<p>mammall, why is Applebee's the great American restaurant? Please use specific examples. You can't write this at your desk. Go to the nearest junior high and write it in the cafeteria.</p>
<p>Anyway, you cannot determine the circumstances in which you must write, but there are limits to what's reasonable, right? I propose the essay is on the wrong side of that divide. The test measures the ability to spew unconsidered opinions on demand, like a trained monkey. If it's a test for prospective MSNBC talking heads then it's valid, I suppose.</p>
<p>IMO, your MO is wrong. You can't coerce a person into holding an opinion that they just don't have, especially if you forbid the response "That's a terrible question, and I cannot respond without attacking the assumptions used in framing it." Taking the SAT was a miserable experience. I'm a stronger writer than I am a mathematician, but the SAT indicated the opposite.</p>
<p>I've already completed my application process, not that you could have known that. Using no outside aid but a dictionary and my wife's proofreading, I wrote essays that were sufficient to get in to some decent schools. I posted because I just wanted to vent about how awful I feel the SAT essay section is.</p>