<p>I recently encountered Naidu90's thread regarding the SAT essay. She provided her essay from the March SAT administration as an example of how to get a 12. I decided to take the liberty of following Naidu's example and reproduced my own essay, which also earned a 12 on the March administration. The prompt for both Naidu's essay and my own was: "Can being unique be helpful?" -- or something to that effect. (See Naidu's thread for more details.)</p>
<p>When I was studying for the SAT, I realized that the most important thing about the essay component is that it can be "learned." Collegeboard and PR and Kaplan are only telling you half of the story when they say that there is no formula for writing a good essay. You can develop your OWN formula, a blueprint, if you will, that you can follow when you take the SAT, that allows you to confidently build a thesis and tie in strong examples to support your thesis. </p>
<p>How do you develop this formula? I would be lying if I told you there is a shortcut to the perfect score that bypasses hard work. However, hard work does not necessarily mean "lots of work." It just means you have to prepare assiduously and think critically about the way you're preparing. To start, it would behoove you to read through a bunch of SAT essays like those in the Blue Book, and get a sense of what literary elements contribute to a great essay. </p>
<p>I intend for this thread to be a launch pad for future perfect scorers on the essay. Read through Naidu's essay and my own, and try to get an idea of what works and what doesn't work. I do not intend for my essay to be critically compared with Naidu's, or vice versa (although you can do so, if you so desire). These essays are for your benefit, for you to see styles that, while different, nevertheless lead to effective essays (and shiny 12's).</p>
<p>Anyway, without further ado: my SAT essay. Analysis (hopefully unbiased) will follow soon. </p>
<p>"The belief that one is "special" or "unique" in some way may seem trite in a society that greatly values the individual, but it often times holds great merit. It is more valuable to be a unique individual than one who simply "goes with the flow." Examples from scientific history and literature illustrate this point.</p>
<p>Albert Einstein, perhaps the most distinguished scientist of the 20th century, was in no way a person who fit in with society as a whole, whether as a child or an adult. When he was five, for instance, Albert had still not learned to talk at an age when most children were communicating rambunctiously with each other. His parents worried that he might be mentally retarded, a misconception that was perpetuated when Albert entered grade school. One day in class, Albert's teacher berated Albert for averting his attention from teacher's lecture. When asked what he was doing, Albert responded he was daydreaming about traveling on a beam of light. At such an insouciant response, the teacher reprimanded Albert and sent him home. Albert seemed to be doomed in life.</p>
<p>But it was not to be so. The imagination that had produced Albert's daydream would remain with him throughout his life, allowing him to conceive of scientific theories that no one else could come up with. His special theory of relativity, an indirect offshoot of his daydream, proved the nonexistence of the so-called ether and led to the discovery that the velocity of light does not change with respect to the observer. As an adult, Einstein's iconoclastic scientific theories, particularly with respect to the cosmological constant, conflicted with those of other scientists. However, his theories have in present day been proved, and his cosmological constant, which Einstein himself rejected, is being reconsidered. Surely had Einstein been a member of the "scientific throng," physics as we know it may not be as advanced as it is today.</p>
<p>In literature, we have another example of the benefits of individuality. Ernest Hemingway, one of the great American writers, was not one to follow the crowd. His works, like Farewell to Arms (sic), were generally replete with simple, powerful words, as opposed to the American works of the previous century, which was (sic) inundated with convoluted Latin roots. His revolutionizing of American literature earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature, and brought a new, elegant style to American writing.</p>
<p>Einstein once said that imagination is more important, at least quantitatively, than intelligence. If we have the imagination and boldness to be different -- unique -- we can accomplish the greatest of things, and perhaps more than we could have first imagined."</p>