<p>I'm planning to go in with 25 thorough examples for November's essay. What were some of the ones you had prepared or that you used when you wrote your essay?</p>
<p>I had a bunch planned that didn’t really pan out for my prompt, so I ended up using Jay Gatsby, Odysseus, and social networking sites. Other good examples I had prepared were Steve Jobs, Beowulf, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent Iranian election, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. </p>
<p>Some of these can apply to multiple prompts if you’re creative with them. If I were you, though, I’d just pick examples you personally are comfortable about swaying to meet a prompt. Adlibbing an example on the test day is sometimes a necessity, with some random prompts that you would never have prepared an example for. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll need 25 examples. I only had 4 and I get 11’s.</p>
<p>Hmm…I think generally 1 personal, 1 historical, 1 literary suffices…they don’t even need to be prepared.</p>
<p>^ Personal examples should be avoided if possible, and one should have multiple examples prepared so the bulk of the 25 minutes is spent writing, not planning.</p>
<p>You should pick examples that are so broad that they can be applied to virtually any prompt. I’ve yet to come across an SAT essay in which I couldn’t apply The Iliad or some aspect of US History (e.g. WWII).</p>
<p>Eh, Idk…</p>
<p>My first SAT, I used 1 personal + 1 historical and got a 12.
My second time, I used 1 personal + 1 literary and got another 12.</p>
<p>So…I guess it varies from person to person?</p>
<p>Taking AP US History and reading literature can really do wonders for the SAT essay. I can apply the character of Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye to over half of the essay prompts and I have a few ready-made, highly intelligent-sounding lines to save time. I personally only use one example per essay, as one that is well elaborated is viewed much more highly than a few that are only developed fragmentarily. Also, it can be difficult to transition from dissonant examples.</p>
<p>Personal examples don’t count against you whatsoever and you can embellish your anecdote to fit the prompt more closely if need be. But historical/literary examples are often best since much more evidence is present.</p>
<p>SAT Essay Examples</p>
<p>1984 by George Orwell
Plot: Totalitarian government, a party member named Winston Smith wants to overthrow it; government controls all thoughts, actions, etc. Winston falls in love with a girl named Julia who works in his department; they try to be indoctrinated into the Brotherhood, a legendary society that wants to overthrow the government. They are captured, Winston finally cracks and tells them to hurt Julia instead of him; at the end he learns to love Big Brother (the supposed leader of the party) and accepts the government system.
Winston Smith: timid, fatalistic, hates the totalitarianism. Sort of like a revolutionary, but too scared to do anything.
Themes: Dangers of totalitarianism; government controls everything, even disloyal thoughts are punishable.
Themes: Opposition to authority figures.
Themes: Psychological Manipulation; government has telescreens and signs promoting Big Brother. Mikes blasting propaganda all the time.
Themes: TOTAL CONTROL. Government controls history; changes peoples pasts to suit their needs.
Themes: Standing up to authority.</p>
<p>Iraq War: Wrong decision, led to nowhere; citizens ignorant of the fact that they had no
weapons of mass destruction. Ignorance led to innocent lives being lost.</p>
<p>Holocaust: Did not realize fast enough that Hitler was mass exterminating Jews, lack of knowledge led to innocent lives being lost. Burden of knowledge for Hitlers cronies.</p>
<p>Outsourcing: Many jobs are being outsourced to other countries because they are cheap; shows materialism.</p>
<p>Martin Luther King: Fought for black rights, courage, sacrifice.</p>
<p>Mahatma Gandhi: Fought for freedom of India, courage, sacrifice, standing up to authority.</p>
<p>Hitler: Wanted to take over the world, killed millions of people; power, corruption. Always trying to protect himself, paranoid.</p>
<p>Spiderman (Movie): With great power comes great responsibility, loss of innocence.</p>
<p>Marketing/Advertising: First impressions make a big difference.</p>
<p>Bill Gates: Opposition to authority, persistence, self-made.</p>
<p>Lord of the Flies</p>
<p>Macbeth</p>
<p>Copied and pasted exactly from the list I made to prepare from. Honestly, out of these, I only had like 1984, Hitler, Gandhi, MLK, LotF, and Macbeth memorized and I got a 12 on my essay. I didn’t use any personal examples, but I used Gandhi, MLK, and Lord of the Flies.</p>
<p>people tend to stress the film “Into the Wild”.
