SAT Test Prep For The SAT Essay

Preparing for the SAT Essay can be confusing. What do the graders want to see in an essay? Who are they? How can I impress them? And how can I write well enough to get a high score? All these questions and more are answered in this hub. If you need other questions answered please leave me a comment in the guest book or become a fan of mine and send me a message and I'll answer you as soon as I can.

Below are six steps to getting a high schore on the SAT Essay.

1. Read the prompt carefully

To get a high score on the sat essay you absolutely must read the prompt very carefully. I always have my students circle key words and phrases to make sure they really know what the are writing about before putting pen to paper.

2. Decide on a thesis

You only have two choices for your thesis. You either agree with the topic in the prompt or disagree. It is not acceptable to say that it is sometimes true and sometimes not on the sat essay. Of course in real life, nothing is absolute. And if its difficult for you to make a statement like "To achiveve anything worthwile you must work hard" you can soften the statement by saying "To achive MOST things that are worthwhile you must work hard."

3. Brainstorm 5-6 examples to support the thesis

It's extremely important that you brainstorm your examples before you begin writing your essay. Some students just start writing after they think about the prompt. This can be a mistake as you may choose examples that you later regret writing about and you won't have time to revise or God forbid erase! So brainstorm several examples--more than you will actually use, then choose the ones that work best.

4. Create a short introduction that incorporates the thesis

Don't go overboard with your introduction. Remember you only have 25 minutes. What you want to do is write a couple of sentences to introduce your topic and then state your thesis. You don't need to summarize your examples or do anything more than that. If you have a good idea for an analogy or metaphor that supports your thesis you can throwit in here there is another part of your essay that you may want to save it for which I'll explain in #6 below.

5. Write 3-4 body paragraphs

Now that you've written your introduction you need to start writing the paragraphs of your sat essay. Each paragraph should be broken up into 4 parts. First, write a topic sentence that tells what you are going to prove in your essay. For second sentence give necessary background information to make your point. Third, give the logic that proves your point. Fourth restate the point of the paragraph.

Below is an example of what this looks like:

Atticus Finch's actions in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee show that to truly know a person's convictions we must observe his or her actions. Atticus, a small-town lawyer in a racist, white, southern town was charged with defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Before he took this task Atticus spoke like a person who believed in fairness and equality. After taking on this task, despite ridicule from the people in his town, it was obvious he believed in the ideals of which he spoke.

6. Write a conclusion that ideally uses an analogy or metaphor to back up your thesis

Finally write your conclusion. If you've thought of an analogy, or metaphor this is the time to use it. If not it's perfectly ok to merely summarize your main points and restate your thesis. The good thing is that at this point you can afford to take a moment to ponder a really good idea before writing it down.

On test day you need to have good ideas read so you can write a great essay in under 25 minutes. So to help you put pen to paper fast use any one of these 8 methods for creating a compelling introduction quickly.

1. Understand the prompt first

Before you write one word, you must know exactly what you need to be writing about. The biggest mistake you can make is to start writing before you've fully thought through the prompt. I've seen many students write an essay that hardly relates to the prompt because they were so eager to get started that they missed an important point in the prompt. Don't be one of them.

2. Use an analogy or metaphor

Analogies are creative. And good analogies can impress graders because they like to reward good thinking. Here's an analogy a one student created to answer the prompt "Does it always take hard work to make progress?" "To climb a mountain a person must struggle and strain. And this is the case with any worthwhile goal..."

3. Tell a brief anecdote

Create an engaging introducty by telling a brief anecdote in just a few sentences like in the example below: When I trained for my first marathon it was difficult and often painful. But I wanted to have the accomplishment of running 26.2 miles so I did it anyway. To make progress in life requires sacrifice.

4. Use a quote that was not used in the prompt

Tip O'Neil, former Speaker of the House of Representatives said that one key to his success in politics was the fact that he memorized great lines of poetry and famous quotes to use when he had to do impromptu speeches.

The same strategy can help you when you take the SAT. Memorize a few quotes that you really like and use them if they fit your topic on test day.

For example for the essay topic "Do mistakes lead to growth?" one of my students wrote:

Someone once asked Edison, "how can you feel good about your work, having failed nine-hundred and ninety-nine times to make a light bulb?" To this Edison replied, "I have not failed so many times, I have merely learned nine-hundred and ninety-nine ways not to make a light bulb." Why did Edison react this way? Because he knew that mistakes are always experiences that lead to learning and growth.

This was a great quote to begin his essay with and would definitely impress SAT Essay graders.

5. Mention a topic in the news

Most educated people are aware of most important stories in the news and it's good for you to be aware of important events when studying for the SATs. However, when you use a news story it's important to make sure that it's not something about Britney Spears or some entertainment related topic. Make sure it's about something more substantial like the atrocities in Darfour. And stay away from political issues like abortion as you can never be sure of the political views of the people grading your sat essay.

6. Make up an anecdote using very specific details

I had a student that loved to use this technique even though he wasn't very good at it... at first. Eventually he got good at making up stories that were so specific, that he even fooled me a few times and I knew he was trying to make things up. I personally don't recommend this strategy because it's not good preparation for college. Trust me, if you make something up in your Biology course your professor will know it.

7. Use a cliche in an inventive way

Professional writers, academics, journalists and pretty much anyone who knows anyone who judges writing says to avoid cliché's. However, I disagree because these same people use clichés to spice up their writing. But what they do is change the cliché so that it becomes more original.

One student used the following cliche to make a great introduction for the topic "Which is a better indicator of a person's true character, their actions or their words?"

"A picture tells a thousand words" is a saying that applies to the newspaper industry but which also applies to people. The picture created by a person's actions tells us a thousand words about him or her and goes much farther than words do in telling us about a person's true thoughts and feelings. Several examples from literature and history demonstrate this point.

Using this cliché that "a picture tells a thousand words" to prove the point of another cliché that "actions speak louder than words" is pretty original and added a lot of power to his essay.

8. When all else fails just do a quick summary of what you will cover in your essay

After reading the prompt, you should brainstorm several ideas you can use in your essay. Once you've done that you can include a list of the kinds of examples you will use.

For example, "Examples from history, literature and science will prove that people care far too much about what others think of them."

Most of all remember, you do not need to write an impressive introduction so badly that you sacrifice the rest of your essay. In fact I taught my students to write great body paragraphs first as these are just as important. Then when they could write them quickly I taught them how to write great introductions and powerful conclusions.