<p>I got 2 8's on the SAT and an 8 on the ACT!!!</p>
<p>How can I improve my essay writing skills when I have only 25 minutes to write a 2 page essay???</p>
<p>act u can write more than 2 pages..try writing more (i did and i got a 10)</p>
<p>you have to have the knowledge and background to elaborate on body paragraphs, focus on history and literature if you can and keep practicing to fill up as much space as possible because quantity matters a lot</p>
<p>As long as you have examples and an EXPLICIT thesis that you EXPLICITY go back to, you should be fine. For the SAT Writing essay, I only had four paragraphs. The topic was is it better to have high expectations or low ones. I used two examples: myself and Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, arguing high expecations as the wiser choice. All I did was simply make a solid point and habitually go back to that point throughout the essay, explaining why it was best. On the ACT, I just wrote four pages and used a lot of conterarguments, but I was slightly off topic. On both essays, my grammar was fairly polished and my vocabulary was solid. Organization is also important. I got an 11 on both. This is the only thing I do well on these tests. Seriously. Everything else = death.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It helps to know what examples you're going to use before the test. The good thing about the stupid SAT essays (I never took the ACT, sorry :/ ) is that they always have pretty general and generic topics, and you can always recycle examples. This works best for literary examples; think of major pieces of literature that you know well and that have lots of good themes, characters, etc. that can be easily applied to many different types of questions. This can save you time.</p></li>
<li><p>Have a relatively good intro that states what your stance is (the thesis) and what you're going to talk about. It can be decent, not amazing.</p></li>
<li><p>Conclusion = very important.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep applying your examples back to your thesis in your body paragraphs.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Honestly, these essays don't have to be great. Just focus on making your point through good examples, support, and good intro and conclusion, and you should be fine. This is what I learned from my experience with 3 SAT tests. I got 12, 11, and 12 on the essay portions, so it seemed to work out for me.</p>
<p>Fill up the pages and having a good structured 5 paragraph essay (intro, 3body, conclusion). Specific examples in each paragraph.</p>
<p>I disagree with LuckMC11 - don't write more than two pages. Length isn't all that matters; if you don't have huge handwriting and manage anything more than 1.5 pages, you're fine.</p>
<p>I wrote a little less than 1.5 pages, used two literary examples (1 play, 1 book), had a half-sentence conclusion that was cut off in the middle of a word, and STILL got a 12. According to a lot of things I've read on CC that should be impossible.</p>
<p>Intro is important. I have a friend who has a very straightforward writing style that's logically impeccable and he only got an 8 on the essay. He went straight into his thesis argument, which I think is a mistake.</p>
<p>i know how it feels.</p>
<p>I got 8 on the SAT three times and once on the ACT. It was so annoying because was sure that my ACT essay and last SAT essay were better than the previous ones..</p>