How to Improve an SAT Essay
The SAT essay test is always the first section of the SAT. The essay is scored by two readers, who give a score in a range of 1 to 6. A composite of both scores is the overall score of the essay, which accounts for about one-third of the test-taker's writing score. Lots of preparation is needed before taking the test to maximize your essay score, but with time and practice, writing the SAT essay will become easy and routine.
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Instructions
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Understand the types of SAT essay prompts administered. As not to favor anyone with knowledge on a specific subject, the College Board will provide essay prompts that are broad enough for everyone to answer. The topics are generally worldly and universal, such as climate change, honesty, and other simple ethical issues.
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Decide on a novel, a historical event and a personal experience that you are comfortable writing about. Using a novel, historical event, and personal experience will show sophistication in your writing. The novel, historical event and personal experience should be able to answer any SAT essay prompt adequately, as the prompts are incredibly broad.
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Write at least five paragraphs for your essay: a paragraph for the introduction, a paragraph each for the novel, the historical event and the personal experience and one paragraph for the conclusion. If you can't finish five paragraphs, then prioritize the novel and historical event over the personal experience. The longer your essay is, the higher your score will most likely be. Do not, however, write filler sentences that do not contribute to your essay just to increase the length of your paper.
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Proofread your essay when you finish writing it. Check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Grammar mistakes are especially important, as they reflect on your writing abilities.
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Tips & Warnings
Practice makes perfect. The more essays you write, the better you will do when it comes time to take the real test. The SAT essay is easy to master because of how formulaic it is graded. All good essays will show a degree in sophistication in writing, be in considerable length and will show strong sentence structure.
Write legibly. Many students rush through the essay with sloppy handwriting or inherently have bad handwriting. The readers will attempt to read your essays, but it will put them in a horrible mood when it comes time to grade your essay, and they may make mistakes as they read that may affect the score of your essay.
References
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