The essay and personal experience

Test Preparation
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<p>Just thought you might like to know...</p>

<p>I just heard an interview on NPR's morning edition with a teacher who was on the board that developed the new essay. He indicated that using personal experience is not only acceptable, but may be preferable in some situations. To paraphrase: write what you know. If it's your own experience, you'll be more connected with what you're writing.</p>

<p>Does that mean you shouldn't use a book or history? Of course not. But don't shy away from relevant personal anecdotes and experiences.</p>

<p>He also had another good point that I haven't seen mentioned here: don't start writing until you know what you're writing about. In other words, avoid that first rambling sentence or two that many students tend to write just to get their pencil moving.</p>

<p>Anyone want to add anything?</p>

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<p>take approximately 1/4 of your allotted time to plan your essay out. It really helps if you know what you want to say before you start writing. We did that for our AP Exams and most of us got scores of 4 or higher.</p>

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<p>have a broad range of examples to support your ideas. like petesat said using personal anecdotes is fine, but you should also use things you've learned in different subjects and through novels. it's always good to have examples from extremely different areas...makes you sound more well-rounded and generally knowledgable</p>