SAT Essay

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Words don't come easy to me, I mean, they do, but I have to sit there and ponder for hours to write an adequate and somewhat fluent paper. In English class this is no problem since you usually get like 1 week at least to write it, but in 25 minutes there is almost NO WAY I can write one that shows my usual standard. (Making any sense?).</p>

<p>Almost all prep books lists all these strategies...but they've never been helpful. I have no problem planning/organizing my essay, and I usually have a load of ideas to write about. I know the easiest way to do this is to just write, but it's just not working!! =(</p>

<p>Does anyone else have this problem? Or am I just crazy??</p>

2

<p>Oh yes. </p>

<p>You just need to practice. You can’t expect to do nothing about your problem and hope for a visit from Gabriel on SAT day. </p>

<p>Get used to the time contraint, and plan a little ahead of time for the essay. Here’s how: think of literature, and historical references beforehand. For instance, To kill a Mocking Bird <— Now this book can be used for a number of essay topics like good vs. evil, truth, society, equality references etc.</p>

<p>I’ll update this post later.
Good luck!</p>

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<p>that’s why SAT essays suck, and are not used by colleges anyways.</p>

4

<p>I still strongly oppose preparing your examples ahead of time. But, yeah, practice, and pretend that you’re talking to a friend who asked you the question. Take a bit of time to come up with an answer, and then state your answer and explain it. They’re not expecting perfection, but a good rough draft. By the way, this is how AP English exams and college literature exams will be like.</p>

5

<p>Yeah that’s what I was worrying about too. I hope I’ll get more practice in AP Composition next year haha, but we have like a really easy teacher so i guess i’m pretty much on my own..</p>

<p>I always use the Glass Menagerie lol. idk why.</p>

6

<p>wait, don’t prepare examples ahead of time? Isn’t it good to be thinking of how certain pieces of work can be used to support an SAT prompt?</p>

<p>I thought it was better to have a pool of literary/historical pieces that you know very well to pull ideas from, it sounds easier than having to think about it at the time of the essay.</p>

<p>I guess that’s just me, I have a very hard time coming up with good examples in short amounts of time.</p>

7

<p>Read books and Newspapers. Stay up to date on current events (NEWS!).</p>

<p>Create an outline in your first 3-5 minutes and list good examples that could be used. Spend the next 20 minutes encorporating them in! :)</p>

8

<p>

I disagree with that, because that’s the last thing you want to do. Don’t be informal and colloquial. Be direct and eloquent. Talk as if you’re talking to your teacher (NOT your friend…). Ahem, slang’s not the way to go.</p>

<p>Updating last post:
I cannot stress enough the importance of outlining before writing. Here’s how you do it:</p>

<ol>
<li>State your position (aka THESIS… I mostly use a ‘however’ thesis which is basically this: I say “X”. However some people say “Y” (contradiction to “X”), but I still say “X”! <— This would qualify as a complex thesis statement and make a good impression on the reader.)</li>
<li>First point (Literatary)</li>
<li>Second point (Historical)</li>
<li>Third point (Contradictory point of view — could be a personal experience, literary example, or historical… doesn’t matter)</li>
<li>Conclusion (aka restate thesis and relate it to the bigger picture of the world… I usually like saying stuff about society, the world, or humanity in general).</li>
</ol>

<p>Timing: My strategy is 3-20-2. 3 minutes for outlining, 20 for writing, and 2 for reviewing. Reviewing is AS (if not more) important as (than) outlining. Trust me, you might think you’ve made no mistakes while writing, but you do. Always go back and read what you’ve written. It’s OKAY to slash a sentence here and there (you’re NOT graded on neatness… just make sure your writing is legible so they can READ the essay and grade it.) Heck, you can even add a whole paragraph by putting a star or something… and you know why they allow such things? Because they WANT you to edit your essay after you’re done. It shows that you’re a responsible writer.</p>

<p>Remember that there’s NO RIGHT response to the essay prompt. This doesn’t mean that you should pick middle ground, ALWAYS ALWAYS pick a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. And if you pick ‘Yes’, remember to include one counter-example and then restate your point of view. Like, if the prompt is ‘Is honesty ALWAYS the best policy?’ and you say ‘Yes’… you can include an example of how someone was NOT honest in some instant and then explain the negative consequences of that dishonesty. In this manner, you could restate that although temporarily it might have seemed to be the right thing to be untruthful, ultimately it WOULD HAVE BETTER TO BE HONEST. Makes sense? Readers LOVE this!</p>

