Tackling Hard SAT Essay Prompts

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Hi everyone! </p>

<p>I thought it might be helpful if there was a thread that dealt with spinning hard SAT essay prompts and coming up with at least 3 examples for each of them. I've heard that lots of people have had trouble with it, and I have trouble with it myself (I'm a high school student).</p>

<p>We try to know as many classic literature and historic examples as possible, but for certain prompts, they become very hard to fit in, especially when the College Board throws in that excerpt/passage before.</p>

<p>For example, I have one here that was hard find 3 good examples for:</p>

<p>Young people are highly influenced by popular culture. They attempt to define themselves on the basis of what they see on television, in newspapers and magazines, and in the movies. In fact, young people accept the values of popular culture as their own, believing that those values are central to their personal development and social acceptance.</p>

<p>Assignment:</p>

<p>Is popular culture the strongest influence on a young person's identity?</p>

<p>Or how about this:</p>

<p>It often seems as though we truly respect only people whom we do not know, such as leaders and other public figures. It is much more difficult for us to respect people who are familiar to us and are part of our everyday lives. The fact is that if we were to develop close personal relationships with these strangers that we look up to, we would see that they are only ordinary people, just as flawed as we are.</p>

<p>Assignment:</p>

<p>Does familiarity prevent people from developing or maintaining respect for others? </p>

<p>Please give us some advice! Do we have to resort to personal examples?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>What I try to do is keep a portfolio of good examples that fit different common SAT themes. It can be hard to know how to use your familiar examples when you’re given something like those prompts you listed above, but you can always try to manipulate the prompt to fit your examples. For example, I use Banksy often for the prompts on society. In this case, you can use also Banksy to address the first prompt:</p>

<p>Thesis: Popular culture can be of great influence on young people, who are often at the forefront of social change.</p>

<p>Describe his influence in addressing social problems and spreading awareness. Consider his effect on young people and their role in social change.</p>

<p>Popular culture doesn’t have to mean movies and teen books, and identity doesn’t specifically mean personality and likes/ dislikes. Popular culture is everything, including mindsets (you could talk about racial persecution ex. Gandhi, Martin Luther King). You could also write about social media (spreads popular culture) and the Arab Spring. It’s a good example to keep in your pocket in case something like this shows up, which it occasionally does. You could even talk about WWII political propaganda, Cult of Domesticity, or 1950s McCarthyism as an historical example. </p>

<p>I never read the example quote for this purpose, because it diverts your attention away from the easy examples and focuses you too much on one interpretation of the prompt. Though make sure you still address what the prompt is asking or you might get a zero if you’re off topic. But you have to write to the prompt, not the example. The example is just an aid in case you blank. </p>

<p>For the second, consider manipulating it to mean knowing yourself, being familiar with your own goals and write against the prompt. Or Mandela is a good example. He was successful in mending racial relations in South Africa because he was willing to understand the point of view of the white South Americans. </p>

<p>And I’d stay away from personal examples because unless you’ve escaped religious, racial, or gender persecution and sought asylum in the US, they tend to come off as inconsequential and cliched. Also, a well developed example is better than three shallow ones. Sticking with one or two is best. There isn’t enough time or space to fully examine three examples.</p>

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<p>When I really don’t have a clue what to talk about, I make examples based upon my personal anecdote. I’m not good at explaining things, so this is basically what I do.</p>

<p>For example, for the popular culture prompt:</p>

<p>My (fabricated) experience: I define myself based on the images lauded in popular culture. Thin, tall, blonde, etc. Popular culture negatively and strongly influenced my identity so much that despite my parents and friends, I went on extreme diets to have that kind of image. </p>

<p>Give this ‘I’ a name: One example that explicitly demonstrates that popular culture is the strongest influence to a young person’s identity is the story of Jane Doe. Living in New York, Doe is exposed to a myriad of popular culture such as television and internet. Distorted images of beauty disseminated by popular culture greatly impacted her identity. Blah blah blah</p>

<p>I just made that up. Because many people tell you to avoid personal examples (and really, when quite a number of people talk like that, it probably holds some amount of truth), I choose to make up different names and settings for examples that I would normally use the personal pronoun ‘I’. It’s really not that hard, but it does make your examples sound a little more authentic.</p>