<p>I seem to remember a thread in SAT and ACT Tests & Test Preparation about this, but I can’t find it.</p>
<p>I’ve read about the idea of making up examples (which could include fictitious historical people, imagined current events, nonexistent scientific studies, etc.) to add some extra persuasiveness to the SAT essay. I see two pragmatic benefits:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Saving study time. Far more common than advice on fabricating information is advice on mentally organizing information to use in an essay. Just about every prep book has pointers on this, and most independent advice (i.e. “How I got 2320”-type threads on CC) mentions that it’s helpful to read many books and to remember the people and events in the books. By eliminating all this reading, you could devote more SAT preparation time to math and critical reading, since it takes much less time to practice fabricating information than to read, take notes, and practice writing using real information.</p></li>
<li><p>Higher persuasive potential. Reality can only do so much for you – no matter how much you read, history and science don’t take sides for you. However, your imagination does. For example, consider a prompt that asks whether convenience technology improves life, or just creates more complications and reduces quality interaction between people. Based on your own knowledge, you might relate your own experience with such technology, mention an anecdote of someone historically noteworthy who decided to live a simple and relatively technology-free life (think Thoreau) and either improved or decreased his/her quality of life as a result. Based on the knowledge that you imagine, you could cite a scientific study indicating that levels of convenience versus mundane effort in a person’s life significantly alter a neurological function in the human brain that increases or decreases one’s sociability and makes one more or less empathetic to others. This could (hypothetically) be spun to indicate that enjoyment of convenience makes people more anti-social. Additionally, you could talk about a (hypothetical) ancient civilization that slowly collapsed due to increased reliance (and ensuing sociopathy) on convenience technology that is somehow strikingly parallel to modern technology. (Make sure to say that archeologists have only recently discovered the cause of the downfall of the civilization). Or you could make up a small group of people who existed relatively recently in history (maybe 100-150 years ago) who successfully created a miniature anarcho-primitivist society and achieved some kind of enlightenment by detaching themselves from technology.</p></li>
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<p>I’m aware that fabricating evidence is somewhat of a technical skill that requires sharp logic to pull off successfully, or else the writer will just end up making contradictions that make the essay more dysfunctional than it already would have been. What I want to know is whether or not info-fabrication creates any external risks whatsoever. Who can read an essay? Do colleges read essays (if they can access them)? Is there any chance that essay graders might save an essay for later and give a zero for false information? Are they allowed internet access while grading essays? Is there any risk whatsoever (aside from the difficulty of creating a cohesive story)?</p>
<p>As far as I know, colleges can request the essay; but they rarely (or never) do, so that risk is negligble. If you fabricate the information plausibly, I doubt that there is a way that it would be uncovered – remember, they probably spend about one minute on each essay.</p>
<p>I can honestly say that fabricating facts on the SAT Essay is one of the best ways to help boost your SAT score. The people at ETS who grade the essays generally know little to nothing about the actual information and examples related to the topic. Plus, they have hundreds of thousands to grade and usually only spend a minute or two reading over it, often looking for structure instead of substance. I’ve taken the SAT twice and COMPLETELY made up my historical examples - yet I scored an 11 on it the first time, and a 12 the second. Just make up names/events/or situations that the grader wouldn’t be able to differentiate from fact. I used a lot of “historical” Chinese figures (ex: Shin-Fou, Nao-Ding, Tsa-Mouzig, Fry-Ryse), or Russian “tsars” (pretty much just “Tsar Nicholas the ______”) to exemplify whatever point I was trying to make in the essay. However make sure the facts you’re using take place far in the past at some ambiguous time in history. I think 500-1000 A.D. is the best time, as not too many people, especially the idiots at ETS, know anything historically revelent prior to 1900.</p>
<p>^I plan on doing that for my SAT. I think maybe a foreign book (like Chinese or French or German or some country that’s not too esoteric) would work even better; what are the chances that the grader specializes in French literature or something?</p>
<p>There are SO many flaws within the SAT/ACT essay system. It’s a joke and just plain doesn’t work. Reading this thread makes me want to throw up. Not because of you guys; because of how easily the standardized test essay can be manipulated and that it is even glanced at during the admissions process.</p>
<p>I bet people don’t even read the essays but instead use some program like the CB’s online course’s online grader to grade the essays. So length is all that matters.</p>
<p>I still wouldn’t take the risk if I can help it, though. It is possible that the graders will follow conventional grading rubric and ignore CB’s instructions about ignoring factual errors. </p>
<p>OK, who is the best essay-maker upper on here? Also, someone post an example of a made up essay that you used in the past. I really want to see how effective they can be and what how you mold them to fit the topic. This could really save a lot of time in the long run (making up essays).</p>
<p>^I’ll post my December essay when I get it back online.</p>
<p>However, I did make up a personal anecdote for the AP French essay. The question was, “blah blah blah Should people follow all rules at all times?” My anecdote went something like this:</p>
<p>I was in the New Orleans airport when I was 8 years old. My parents and I were getting ready to fly back to CA when I heard a gunshot in the airport. A man with a revolver had shot a woman, who was lying facedown on the ground. The police tackled and cuffed the man, but they soon found a giant shotgun in the woman’s coat and she was about to shoot lots of people. Because of this, I learned that it’s OK to break rules when you know you’re doing the right thing.</p>
<p>I got a 5 on the AP exam. Sure, I don’t know how many points I got for the essay (and it isn’t scored the same way as the SAT essay), but the story was entirely fabricated (and probably unrealistic, too). Still, I think it shows how imaginative you can be with these essays, especially with “anecdotes.”</p>
<p>Yes you can fabricate facts, and no one cares (people who are actually trying to remember dates can get them wrong under stress!)</p>
<p>Here’s my advice: don’t make up a book and a storyline. You’re wasting time as it takes to much energy to write a book just to write an essay. If you get stuck on a date or a name, go ahead and make it up or place a good approximation. Don’t lose sleep (and valuable minutes!) remembering something that no one cares about! At the same time, if you need to fudge the facts or the storyline a bit to make something work, than that’s fine, they are looking at your writing, not your history/english comprehension skills. It’s just a waste of time though, to sit there making up a book!</p>
<p>^I think the only thing you really need to make up is a title (which you can come up with beforehand). Given your thesis, you can just create a couple character names (again, which you can have prepared) and tell the part of the story that supports your thesis. The story should be a “blown-up” version of your thesis–nothing special.</p>
<p>They definitely don’t care. I said that President Kennedy was an actor and wrote a whole paragraph about Dr. Randolph Mossworth’s research at Harvard. Randolph Mossworth is the name my buddy and I made up for joke essays - he’s inspired by Randy Moss of the Patriots LOL.</p>
<p>If I could somehow download the essay off of CB, I’d post it. Topic was on “small decisions and large consequences”. Wrote about Imperialist Chinese and Tsarist Russian politics. All BS of course.</p>
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