<p>Now, check out past essay responses from this site —> [url=<a href=“http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/sat-test-prep.html]Preparing”>Preparing For SAT Test (solutions, examples)]Preparing</a> For SAT Test<a href=“Scroll%20down%20to%20SAT%20Essay%20Prompts”>/url</a>.</p>

<p>If it helps you to practice and come up with examples, I have noticed that SAT Essays usually relate to:

  1. Success vs. Failure
  2. Individuality (aka Freedom - could include Choice, Motives, Selfishness, Competition etc.)
  3. Experience (Learning from Past, Thinking of the Future, Technology etc.)
  4. Vague… [This could include stuff from Political crap to Quotes… a few days ago I had to write on ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’]<— Hate these although they can seem to be quite easy at times. <_<</p>

<p>This is pretty much what you need to know about the SAT…
I scored an 8 on the March SAT which is really bad since I put so much effort into the essay. :frowning:
But this time I’m hoping for a 10. :slight_smile:
So good luck, and have fun practicing!</p>

<p>P.S. You’re not crazy. You’re just experiencing the SAT.</p>

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<p>I think one way to ace the SAT essay is to include relevant examples from real life and literature/history. You don’t need to know every tiny detail about famous people but knowing what they were up to always helps. I forgot what my essay prompt was, but I remember using Wangari Mathai as an example. </p>

<p>And I know what you mean. I love writing, but I also like having my time with it. Which is why, even though I can write ok, during exams like the SAT I suck :(. Luckily most of my colleges didn’t look at my SAT essay. Some do, however. And the final scores matter. I guess you should try to make it up with the grammar portion and the CR and MAth?</p>

<p>Just before my SAT, I went through this lethargic phase..and a HUGE writer’s block. I just couldn’t make myself get up and write something…Even though I could practice the math. That made me very depressed and frustrated. Don’t let that happen to you mate!</p>

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<p>^ Most colleges just throw Writing Scores out the window, really.
But for a 2300+ you definitely need to do great on Writing too. :slight_smile: (And it’s not that hard).</p>

11

<p>Thanks to you all sooooo much. this had been really really helpful, good to know that i’m not the crazy one :)</p>

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<p>Feed: When I said that you should pretend like you’re talking to your friend, I didn’t mean to sound very informal. The point was that you should give the prompt some thought, and then come out with an answer that has backup, just as if your friend would ask, “Why do you think that?”</p>

<p>I have some stuff to comment on and add to your advice:

  • The outline strategy is fine–when I write, however, I find that I need way more time to outline the essay, like 10 minutes, and then I write as fast as I can for the remaining time.
  • It’s not true that you should always choose either yes or no. It is true, however, that you need to be solid in your opinion. That’s not the same as saying either yes or no. If your answer is “Sometimes,” then it’s fine, as long as you back it up (defend the sometimes yes by giving examples that support that, and defend the sometimes no answer by giving examples that support that as well). Sure, it’s harder to write an essay if your answer is ‘sometimes,’ in general, but it might be better if you honestly think the answer is ‘Sometimes.’
  • For the example you gave, it’s important to explain why you’d say that in the end, it’s better to be honest. Don’t just say, “But in the end, it’s better to be honest.” Explain why you believe that. What backup do you have?
  • To go beyond the general outline form: For each paragraph, make sure you state your topic sentence and give examples, but EXPLAIN HOW THE EXAMPLES SUPPORT YOUR THESIS! So many people don’t do that! I don’t understand why. A lot of people just summarize the plot of a novel or give a brief history lesson without giving sufficient analysis and personal thought into how this example supports the topic sentence and thesis.
  • ANSWER THE QUESTION! Somewhere on this website I read an essay, where the question asked if people really get to know themselves only when they are forced into action. The person who wrote the essay said that heros are made after they are forced to take matters into their own hands and take action. The rest of the essay involved great examples of ordinary people becoming heros as a result of dramatic actions that, according to the author, were ‘forced.’ Unfortunately, that’s not what the question was asking! Where did the question ever mention heroes? Nowhere! The question wasn’t about heroes or people becoming heroic; it was about whether people know themselves when forced into action. So the essay was really no good.
  • Think about the answer to the question, and then think of examples that support each of the possible points you are going to make. </p>

