Top Score on the SAT Essay
Standardized grading rewards standardized writing
Unwritten rules of top-scoring essays:
1) Length
2) Format
3) Thesis Location
4) Examples
5) Counter-Arguments
6) Planning
LENGTH:
Length matters! It is the single strongest correlating factor to success on the SAT essay
It doesn’t matter if you write a great essay (content) if you don’t fill AT LEAST 1.5 pages
FORMAT:
Majority of top essays use a 5-paragraph essay format
-Introduction
-1st Example
-2nd Example
-3rd Example
-Conclusion
Format isn’t as crucial as length
THESIS PLACEMENT:
Not buried in the first paragraph
Make it the first sentence in the essay
Make it a direct response to the original assignment and simple
Your examples must support your thesis – so your reader has to know what your thesis is.
EXAMPLES:
Things they do NOT have to be:
-Academic
-Factually correct
The College Board doesn’t want to be accused of elitism, so personal examples are fine
The College Board is a slave to standardization, so the facts go out the window
-They could not fact-check the essays, because it would take far too long
After length, this is the most important thing to grasp about the essay
COUNTER-ARGUMENTS:
In real life, considering counter-arguments is essential to good writing
On the SAT it tends to fall flat
It looks as if you don’t know what you’re trying to prove
Counter-Arguments tend to be limited to a single sentence
Pick a side and stick with it
PLANNING:
You have 25 minutes to fill up 2 pages
You know you’ll use the 5-paragraph format
You know the first sentence is your thesis
You know you can make up examples
You know spelling and grammar don’t count for much
SO DON’T PLAN, JUST WRITE
The SAT is nothing like a real essay; this has implications for the overall SAT prep approach:
Write in a way that mimics other top-scoring SAT essays
Look at the scores that others got on their essays