up a quote and claimed that Atticus Finch said that, even though he never did. I fluffed my essay as much as possible for length and sounded like I was aware of the many sides of the topic. I wrote the full two pages and received a 12.</p>
<p>I’m not saying you should do any of the things I did, but you should be aware that a good essay can probably receive a score of 8 if the writer doesn’t know certain tricks while a bad essay can receive a score of 12 if he/she knows how to fluff and manipulate the “system”.</p>