Test strategy gone wrong?

Applying to College
1

<p>Ughh, I am in a tight situation here...
For my preparation for the SAT essay, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a few common examples to use on test day. In addition, because I had a bit of time on my hands, I thought it would be a better idea to write up blurbs about each of these examples before hand, and memorize them, so that my writing on test day will come out smoothly.
I've also read somewhere that it would be a good idea to come up with a format for the intro and conclusion, so I just did some planning and came up with a good format. I just wanted to get good on the essay, and because of the strict 25-minute, I wanted to use these strategies so that I don't run out of time on test day. </p>

<p>The problem is that I didn't know that the SAT essays would be submitted to the colleges, and because I wrote three SAT tests, my three essays are very similar, in terms of format for the intro, as well as for one of the examples is repeated in two of the essays, with almost the same lines (word for word...because I memorized them beforehand, right?)</p>

<p>I guess my question is how would the colleges view this, if they were to read the essays. I mean there isn't anything dishonest about this strategy. Many books advise you to plan common examples and have a general format of your essay beforehand.</p>

2

<p>The colleges mostly read your essay to verify that there are similarities/competency to write your real app essay.</p>

3

<p>Colleges actually read your SAT essay? That's ridiculous. I got a 12 on my SAT essay, but I feel as if it is garbage compared to the stuff I write in AP Lit....</p>

4

<p>I'm pretty sure a college won't judge your writing based on an improvised 25 minute essay. Your overall writing score may be important at some schools though.</p>

5

<p>I doubt they have time to go through all. It only comes up probably if you have beautiful essays but aren't in honors/AP English, etc, etc</p>

6

<p>Don't worry about it. Most schools feel that the SAT Writing Section has not been around for enough time to judge the competency of the people who take it. The only people that say that the Writing section is useful is Collegeboard (of course). Don't worry about the Essay, they'll judge you on the common app essay and I don't think most actually read the SAT essay</p>