<p>What does a 12 essay look like? What is the template? I'm aware that the convention is 3 examples, 5 paragraphs, but apparently you need to go above and beyond that to get a 6? How should I structure it? What examples should I use? (If you can include a list that would be great) Should I include a conclusion, and if so, what should it be if not just a summary of all my ideas, because I've done that and the grader said it seemed like filler and unnecessary fodder. </p>
<p>How did you get personal feedback from an SAT grader? If it was someone else, you should take the feedback with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Tutors, SAT prep teachers, etc. Qualified people to say the most</p>
<p>Who told you that you should use five paragraphs and three examples? Sounds a little restrictive to me.</p>
<p>Personally I find using three examples (and therefore five total paragraphs) excessive and it is a much better use of my time to find two quality examples and spend time/thought developing those two - instead of rushing hell for leather with three examples in 25 minutes.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about getting a 12, but I received a 10 on the Jan SAT using only two examples. </p>
<p>@MITer94, no one did, I just read somewhere that that was the convention. I thought that was a bit extreme as well. </p>
<p>I think all test prep books show examples of essays along with their scores and explanations of why the specific score. There is no prescription though. You can’t know that if you do a 5 paragraph essay that you’ll automatically get a 10 for example. There are secrets of course, but there is no one big secret on how to get a perfect score.</p>
<p>Ah, if you look in the “12 Essay in 10 Days” thread, the poster suggests 3 bodies with 3 examples. </p>
<p>But what does the SAT official prep book say? What does the Princeton prep book say? </p>
<p>Ultimately it is most important that what you say, you say and support well.</p>
<p>I got a 12. This is the forum I wrote:<a href=“Defeating the SAT essay in 2 days - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>Defeating the SAT essay in 2 days - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I got a 12 on the JAN Sat. Three examples, one history, one literature, one personal
This is what I wrote: <a href=“Share your 11's & 12's Essays [January 2014 SAT] - #10 by BioBoy97 - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>Share your 11's & 12's Essays [January 2014 SAT] - #10 by BioBoy97 - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Those who get 6s (individual score, not 2 grader combined) have unique points and voice. This is what many high school classes don’t teach you, since they focus on getting students to 3s, 4s, and 5s. Many 6 essays use an extended metaphor that starts in the conclusion, then carry that metaphor throughout the essay. Others have very strong voice with great vocabulary. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain and have a strong voice. Effective writing is not from cookie cutter structure. 6s are rare, and are only given out to a very small percentage of essays. Personally, I got a combined score of 10 because I lacked the unique voice for a 12.</p>
<p>i got an 8. twice. and i even read and listened to the advice for scoring higher. write more (fill up the pages) use some words that shows you have an above average vocabulary, and write your heart and soul out onto those pages. actually the last one i didn’t receive as advice. that’s maybe what i needed. passion. but how do you teach that? you don’t. i hear what @PnuematicCow is saying, that those who get twelves are born, not made, just like those who receive a score of 800 on the critical reading section are also born, not made, but there at least its one ability that’s being quantified, not the ability to compose a daring and bold essay on the fly, under pressure. it’s true there’s people who stand out for their voice, for the way they write, that there in another league entirely than all us other posters, but do you really need to be like them to get a 6. why can’t you just be like normal above average but by no means great writers and do what they do, but better. why do we have to enter this abstract realm of unique points and voice. seems unfair and i don’t like it. it makes me feel bad for not being like that.</p>
<p>i got the multiple choice questions right, can’t you just give me the full essay points? but they can’t because getting the questions right is not everything, im not unique, and however well i can answer the multiple choice questions it won’t change that.</p>
<p>Ok, so level with me here. Do you score 12’s with a conventional method and slight tweakings, or do you score 12’s with a radical approach that goes beyond thesis’s and examples? I read this essay on this board, which received a 12 (you can just skim through it):</p>
<p>Should we admire heroes but not celebrities? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>The term “hero” comes from the ancient Greeks. For them, a hero was a mortal who had done something so far beyond the normal scope of human experience that he left an immortal memory behind him when he died, and thus received worship like that due the gods. Many of these first heroes were great benefactors of humankind: Hercules, the monster killer; Asclepius, the first doctor; Dionysus, the creator of Greek fraternities. But people who had committed unthinkable crimes were also called heroes; Oedipus and Medea, for example, received divine worship after their deaths as well. Originally, heroes were not necessarily good, but they were always extraordinary; to be a hero was to expand people’s sense of what was possible for a human being.</p>
<p>Today, it is much harder to detach the concept of heroism from morality; we only call heroes those whom we admire and wish to emulate. But still the concept retains that original link to possibility. We need heroes first and foremost because our heroes help define the limits of our aspirations. We largely define our ideals by the heroes we choose, and our ideals – things like courage, honor, and justice – largely define us. Our heroes are symbols for us of all the qualities we would like to possess and all the ambitions we would like to satisfy. A person who chooses Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony as a hero is going to have a very different sense of what human excellence involves than someone who chooses, say, Paris Hilton, or the rapper 50 Cent. And because the ideals to which we aspire do so much to determine the ways in which we behave, we all have a vested interest in each person having heroes, and in the choice of heroes each of us makes.</p>
<p>Again, the critical moral contribution of heroes is the expansion of our sense of possibility. If we most of us, as Thoreau said, live lives of quiet desperation, it is because our horizons of possibility are too cramped. Heroes can help us lift our eyes a little higher. Immanuel Kant said that “from the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” That may well be true. But some have used that warped, knotted timber to build more boldly and beautifully than others, and we may all benefit by their examples. Heaven knows we need those examples now.</p>
<p>and it’s very good, but I wasn’t aware that this what the SAT wanted or even specifically needed. I’ve read other 12 essays and they seem rather tame concerning methods, approaches, and style. This essay doesn’t even address the topic question, from what I read, just an elaboration on the definition of hero and celebrity.</p>
<p>I’ve also read countless times that the essay is very formulaic and not much is demanded except for well, solid examples and developed commentary, and this I’ve heard from numerous people, many of whom have taken the test.</p>
<p>its the “heaven knows we need those examples now” line that assured her the twelve. teachers are very distressed by the icons kids have these days, by how lost and unmotivated they seem. the essay is appealing to them. it may not be exactly on topic but its showing they sure can write, and the topic that they did choose is one that the teachers will like and be won over by by the time they finish reading it and get to that last line.</p>
<p>If you ask me that “Heaven knows” line was cheesy</p>
<p>But that’s not my question, my question is if something like that is required for a 12 or not… </p>
<p>okay its a little cheesy. i was kind of making fun of it by drawing attention to that. but that’s also part of its charm. its a bold assertive essay. i like it. if i was the teacher grading it that kid would be getting a six. whatever criteria they gave me to asses the essays by would momentarily go out the window when i read this one. i know a good SAT essay when i see it and i don’t need the manual to help me decide on a score for this one, heaven knows i’ve consulted that manual enough times today trying to decide, this one’s obviously a six.</p>
<p>Ha Ok </p>
<p>you’re getting a 5. 10 composite. </p>
<p>Mmmm rest assured I can write an essay like that, maybe not in 25 minutes but neither did the writer. I just wasn’t aware that something like this could be used. </p>