<p>This is from someone who got an 11.</p>

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<p>^ Good advice.</p>

<p>But for the Sometimes answer, I think that strategy should be adopted after you’re confident about the essay format.</p>

<p>The outline-writing takes some getting used to. You don’t need to make a proper full-sentence outline, just write a few words. Nobody’s going to be viewing that outline after you’re done or grading you based on it.</p>

<p>Good job on the 11.</p>

<p>One thing I forgot to mention.
LENGTH.
There are 2 pages given to you. USE THEM. Use them fully!
I wrote 1.75 pages on the May 2008, and got a 9. If I’d added another paragraph, I’d probably have gotten a 10. Length DOES matter.
Look at the CollegeBoard example essays. The lower the score, the smaller the length of the essay.</p>

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<p>Do you guys think that neat hand writing is important to the scoring?</p>

<p>I scored a 10 on my last two essays, and I feel that those essays could qualify for 12. So, does my “bad” handwriting contribute to the lose of 2 points?</p>

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<p>Neatness counts as long as the reader can READ and grade what you have written.</p>

<p>Other than that, it doesn’t.</p>

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<p>I think neatness is a part (though a tiny part) of the grade, because i mean, imagine trying to read an essay where you can only make out a handful of the words. It’d be frustrating and probably make you score it lower.</p>

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<p>My Essay was the messiest thing in the world. I got a 12.</p>

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<p>But long essays tend to be better because they have more evidence and more of your personal thought. It’s not the length that matters–it’s the fact that there’s plenty of evidence that supports your argument. So if you just wrote a paragraph that’s completely irrelevant to your point just to make the essay go from 1.75 to 2 pages, that will actually detract from the quality of your essay.</p>

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<p>I got a 10 on my essay - is that considered good? How can I bring myself up a notch?</p>

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<p>I got a 12 essay, 790 overall and I did not use a single word that a 7th grader wouldn’t know. Here are some important tips that I followed:</p>

<p>The graders do NOT want to see that you are putting “vocab” words in your essay for the sake of putting them in, and they can tell when you do it. What they want to see for a 12 is the following:</p>

<p>clear, easy to follow organization including an introduction, 2 examples, and a conclusion</p>

<p>WELL DEVELOPED examples. Throw in a lot of crap about the background of your examples. I used Andrew Carnegie as one, so I said where he was born, what years Carnegie Steel was running, etc.</p>

<p>EVEN IF IT IS FACTUALLY INCORRECT, put in facts or statistics. Don’t go overboard, but definitely do some. They can’t count you off for being factually incorrect. I have heard a story about a guy who got 11 after writing about Thomas Jefferson’s presidency in the 1950s!</p>

<p>MAKE IT LONG. There was a legitimate study done by a professor somewhere (I think at MIT) which showed that he could predict the grade of an essay from ACROSS THE ROOM with remarkable accuracy. The longer the essay, the higher score you will get. It’s stupid, but it’s the way it works. You want to be writing at 100 mph for 20 solid minutes.</p>

<p>MAKE IT NEAT,
If you write neatly, you will please the readers because they will find it easier to understand your handwriting. They are ****ed and bored and the last thing they want to do is decipher some kind of chicken scratch.</p>

<p>CROSS OUT SOME THINGS. You heard me right! Part of the across the room study showed that if things were crossed out, it shows that you put some time into “editing” it and trying to make it better. The idea is that it’s a first draft, so they actually look for scratched out words/lines. (As long as it’s done relatively neatly). This will also add to your length. Seriously, do it!</p>

<p>Those are the strategies I used for the test, and I did well on it. One other thing is be prepared with some generic examples and facts beforehand. If you don’t remember facts, make some up! Really! You could even make up a foreign book if you are desperate (my buddy did that and got an 11).</p>

<p>I think that historical and literature examples are the best and personal examples are NOT what they are necessarily looking for. I wish you luck, follow those steps and I’m sure you can do well!</p>