Grade My Essay!

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>This is from the first practice test of the Barron’s book.</p>

<p>Statement: It is better to be underrated by people than to be overrated by them.</p>

<p>Topic: What are your thoughts on the statement above? </p>

<p>Every person in the world has an about about his or her surroundings. Though these opinions are often differing, they may, on occasion, be convergent. If many people have a favorable opinion on a specific object, there will always be a few others who disagree with the general consensus. These people will point out the flaws in the object, and call it “overrated.” Things that are overrated are prone to more criticism than those that are not.</p>

<p>In the past decade, hip hop and rap are two genres that have come into the mainstream music scene. Artists such as Usher, Timbaland, and Missy Elliot have garnered widespread acclaim and popularity. However, this has all come at a price. Many refer to the works of the aforementioned as being overrated, and their flaws (a lack of originality, for example) are pointed out. Rock, a musical genre with less popularity than rap or hip hop, is clearly underrated, but rarely garners the extreme criticism often associated with the other genres. Although it may be as equally flawed as rap and hip hop, rock’s flaws are rarely highlighted due simply to the fact that it is underrated.</p>

<p>Every year, my school holds a big science fair for the juniors and seniors. The teens who typically did very well in their science classes were eager to enter the fair. Many of them were very focused on winning, and they tried their very best to pay careful attention to how the other scientifically-inclined students were working, in an effort to outdo them. One student, Kathryne, never did particularly well in her high school science classes, but decided to enter the science fair regardless. Few expected her to produce a good project, and even fewer payed attention to what she was actually putting together. On the day of the fair, her underratedness allowed her to avoid major criticism and her project on the medical uses of iodine seemed better than it really was, which led to her ultimate success. Had her science skills been overrated, her project would have seemed horrible.</p>

<p>Underrated things or people are prone to far less criticism than their overrated counterparts. Thus, success for one of them is easier achieved. However, this is all part of a vicious cycle, and something once viewed as underrated may quickly become overrated with the growth of its success.</p>

<p>So, please grade my essay. It seems far too wordy to me, but I really have no idea of how it would score on the SAT. Any suggestions on how it could be improved would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>This essay surprised me. Seriously. I started out thinking that your first paragraph was just not-well-thought-through filler, and I kept thinking that through the second and third paragraphs, but when I got to your conclusion I realized that you probably really do mean what’s in your introductory paragraph. What you have there so far really looks as if you tried to jam some ideas into a template that really can’t handle them.</p>

<p>If you drop the second and third paragraphs (paragraph three contains a glaring typo – “payed” for “paid” – and would probably be stronger in a more conventional essay if you had said something about how good or bad Kathryne’s project was in an objective sense) you’ve got something really interesting.</p>

<p>Most of us would think that “is overrated” means something like “has a better reputation he/she/it deserves” but you’re defining “is overrated” to mean something like “is thought highly of by many people”. You then argue that to be thought highly of by many people is to be the target of criticism. Criticism appears to change people’s opinions of whatever it is for the worse, dragging whatever it is down until it is underrated and the criticism lets up, dragging it back up toward overratedness again.</p>

<p>As I say, that’s very interesting. It’s the sort of thing that comes out of radical versions of social constructionism and it’s not the sort of thing that I would expect from a high school student.</p>

<p>I don’t know, though, whether it is the sort of thing one can succeed with on the SAT. I just don’t know enough about the SAT to know.</p>

<p>I’d suggest either getting rid of the second and third paragraphs and expanding (and making more precise) the stuff from the first and fourth, or getting rid of the first and fourth and arguing that when one is underrated the bar is set much lower than when one is overrated, and that it’s easier to be successful when you’re underrated, as rock music in general and Kathryne in particular demonstrate, and therefore being underrated is better.</p>

3

<p>hmmm
interesting essay
my first comment is that u need to choose a side- make that very clear in ur intro- to me it seemed like u were analyzing the pluses n minuses of both
i think ur final intro sentence was ur thesis but make it stronger by clearly choosing a side</p>

<p>u choose good examples, but try n clear up wat ur saying- in several areas i got confused</p>

<p>overall i would give it a 7 or 8 the main thing that i think would really boost ur grade is clarity</p>

4

<p>Thanks, guys!</p>

<p>For some reason, I have trouble following the standard, traditional essay format when writing an SAT essay. Often, I have trouble coming up with three examples for the sake of having a 5-paragraph essay.</p>

<p>How should a proper introductory paragraph be structured on the SAT? I’m sort of confused about this…</p>

5

<p>Hmm, your essay is interesting, but I don’t know if it’s good for the SAT. I have no idea how it would score.</p>