I use the books “A Separate Peace”, “1984”, and “the Other Boleyn Girl.”
“La vie en Rose”, a movie, is also very applicable.
i usually get 11-12. w/ these</p>
<p>MLK - courage, sacrifice
Ghandi - courage, sacrifice, standing up, etc
Catcher in the Rye - Frustration, change, immaturity
Stem cell research - two sides to an issue, practicality vs. morality
Hitler - Power, corruption, propaganda
Julius Caesar (play) - Pride, downfall
Spider-Man - Responsibility that comes with power, perhaps loss of innocence
American Revolution : Tenacity, courage, British being overconfident
Ender’s Game - severe pressure, emotional distress, deception
Marc Antony (in the play) - style over substance, manipulation, trickery
Beloved - dwelling on/getting over the past, starting a new life, effects on human psyche
Advertising/Marketing - How first impressions/how something is presented affects a person’s view on something
Brave New World - role of technology in people’s lives, does personal freedom have to be sacrificed for a happy society?, etc</p>
<p>Lord of the Rings is infinitely usable.
Twain Novels are decent.
Abe Lincoln- courage, working hard/persistence/self-made man
Song of Solomon- self-discovery
I used Frederick Douglass and Winston Churchill for big expectations.
FDR - overcoming hardship, innovative
Macbeth - discrepancy of appearance v reality (Fair is foul and foul is fair)
Henry CLay – compromises
Munich conference - appeasing others’ wishes
Frankenstein: dangerous knowledge, secrets of science, monster being rejected by society, abortion.
The Great Gatsby: decline of America in the 1920s, deals with upper class throughout the novel.
And Then There Were None: justice, guilt.
Bill Gates/Warren Buffet: wealthy people who strive to donate to charities: money can or cannot be powerful - can argue either side; also, grew up with nothing, and accomplished a lot of things.
Malcolm X: civil rights leader - anti-racism.
The Once and Future King: force and justice, knighthood (bravery and becoming a man).
Adolf Hitler: power/corruption/ambition.
Animal Farm: corruption/communism, abuse of power.
King Lear: justice - believing humans get what is just since God is just.
Beowulf: bravery, loyalty - Wiglaf stays and helps Beowulf while the dragon ends up killing Beowulf; Wiglaf never leaves his side, while Beowulf’s other men have already fled.
To Kill a Mockingbird: prejudice, educating children’s innoncent minds.
The Hobbit: heroism - Bilbo who develops from an average, ordinary person into a hero.
The Odyssey: temptation.
Fahrenheit 451: censorship, knowledge vs. ignorance.
The Scarlet Letter: sin, identity.
The Outsiders: the rich and poor, when male and female interace = chaos, doing things to honor him and his gang.
Rosa Parks: anti-racism, stood up for what she believed in - equality among race.
Michael Jackson: abused fame - got abused by dad during childhood, then grew up to be a child molester. (Maybe this isn’t a good example to use.)
Les Miserables - potential of man, goodness of man, flaws of the criminal justice system
For historical, I use the example of attilla the hun - he turned a ragtag group of warring tribes into the most terrifying force in Asia that sacked Rome. Working together, united we stand, divided we fall, that type of stuff. Also shows that every crisis is an opportunity in disguise, because Mongolia was a podunk, nomadic land.
1984, The Giver- individuality
hercules- redemption for lost innocence
hector- pride, downfall
Rachel Carson - courage, persistence, launched the Global Environmental Movement
Is it beneficial to avoid using technology?" and I used the Soviet-American Cold War/Arms Race as one example, and my grandmother, who avoids technology like the plague!
st. francis of assisi - born into wealth but hated that lifestyle, chose a life of poverty and love, etc.</p>
<p>J. Robert Oppenheimer - genius, father of the atomic bomb, realized the horror of it and founded a commission that tried to stop the arms race</p>
<p>Vietnam - learning from our mistakes, a “failure”</p>
<p>Boo from To Kill a mockingbird - don’t judge a book by its cover</p>
<p>it is da summary of one cc thread.</p>
<p>Yeah, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby seem to be books whose themes I can always contort to fit any prompt. I was able to make Grapes of Wrath work well with the family relations prompt.</p>
<p>ahhh thanks everyone, especially dark_angel! You made my search for examples so much easier</p>