The Essay

<p>Does anyone else besides me think that the new essay is comlpete crap. Honestly, not only that it also stunts creativity. The SAT essay is based only on structure, but good structure does not produce great wrting. Hemingway is said to have only got a 3 on an essay according to this rubric. I'm not saying I'm the best writer in the world-too good for the SAT. But I prefer analogies over that crap.</p>

<p>bumpppppppppppp</p>

<p>Yeah, it's pretty much garbage. But the whole test tries to put you into a little box, so why shouldn't the essay? Not much room for creativity in standardized testing.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that some schools actually use this essay to compare writing styles with your application essays and personal statements. They know that you have as much time as you want on the application and only 25 minutes here, but if there seems to be a discrepancy between your grades and your application essay, they sometimes try to figure out if you got someone else to write you personal statement for you by comparing it to the Writing essay.</p>

<p>I agree with PeteSAT, but at least the other questions on the SAT were fair and you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting it right. This is completly broad, Am I being to irrational?</p>

<p>if you make up an example in your sat essay...and then the colleges ask for it and find that you example is a not real...how do you think they would react to that???</p>

<p>I completely disagree. It's funny though, because yesterday I would have totally understood where you (topic orignator) are coming from. In my 11th grade english class, we are reading Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, and today as a test we had a 25-minute in-class essay where we related one passage that the teacher gave us to the rest of the book, explaining themes, word usage, etc.
Now granted, the test was open book, but I swear I only glanced at my book twice, and each time was only to make sure that I was quoting the book accurately and getting page numbers. This was my first real strict 25-minute essay that we've done in school (at least in a while), and I believe that this stemmed from the change in SAT policies (mainly the addition of the essay).
Now I don't mean to sound cocky, but I know that i was able to produce a beautiful work of an essay on The Metamorphosis, and I am completely confident that I will get an A- or above. In case you are wondering, the passage that we had to analyze was after the death, on the least page:
"Then they all three left the flat in company, something they had not done for months... ---> ...was quite filled with warm sunshine" (110).</p>

<p>Pimpa, that would not happen. You could say World War II occurred in 1111 AD., and you would not get points off. The Invisible Man could have written Crime and Punishment, and your score would not drop. Jay Gatsby could be president of the US today, and your precious 5 on the SAT essay would not depreciate to a 4 or below. Believe me, I know all of this because my current English teacher has graded and grades the SAT II writing, and all of this will apply to Saturday's SAT. As long as your essay is coherent and logical with examples that FIT and make sense, AND your essay is not TOOOOO formulaic, you should secure yourself a 5 (or at least a 4) on the new SAT 25-minute essay section.</p>

<p>Second, analagies don't measure crap. You can use tricks to help you figure those out. They don't test your writing skills one iota. Colleges want to know how your writing skills will fare on their essay-based exams, which tend to show up a lot at Ivies and small non-ivy LACs. Analogies don't tell them ish about how you write.</p>

<p>thanks rbase but that was not exactly my question. I am not concerned at all about the veracity of my examples for the sat because i know taht they will not take the time to look them up, or if they know i am mistaken, they wont even care. My worry is that the colleges decide to look up my essay and untrue facts in it...what would the consequences (relating to my application) be?</p>

<p>are you talking about SAT essay or personal statement? 'Cus I'm confused.</p>

<p>PS prolly shouldn't have untrue facts. Not smart. Colleges read that word for word. SAT essay can have untrue facts. Colleges won't see that, except for a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.</p>