<p>Don’t fret about writing. 700+ is fine, really – as long as your scores don’t go 800, 800, 500, I don’t think it matters very much at this stage. (Which is fine with me personally – 1570 old-style is good enough for my purposes!)</p>
<p>write all the two pages… and your starting score will be an 8.</p>
<p>It’s my dad! He will disown me if I get anything below a 2300</p>
<p>My dad will get angry enough to send me back to India (not that there is anything wrong with that…) if I get anything below a 2300</p>
<p>My parents were angry with me for 2320 (yeah, I know how crazy it sounds), so I can rather sympathise. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks a lot :)</p>
<p>@ Noldo: Read “The Golden Gate”? Along with Suitable it’s easily my favourite book(s);</p>
<p>@ naidu: I used a bit of Shakespeare, two factual examples, one invented personal example and got an 11 (still managed an 800, strangely enough, 
) It’s not a test of writing ability at all; don’t worry about it; (follow the formula and you’ll do fine)</p>
<p>Guess, I’ll do that…</p>
<p>@ Kriti/fairy – damn, how come I never got anything. Did they reject me before even looking at my application…I know my application sucks…i’m gonna get rejected for sure… (goes to the corner and cries)</p>
<p>[Thus ends my first attempt at being EMO. And one thing’s for sure Kriti will definitely be accepted by Oberlin because she deserves to get in. I think that letter was just to try and coax her into choosing Oberlin over her other colleges. Or maybe I’m thinking too much again and they just want to connect. Nahh!]</p>
<p>@ Noldo – lol, my case is exactly opposite yours. My parents were literally aghast at the fact that I was planning on taking the SAT and considering studying in the U.S. and they nearly had a heart attack when I told them I didn’t want to sit for the competitive exams (IITJEE)…sad I know.
I’ve got nothing against the competitives really, its just that I don’t want to do engineering and that I really want to study in a liberal arts school.</p>
<p>@ essays – I had a major essay problem. My Common App PS was not too long and not too short( 553 words), but my ‘short’ essay describing an extra-curricular activity was 800 words… :(</p>
<p>As activity’s ceased more or less, I’ll post the daily round up (that is, if anyone wants me too :)) I’ll probably end up doing it anyway, but it’s good to ask though, isn’t it?</p>
<p>179 posts for the day. (A great flurry mid morning, though things quietened down after that) Here’s to many more (though we did miss the 200th page today…)</p>
<p>Hi everybody,</p>
<p>Now the TiTers are rocking - Stanford acceptance, likely letters from Oberlin and Columbia, free rides… WOW</p>
<p>One simple question though - did any one of you get any confirmation from Caltech that your app was complete?.. Forget likely letters, I haven’t even got this confirmation…:-(</p>
<p>@Naidu - I have some advice that might help you. </p>
<p>For the intro make a list make a list of generic sentences that can be slotted in anywhere. </p>
<p>[PROMPT]
It’s better to die happy than die sad. -dda from the book funnypeople. </p>
<p>1ST sentence
In the book Funnypeople, dda claims that it is better to die happy than die a sad person. [this can be adjusted according to your prompt.] </p>
<p>[If you disagree]
[this sentence can be slotted in anywhere] </p>
<p>This is only true on a superficial level, but fails to hold up when revisted n greater detail. </p>
<p>3rd sentence -<br>
Dieing as a happy person might not be totally in the control of that person…balalala [one line of support, this changes acc. to prompt] </p>
<p>4th
We can see this from a wide vareity of examples, provided to us in history, literature and even from my own personal experince. [this doesnt change for any essay] </p>
<p>BODY OF THE ESSAY </p>
<p>[your examples] [give three all the time] </p>
<p>Here I made one up of a Chinese folktale, gave an example from history and made one up from current events in Hong Kong. Talk about your country, they like it!!, because they arent exposed to many cultures. </p>
<p>CONCLUSION
Thus, according to the above examples, clearly dieing sad may not be a completely bad thing. </p>
<p>[Now inject something corny/worldly]
And if we follow this example, then the world might be a better place for us all to live in. </p>
<p>This is just a brief outline, but I hope you got my point that the essay doesnt have to be totally spontaneous. It can be planned beforehand to some degree, especially when considering the sentence structures. </p>
<p>I say this was so effective, because I used to get 8’s in the essay section, I used this on the real SAT and got a 12, eventhough I ran out of time and didnt even complete the essay.</p>
<p>@Noldo - some posts ago you mentioned you read “The God of Small things”, I vaguely remember reading that book, is it written by an Indian author? specfically, Anita something? </p>
<p>Anyone here watching the Champions League?</p>
<p>dda – Arundhati Roy, actually.</p>
<p>bas007 – Nope, no confirmation (why do my fingers keep typing ‘conformation’? Oh, Chemistry, you ruin me so.) as yet. I’m starting to worry.</p>
<p>thanks a lot, dda! I think I can get a good score on the Writing now. Took a practice test today and I got a between 2360-2340 (depends on the writing curve)</p>
<p>There’s REAL reason to worry… most of the colleges are fast approaching decision time and there’s no confirmation from Pasadena… I wonder why the geekiest campus hasn’t even got a tracking system on its website… (They could’ve asked ME to design it LOL)… <em>jittery</em></p>
<p>I DID NOT GET A LIKELY LETTER.</p>
<p><em>killls people</em></p>
<p>Arit, thanks a lot :). Let’s just hope Oberlin thinks I deserve to get in, too! I think you’ll get one too. I really do.</p>
<p>bas007 – reasonably, I have no hope anyway (<10 internationals/year), but yes, ‘worry’ is the order of the hour! </p>
<p>Kriti – it’s not a likely letter, but it’s a whole lot more than most of us have. :)</p>
<p>guys, the answer to all your problems, two words - rolling admissions </p>
<p>hahah, I know this doesnt help, but since I applied to about 6 rolling admissions I’ve got descsions from all of them now. Now to wait for the big 4 at the end of March. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how to fix the problem of “wrong album covers showing up on your ipod?” It’s driving me insane!</p>
<p><10 intels!!! now I’m bugged… I know one guy who got in Caltech last year… but studies at IIT, Bombay at present…</p>