This guide contains a host of great SAT essay tips. Do not forget that test-takers are given less than 30 minutes to read and respond to the provided text. A frequent mistake that students make is giving their personal viewpoint on the essay topic. Another thing to remember is that an examinations board will be evaluating how well you are able to get your thoughts across on paper.
Although it hardly needs pointing out in these SAT essay tips, this test requires students to write an academic-style essay. Consequently, this means building an essay with a clearly defined structure and a well-chosen and evolved body of evidence, and to show you have the skills to think critically and present your thinking in a skillful manner. These traits are deemed beneficial in the SAT since they are skills that should prove relevant at a later time i.e. at university or college.
To achieve a good SAT essay score, your task is to showcase your well-developed analytical abilities by preparing a detailed analysis of a given speech or argument. You need to provide very strong evidence in your analysis of an author’s arguments and how he or she builds these. The SAT essay prompts below should help get you started.
- How does Peter S Goodman develop the persuasive argument that news providers need to include more coverage of foreign news to US audiences.
- Which is the most important – adaptability or persistence? • Should consumers only buy from people or companies that benefit them?
- Thinking about Puritanism, what role would you say it played in developing social-religious awareness in 17th century England?
- In relation to philosophy, discuss the dialects of unconscious and conscious.
- Is group or team participation useful to people? Is a person prevented from directing their own viewpoint when they belong to a team or group?
- Is society too vitally important to feel or be comfortable?
- What are Montesquieu’s views on law regulation?
- How mentally disabled children think.
- The principle behind the term “partnership.”
- Analyze the terms “manager” and leader.”
- How would you encourage a child to want to and be capable of studying?
- How did Adam B Summers build a persuasive argument against banning plastic shopping bags?
- The features children use in oral communication.
- What role did monasteries play in developing Russian culture?
- In pedagogical practice, what categories and laws apply to dialectics?
- The social phenomenon of education. The role of how one is brought up.
- Is it necessary for a person to adapt their attitude to a situation if the situation cannot itself be changed?
- Communication forms other than verbal.
- Is it possible to correct a child’s fears?
- The role of communication in existential psychology.
- The forms and mechanisms used to protect people psychologically.
- How communication influences the personalities of students and their ability to adapt socially.
- Mechanisms for cultivating character. • Higher mental functions in humans and their localization.
- What Z Freud considered the main elements of psychoanalysis?
- How Karen Horney described neurotic personality in her works.
- The tasks and object of the science of pedagogy.
- In the field of personality development, describe the role and possible consequences of psychological and social problems.
- The content and structure of our nature as humans.
- What causes acquired and congenital aggression?
- Intercultural marriage and the difficulties involved in these.
Our next piece of SAT essay advice concerns analyzing the topic and developing the structure of your essay, which is as follows: an introductory section where you set out your stance regarding the topic or question. Follow this with three sound arguments to support your stance. You then need to write your essay’s conclusion. This is how your essay plan should appear – develop your arguments and organize them in a way that best reflects your train of thought. You should find this format useful for any type of SAT essay.
Top Tips on How to Deal with the Prompts for a SAT Essay
How successful your SAT essay is depends on how well you prepare and execute the task. Consider these points when devising a strategy for writing a SAT essay:
- Understand How SAT Essays are Scored
The way SAT essays are scored differs from the way the answers to multiple-choice questions are scored in that the SAT is given three separate scores instead of simply being scored as right or wrong.
SAT essays are read and scored separately by two grader who will score each of the three test sections (reading, writing and analysis) on a scale of 1 – 4. Then, the scores of both readers are combined. The score report has three scores. For instance, a combined score could possibly be 6 for reading, 6 for writing, and 7 for analysis.
The score for reading reflects your understanding of the passage provided. The score for writing reflects how cohesive your essay is and how good a command of the English language it shows. Lastly, the score for analysis reflects the skill you displayed in analyzing the methods of persuasion used by the author.
- Study Samples of Passages and Essay Prompts
To be able to write a perfect SAT essay and get a good score in every area, it is worth looking at some examples of previous SAT papers, some new SAT essay prompts, and some responses. When looking through these, think about how the respondent used reasoning, evidence, persuasion, and/or stylistic elements.
This should help you develop strategies of your own to get you through the essay part of your SAT test when the time comes.
- Get Pointers from Reputable Media (Writing and Editing) Outlets
So, what is a good SAT essay score and how do you achieve this? Reading articles and op-eds from respected media organizations is another useful way of building your reading and analytical skills. Applying the skills you need for SAT tests as frequently as you can in daily life should leave you better prepared in an exam or test situation.
- Use Practice Essays
In a similar way to the multiple-choice part of a SAT, practice and examining examples of SAT essay prompts can help you with the test’s essay section.
With some sample essay prompts at the ready, put up to an hour a week aside to read them in the same way you would in a test setting. After writing your response(s), compare these to the responses in the samples at various scoring points to identify potential weaknesses in the three areas of analysis, reading and writing. Think about asking a parent, teacher or friend to give you unbiased feedback. Or there are tools available that allow you to submit and get feedback on draft essays based on practice topics and prompts.
- Read the Passage Provided Very Thoroughly on Test Day
On the day of a SAT test itself, anxiety and nerves can take over. Students can feel forced to hurry and/or guess at responses. It may be that you feel as if you should begin writing straightaway. However, make sure you fully understand the passage’s argument before you start. You could complete the response to your essay and then find you totally misunderstood the author’s words when you read back over your work. So, keep the SAT essay grading requirements in mind, allow yourself sufficient time for writing but remember it is also very important to read everything very carefully.
- Begin with an Essay Outline
When you have read carefully through the passage you were provided with and the prompt, make time to create a rough essay outline.
The process of creating a map for your introduction, main body, and concluding sections while you still remember everything is a way of ensuring you do not end with gaps in your argument. Outlines are also a great way of planning what you will write because they give you clear direction, especially as you transition from point to point.
- Start, Develop, and Finish on a Strong Note
As would happen in the case of any essay you might write for a high-school class, your SAT essay should be developed in a connected and structured manner. Create a robust thesis statement that links to the essay prompt in the introductory section and ensure that every point in the main body links back to it and supports it. The conclusion of your essay should be more than a mere summary. For instance, is there any way that the text you have written could be placed in a wider context or could you offer any impressive insight according to the analysis you have done.
- Allow Yourself Time to Edit
Although it is sometimes impossible, try to allow time for an end-of-test review. This can identify any errors in information or allow you to further develop some point(s). Do your best to be as critical as you can of your work and think of every available minute as a chance to represent your thinking and writing in the best way possible.
A SAT essay is a chance to show off your writing and analytical skills. Like every part of this test, the key to doing well is to be properly prepared. While 50 minutes might not feel long to build a carefully worded response, you will be able to showcase your capabilities if you are calm and have practiced your approach.