<p>On the SAT, I found that my friends that used examples from books scored higher than me, even though they did not write as much/have as smooth transitions/etc. Now that I am focusing on the ACT, I find it hard to come up with an example, since the essays are all school related. For my past 2 essays, I used all personal examples, but I would like to use some real life/book examples because I think it would help me score higher (I got 8 and 9's on my past 2 essays). What examples has anyone else used and if you used any books, which ones? (the only school-related book I can think of is Catcher in the Rye). </p>
<p>Books are difficult to incorporate into the ACT essay. Just because it helps on the SAT doesn’t mean it’s a good ACT strategy. Most essays I wrote for the ACT and most high-scoring essays I read after doing practice tests used personal examples and/or current events (I had a prompt about schools uniforms once - the news story of the Utah high school that edited yearbook pics because of inappropriate clothing would work well, for instance). Those two types of examples fit better with ACT-style prompts than literary examples. </p>