SAT essay help

Hi,

I'm taking teh SAT 1 in may and am pretty comfortable about the maths and verbal section but am freaking out about the essay. I don't really take any essay subjects for as level and so only really have experience from GCSE.

Is there anyway I can prepare for the essay? Do you have any tips as in are they meant to be really personal or is it more about creating a logical arguement?

Thanks

Reply 1

pl224

The graders of the essay want to see how coherently you can write and formulate an argument. You'll be graded primarily on the structure and organization of your essay, your writing mechanics, the general flow and style of your writing (don't make it flowery and over-embellished, just make sure it reads nicely), and the like. Supposedly factual inaccuracy is not penalized, so while you shouldn't rewrite history, you can have some inconsistencies, as it's not testing your factual knowledge.

It's difficult to really prepare for the essay, but if you're nervous about that portion, I recommend you check out a good SAT book, especially CollegeBoard's Official Guide to the SAT, for sample essay prompts. They are very open-ended, usually the subject isn't bad even if the question or quote is worded oddly, and your examples can be from personal experience, literature, current events, history, etc.

Reply 2

upstartspacecrow

Also, know that you're only given twenty-five minutes in which to create a coherent, finished (that was my trouble) piece. It may help to do a quick three-minute planning session at the beginning of the essay just so you know where you're going.

When in doubt and if you just want to make it simple for yourself, Americans love the five-paragraph essay. Introductory paragraph, two or three paragraphs defending your argument, and a conclusion paragraph. Like the post above said, the actual topics usually aren't hard at all - sometimes they'll give you a quote to respond to and form an opinion on, your opinion of a current event (which you'll be given the background on), etc. It's purely a test to see how you think and present an argument in written form.

Reply 3

drive like june

This is the best advice you will ever get for any standardized analytical writing section: practice writing as much as you can, as fast as you can.

Reply 4

Descartesz

http://benewsviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/top-10-essential-sat-essay-tips.html
http://www.sat-essay.net/sample-sat-essays.html
http://www.princetonreview.com/sat-essay.aspx
http://school.familyeducation.com/sat/essays/39909.html
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/satwritingsection/a/SATessay.htm

Reply 5

aura1947

I gave the SAT Reasoning Test. I got 10/12 on the essay. Quite surprising considering I left my essay unfinished!

Basically follow this structure:

-Your stance on the topic.
-Reason for your stance.
-A brief overview of the examples you'll be using to prove your stance (just name them really). e.g. 'I shall be using the literary examples of Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner' and Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' to prove my view point'

-Details of first example.
-How the example supports your viewpoint.

-Transition to second example. e.g. 'Literature does indeed provide us with an array of examples illustrating the point under discussion as exemplified by Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' in which...'
-Details of second example.
-How the example supports your viewpoint.

-Concluding words on your stance.

Just follow that structure...and make sure you use nice vocabulary, similes and the like.

As for examples, you can take them from history, literature, media etc. I preferred literature so I read up summaries of popular literature works on Wikipedia. :wink:

Do note though that I only provided one example, briefly mentioned the second example and then ran out of time! So provided you do what I suggest, you'll surely get a 12/12.

Oh and most importantly write as much as you can! Make full use of the whole space provided!