How to write a good Sat essay?

xitammarg
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:05:12 +0000

i got a 12 using personal examples, and know many other people who’ve done the same. the college board can’t grade you down for using non-academic examples (it can’t even grade you down for getting your facts wrong). your score depends primarily on how well your examples support the point you’re trying to make. after that, it’ll depend on organization, grammar, sentence structure, and length, in no particular order. check out the NYT article “ON EDUCATION; SAT Essay Rewards Length and Ignores Errors of Fact,” from 4 May 2005. It includes this excerpt from a communication between the College Board and its essay graders:

"Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state ‘The American Revolution began in 1842’ or ‘’‘Anna Karenina,’’ a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.‘’'

if you approach the SAT essay the way you’d approach an essay for almost any other test, you’ll waste a lot of time on non-essential things and probably end up with a lower score than you deserve.