The most difficult prompt I have ever seen

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>In his poem, "To a Mouse," the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrote these immortal lines: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley." To paraphrase Burns's archaic dialect in modern English: No matter how carefully we plan our projects, something can still go wrong with them.</p>

<p>Assignment: What is your view of the idea that even our best plans are always at the mercy of unexpected, chance events? In an essay, support your position by discussing an example (or examples) from history, literature, the arts, science and technology, current events, or your own experience or observation.</p>

<p>What does it mean when you say "at a mercy of"</p>

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<p>it’s saying that “do you agree that no matter how hard you plan, will unexpected, chance events always render the plans useless?” or something of the sort</p>

<p>are plans useless against unexpected events?</p>

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<p>In this case it means we can make plans all we want, but those plans are subject to change due to events no one can predict (chance events).</p>

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<p>“at a mercy of” = vulnerable to.</p>

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<p>whoa I like that topic… for once, I can actually think of decent supporting examples.</p>

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<p>OK, is not this prompt trying to discourage me to NOT plan my essay, since my plan to the essay is absolutely useless…</p>

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<p>So here is my initial essay:</p>

<p>The plan into which a human always tries to project himself is essentially finite by the fact he is not the only existents in this earth. As an existential instinct, planning is the manifestation of human Anxiety toward the unknowness of Future. The so-called unexpected event is only an oversimplified representation for human inability of omnipresence and omnipotence. Indeed, he moves ceaselessly from his future to his past, from his initial anticipations and plans to his memories, remorses. When the man sees his plan being crumbled by his inability, he soon realises that in this planet he is not the only entity who are attempting to exert authority to Time. And his plan, too, is diffused into a larger plan, a larger map in which all particular elements are operated harmoniously.</p>

<p>According to the influential philosopher Martin Heidegger, once the man finds out the injustice of the world, when he knows that he is dipped into a lake of fever, of oscillations where decisions are made unthinkably and are revised fully with remorse a minute later, he, at the same time, discovers the essence of forlorness. Yet, he cannot discard the habit of planning. Why? Simply because his life is associated with planning. Even in his most private concsiousness, when he feels that he is not planning for anything, he still cannot repudiate the fact that he is belonging to the larger plan of life. He is always a part of this plan, and so we can quickly conclude that “not to plan for anything” is only a mode of “plan for something”. This perfect plan is what I call Providence, the plan of God. In the eyes of humans, things become so unexpected, so suprising that go beyond their understanding. But in the eyes of God, the lord of all beings, the operation of all creatures only follows a perfect circle of logic.</p>

<p>Thus, I don’t converse to the forlorn man for long. I only give him two pieces of advices: since the act of planning is inevitable, and that no matter how he attempts to deny the God’s Plan, he cannot escape. What is the difference between passively follow the plan of Providence and actively take over his destiny, exert authority to his Future? The key to have a successful plan here is not the anxiety for the uncertainty of what shall come, nor the reliability of his plan, but the courageness to withstand these unexpected events, these unexpected challenges. Indeed, I leave the man alone in the darkness of Future, and only let him use his wisdom as the torch to conjecture the danger which Future may bring to him.</p>

<p>What do you think folks?</p>

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<p>I feel that your essay is too broad/general and abstract & im not totally sure of your position on the issue until the end…
I liked the style but more examples would enhance the essay i think.</p>

<p>OF MICE AND MEN :smiley: (title was inspired by the quote)</p>

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<p>Don’t make the SAT essay 25 times more complicated than it really is, that’s the best suggestion I can give you.</p>

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<p>“Don’t make the SAT essay 25 times more complicated than it really is, that’s the best suggestion I can give you.”</p>

<p>My friend was suggesting to fill us much paper as I could and to use fancy vocab.</p>

<p>I was thinking exactly the opposite… I would write my essay like I would write an History AP exam FRQ. However, whenever I write it in that style, I rarely use fancy vocab and I’m usually very succinct/to the point.</p>

