How to come up with examples for the SAT essay?
Some books,novels?
This question has been asked ad nauseam, and a quick search should lead you to multiple webpages and CC threads.
Example: http://blog.princetontutoring.com/2014/02/developing-useful-sat-essay-examples/
I would choose a book on which you recently wrote some kind of thematic essay. A good number of the essay topics are of the “man vs. himself” or “man vs society” themes, which are also common English essay themed assignments. Also, controversial leaders have histories that can mined for examples in those two topic areas. I am thinking of Gandhi, Alice Paul, Malcolm X, FDR for example…
I’m a college freshman and on the essay, I got a 10 the first time I took the SAT and a perfect score the second time. Try to use a historical example, literature example, and then another one of either of those. Try to refrain from personal examples unless you think of a reallyyyyy good one (make one up usually). It’s also good not to use “I” in your essay, so that’s another reason to refrain from personal examples. Here are some topics I used a lot (for SAT practice tests, and on the SAT):
-Historical:
*Trail of Tears
*Holocaust
*Underground Railroad
*Prohibition
*Industrial Revolution
Make sure to brush up on these big topics beforehand. You won’t regret it!
-Literature:
*To Kill A Mockingbird
*The Giver
*The Fault in Our Stars (or any book like it… there’s nothing wrong with “trendy literature”. A good essay is a good essay).
And please, use good grammar. If you aren’t sure about a word, just change the sentence around. Watch your commas and only use colons and semicolons if you know how to do so properly. Remember subject-verb agreement: If you are talking about one person, say him/her or he/she instead of “they”. Using a / is proper grammar, saying “they woke up and ate breakfast” about a single person is incorrect. Good luck!