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This post shall (hopefully) mark the end of what has been a rather long and much protracted sub-series on the SAT. There are, of course, several reasons behind the delays, which I won’t go into in this post. Instead, the post will revolve around the stuff that a SAT prep book won’t tell you about the SAT.
The Essay
As any good book will tell you, the first section on the SAT is always a writing section. To be more specific, it’s a 25-minute 2-page essay. This is the only part of the SAT, apart from the personal details, which requires you to provide anything in your own handwriting. Which has it’s own pros and cons. The fact that this is the sole part of the SAT that requires you to be creative is an advantage, whereas the subjectivity of its evaluation is a cause for concern. Your handwriting matters too, even though CollegeBoard claims that its irrelevant. I’m sorry, but if you are capable of nothing more than a barely legible scrawl (such as yours truly), then your essay reader is going to be spending more of the 2 minutes he/she gets to evaluate your essay deciphering your handwriting than actually understanding your essay. Yes, they get just 2 minutes.
Your essay is read by 2 separate readers, who score it out of 6 points. These scores add up to give you an essay score, which when combined with the raw scores from your other writing sections, gives you a writing score out of 800 points. In case the scores given by the 2 readers differ wildly, a third reader may be added to the mix.
Now, the fact that this supposedly subjective section of the SAT also has such strict guidelines associated with it should give you an idea that this isn’t your regular essay. And you’d be right, because starting off with quotes, waxing eloquently with complex sentence structures et al aren’t really going to ensure a 12-on-12 in the essay. This is because the time constraint combined with handwriting (which is scanned electronically and then transmitted to the readers for their perusal).
So, as shocking as it may sound, there something of a formula you can follow for your SAT Essay. You don’t need to follow this in case you’ve already given SATs and scored well on your essay. Because that means you’re doing fine. This is aimed more at people who don’t know what to expect. If you’ve given practice SATs, you’ll have realized by now that most of the topics deal with ethics, morals and other such general topics. Now the first thing you should do when you see the topic, is to quickly form an opinion on the topic, and get together about 3 examples related to the topic. The examples don’t necessarily have to be from the same source – for example, I usually like to take one each from history, media and personal experiences, as and when this is possible. Next, you should be able to expand a bit on each of these examples – about 4-5 sentences each. Facts do not have to be 100% accurate, but take care to avoid absurdities.
I read on SparkNotes that the SAT essay is like a triple-patty burger. The top bun is your introduction – where you briefly state your thesis i.e. your opinion on the topic given. Then briefly state each of the examples you use to support your stance on the subject. This should take about 4-5 sentences.
Next, move on to your first and, usually, strongest example. Elaborate on it with good command over grammar and composition, demonstrating both knowledge of the subject, as well as superlative language skills. Again, each of these examples should take about 4-5 sentences. Then, use suitable transitional phrases to begin the next paragraph detailing your next example. Rinse. Repeat.
Your final paragraph (a.k.a the bottom bun) should be more of a review of everything you’ve said so far, along with a looking-towards-the-future ending of about 2 sentences. That should pretty much wrap up the whole thing.
Bear in mind that you only have about 25 minutes for this entire business, so be sure not to waste much time. The balance between planning and spontaneity is an important one, mainly because you will never have time to plan out the whole essay, and at the same time, being completely spontaneous will not result in a very high-quality essay. So time management is very much your friend in this section.
Sentence Completion, Sentence Improvement and Paragraph Improvement
These 3 question types comprise the remainder of the writing sections you’ll encounter. In all honesty, if you enjoy reading a fair bit, and also writing, all of this should be a cakewalk. The questions are mainly based on common grammatical concepts such as subject-verb agreement, tenses and such, but nevertheless, the test-takers are supposed to keep their eyes peeled, because the arrangement of sentences are such that the immediate co-relation between different parts are not always evident at first sight.
Sentence completion is about filling in blanks from the choices given to you. Sentence improvement is about suggesting replacements (or otherwise) to the underlines segment of a sentence. Paragraph improvement can range from anything like changing sentence ordering to deleting or inserting new ones.
Again, I’d advise practice sessions before you begin preparation. Hopefully, you won’t have much to prepare really, but even if you do, fret not. As much as these sections may be about preparation, they’re about the omnipresent speed v/s accuracy battle too.
A couple of practice sessions later, you should be able to identify the concepts you’re really good at and those ones where you tend to make mistakes of a repetitive nature. Aided with this additional knowledge, you should be able to pick up your trust guide book and brush up on the necessary topics before attacking a few more practice sessions. Believe me, practice is your only friend here, as always with the SAT.
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