<p>Which approach is better, you’d say?</p>

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<p>I say make it clear what your stance is. Use examples that obviously show your opinions, and use fancy vocab only if it is used properly. Using a 2 cent word correctly far outweighs using a 10 dollar word incorrectly. I do agree you should make it long, but this shouldn’t make your essay complicating. Just know that readers spend very little time on each essay, so make sure you make it clear.</p>

<p>I always make my intro short and sweet. There’s no point in my mind to have some extravagant intro in my opinion, unless you effectively hook your reader. Make sure they know what you think from the beginning. I read that most 12s and 11s on the essays have only 1-2 sentence intros. I used this tactic for the last test, and got an 11 (hah). I’m not saying it will get you an 11 or 12, but it might be helpful.</p>

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<p>There’s some truth in the “fill as much paper as you can” idea. It’s pretty much impossible to score over a 10 if you’re only writing a 1 page essay (leaving the second page blank), for example. I’d try to get it at or above the 1.5 page mark, personally (unless you have really tiny handwriting). </p>

<p>Personally, I never make an effort to include extra difficult vocab in my SAT essays to impress the graders, and I’ve scored two 12s by now. You can do that, however, but only if you have seen the advanced words used in context before. If you’ve only seen a word in your SAT vocab list, along with a paltry two or three word definition, you are probably going to unwittingly use it in the wrong context, which will hurt your score. </p>

<p>Ultimately, it’s more important that your essay be succinct, answer the question directly, include very relevant and insightful examples, and .. probably most importantly.. FLOW NATURALLY, than that you have 5 or 10 ‘big words’ like ‘indefatigable’ or ‘morass’. It’s a really good idea to adopt the style of getting to the point as quickly/accurately as you can with the SAT essay. You don’t need to write like Shakespeare or some poetic mastermind. You are not aiming to dazzle with your amazing wit, to make profound and completely novel philosophical insights. You are aiming to answer the question. Flowery language is a no-no. In terms of writing style, you are aiming for eloquence, clarity, and brevity.</p>

<p>BTW. It’s always been my style to write longer intros, about four sentences long. I’m always wary of writing 2 supporting paragraphs, so I always write three. But either two or three should be fine; just keep in mind that if you write two, they need to be fleshed out more thoroughly,and if you write three, they still have to all be fully formed and developed. The conclusion p can definitely be shorter, but it shouldn’t be only one sentence. I suggest aiming for two long sentences, or three sentences, which is what I usually do. If you are aiming for a 12, I think your conclusion shoudl do more than simply restate your thesis. Try to expand on your thesis, make a reference to a current event, or generalize to an even larger conclusion or observation about human nature. You don’t need to go on and on, but it’s nice to leave the reader with an extra, interesting thought. In other words, the best essays’ conclusions typically actually have a purpose, and aren’t there only for structure’s sake.</p>

<p>cross-posted w/ azngamer, but I agree with everything he said :)</p>

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<p>You’d probably win if you wrote about you being the result of a condom breaking - unexpected event ;)</p>

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<p>@azngamer and amb3r: thank you for the insightful responses. I’m really procrastinating on practicing for the essays. :frowning: At least I still have a week. I don’t know what is my weak point, whether it is that my essay doesn’t flow, I use bad word choice, or I can’t think of any good examples that strongly support my point. I’ve written only 2 essays, and each time, I actually finish early because I can only think of 2 examples that I don’t elaborate on well. (how many examples should I have?)</p>

<p>@Eloquence: l0l.</p>

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<p>2 more elaborated ones, or three. Personally I always write three examples for SAT essays, but neither is ‘better’. But if you always have trouble elaborating a lot with two examples, maybe you could try to think of three so you wouldn’t have to go <em>as</em> in depth. Still, remember that three half-fleshed examples, or even two well-developed examples and one poorly-developed example, will lose you points. In one prep book, they had printed a few sample essays in response to a prompt, and the comment under the 5 essay was “All good, except that the last example was not clearly developed”, or something like that.</p>

