Poetic License on the SAT Essay?

College Essays
1

<p>Am I allowed to stretch facts a bit on the essay portion of the SATs to support my thesis/ viewpoint?</p>

<p>If yes, to what degree?</p>

2

<p>You can stretch facts quite a bit, actually. They are looking for form and function, not necessarily facts. You “messed up” and “forgot”, you know how it is :).</p>

3

<p>I know for my essay I used one example from a novel (Great gatsby) and the other one I made up completely. I got a 9 :-/ but I think thats beucase i was extremely nervous and hadn’t trained well on the essay.</p>

<p>I think it is EASIER to write about a real experience/not exaggerate the facts becuase it will sound more real and believable and it’s easier to support, but if you can b.s. your way through a story then go for it =)</p>

4

<p>Of course you could stretch facts… Just don’t make up obviously bogus stories and don’t stretch the facts…like the events in a novel or something.</p>

<p>It seems to me that any book by Steinbeck can be applied to just about any SAT question (probably because I really like Steinbeck), something from U.S. history, and then you can just pull a personal experience out of thin air if you want.</p>

5

<p>I took the SAT 3 times, and each time I used 3 examples for the essay. Of the total 9, which were from history, literature, science, etc, only 2 were real, both used in the same essay. And that time I got my lowest score :)</p>

6

<p>I wrote about the alien invasion of September 3rd, 1977. That happened right?</p>

7

<p>When I was studying for my SATs, I took a prep course and they told us you could say Michael Jordan was the first man on the moon as long as you wrote well and developed all of your points. </p>

8

<p>My SAT prep instructor said that it was perfectly fine to make up a book, as long as you can support your argument well. Same goes for personal experience – you can make it up, but make sure it actually helps your case.</p>

9

<p>I wrote my toefl essay about a book called “fly away, my friend”. The topic was about owner-pet bonding and communication, so i made up a book (actually, an autobiography…to make it even more lame, i guess?), in which some guy gets lost in the mountains, and tells his pet eagle to go find help. Which, of course, he does, because the two were really close.
Lame, huh? got me 5.5 out 6.</p>