How off-topic can you go on the essay?

[skatj]

<p>For example, if the prompt was:

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>

<p>We need to remember that wisdom is not just about what we think or know, but more importantly, how we act. Simply being smart is not enough. I define wisdom as the application of intelligence and experience toward the attainment of a common good. In other words, the wisest people are those who look out not just for themselves but also for others.</p>

<p>Adapted from Robert J. Sternberg, “Teaching for Wisdom in Our Schools”</p>

<p>What makes a person wise? Are the wisest people merely smart or are they also concerned with the well-being of others? 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>I wrote about the differences between a smart person and a wise person, which wasn’t really what the prompt was asking for. Is it off-topic?</p>

<p>Or if the prompt was:

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>

<p>Something flawed is far more interesting than something perfect. Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life’s ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.</p>

<p>Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up</p>

<p>Is perfection something to be admired or sought after? 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>I wrote more about how perfection can never be obtained, and to try would result in unhappiness, which is again not really what the prompt asked for.</p>

[akahmed]

<p>For the November SAT, the topic was ‘do more choices make you happier?’</p>

<p>I wrote about freedom attained throughout history, nonconformist transcendentalists and my heritage, relating here and there that it allowed choice, and finished the essay. I got a 12.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t usually go off topic, maybe I got lucky, but do feel free to wander through what you can write about best and keep relating it to the prompt. I guarantee it will not have an adverse effect, and may even be better, since you might not be able to support a more fitting example.</p>

<p>Be a bit creative.</p>