<p>Have you ever tried compiling a list of 20-30 examples that work well for a lot of SAT prompts? I had a lot of trouble coming up with good examples until I made a list of like.. 8 historical figures, 5 historical events, 6 classic books, and 3 current events that I thought would be good examples for a variety of prompts. After that, I never had a problem coming up with even 5 or 6 great examples for every prompt, pulled from the list I had made. I never had to come up with fresh examples, I could just cycle through the ones I knew well. And because I made the list, I knew a bunch of details about all of my examples, so it was easy for me to elaborate on them. I know it sounds stupid and time-consuming, but that really helped me.</p>

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<p>Seriously, do ya guys even read his essay? or you just bicker around and shoot at nothing?
Cuong, I love very much your style. It is very unique and I am envy that you can write like that within only 25 minutes. What is your score in any previous essay?</p>

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<p>Hey, amb3r, this line already indicates his opinion toward the question. There is nothing called unexpected plan, since things have been foreknown by god. So the so-called plan of human is only an effort to escape the entirely perfect plan of God. Do you even read this carefully?</p>

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<p>This indicates his opinion about human inactiveness. It is only an illusion. You cannot say you do not control your life, because god controls it. It is him who decide what is going to happen. Thus, you are inside his plan, so, even when you do not plan things, you are actually following the plan of God. Your plan is only a very small part of Providence. It is indeed very thoughtful. You doubt that this essay could get below 10. For the style is very distinctive and perfectly logic. WHY DO YOU NEED TO GIVE A BUNCH OF EXAMPLES WHILE YOU CAN LOGICALLY DELINEATE YOUR ESSAY’S CONCLUSION.</p>

<p>BTW, I have not seen any big words. I only see the sentence structure is used very masterful and solid.</p>

<p>Cuong, your name suggests that you are a foreign student, yet I am very suprising that you can write in such a high level English language and understand the question very thoroughly. Very very rare people can do this task. Indeed, your essay is very succinct. I can totally understand it.</p>

<p>I love very much your ending. It is not like a rude abrupt like other scratchy sample essay.</p>

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<p>Hey, everyone, he already defines what is his view about the plan stuff. See. he says that the matter is no longer how accurate the plan is, but the courageness one must afford to encounter possible frailty, because humans are not perfect, are nothing to God. The author carries a very religious view on the question.</p>

<p>Let I ask you guys, CAN you even write such an essay within 25 minutes. I doubt that no one.</p>

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<p>What??</p>

<p>All my advice was general. None of it was directed towards Cuong’s essay. The only advice I gave directly to Cuong was my first post in this thread (a one sentence post). So, everything you just wrote in that post makes no sense and has no basis given that my remarks were aimed at ALL sat-takers, not Cuong.</p>

<p>By the way, I’m not bashing Cuong’s essay. Actually, I think it’s a great essay. It’ll probably get him something like a 10.</p>

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<p>Thanks amb3r (for the response at the bottom of the previous page). I think thinking of possible prompts and then think of examples for them is a great idea. I’ll probably be doing that as part of my studying next week.</p>

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<p>amb3r, sincerely thanks for your kindness of replying my essay. I shall take your advice into my consideration carefully. Probably I need to edit my writting in a way so that those two readers could understand faster. I mean I am really happy that you guys think it is ok. I have practised a lot of essay prompt within 25 minutes and sometimes it is just amazing to see how I can examine other NEW METHODS ha ha :)</p>

<p>Maynard, thanks a lot for your support. But I think those folks’ advices are only for good. So I would like to hear them and see how they share their experience.</p>

<p>BTW, my last essay is 11.</p>

<p>And about Religion, do you think it could be a hinderance for us to get maximum score? I am a Christian so I don’t know how collegeboard views this issue.</p>

<p>Are there any ways we can address the question in a logical deductive way so that we don’t have to lengthen our essay with a bunch of examples. I hate SAT essay since it only opens the door for inductive method, while deductive is absolutely more applausible. Why do you need to prove 1 + 1 = 2 by giving the example of 1 orange + 1 orange = 2 oranges.</p>

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<p>Seems this is a few days old, but I agree a lot with Cuong’s question above:</p>

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<p>I have had the temptation to construct an argument built on logic, rather than like Cuong said, several isolated examples…</p>