You are right. Using phrase like “I believe” and “I think” are perfectly acceptable and should be used in writing the SAT essay. In fact, I always tell students to clearly state a position in the first sentence of the essay by saying something like:

I believe that …
I disagree with the statement … because I think …

I hope this helps settle the argument. Good luck.

Karl

Oh and thank you for the advice, Karl. I’ll try to implement them in these coming last few days. I understood the explanation perfectly.

I don’t think the essay requires too much practice.

First, review all written and video posts in the “essay” category. Second, read the last part of my response to Maha above. Third, remember that the readers do not check facts. This means that you can make up examples that support your position in a given essay.

You can make up authors, books, situations, etc. Just don’t get too outlandish. Outlandish examples are less persuasive than more realistic examples. That being said, you should not hesitate to be creative.

I hope this advice helps.

Best Regards,

How many 25 minutes SAT essay questions do you think are adequate to tackle the SAT essay? because as I practiced, I found there were questions easier to answer than others, so the confidence is not constant. That is, sometime I felt confident because I tackled the practice question with ease under 25 minutes, or I felt completely devastated because I happened to have a shortage of ideas on that particular practice question I was working on, and couldn’t finish it on time.

Any help?

thx

A five paragraph essay simply means adding another example that supports your position. If you can add another good example without getting into time trouble, do it. If adding the fifth paragraph is likely to lower the quality of the other four paragraphs, stick with four good ones.

While you lose a quarter point for each wrong answer, your final raw score in a give subject area is always rounded to the nearest integer. Thus:
a raw score of 40, will stay a 40;
a raw score of 39.75, will round up to 40; and
a raw score of 39.5. will also round up to 40.

So . . . assuming you can answer 40 correctly, you might as well take guesses on 2 you can’t get. In other words, the two guesses cannot lower your raw score and may result in a final raw score of 41 or 42. (My advice obviously works best if you have a good sense for when you have the answer and when you’re not sure.) I hope this concept makes sense to you now. If it doesn’t, let me know and I will try to explain it more clearly.

As far as motivation goes, keep pushing yourself and reminding yourself that it’s the little things you do every day that make a big difference in the end. That being said, make sure you take the time to relax and have fun when it is appropriate.

Keep up the good work.

Karl

Thank you for the advice! I’ll try to keep them in mind as I work through the last week before my first dreaded SAT rolls around!

I just have one or two more questions left. I hope I’m not being too much of a nuisance!

- I didn’t understand the part where you said “Second, you should allow yourself two guesses because two bad guesses (assuming all other answers are correct) will not lower your final, “rounded” raw score.)” Did you mean this for the SPR questions or the multiple choice Math questions? What do you mean by two bad guesses?

- Do you have any type of motivation tips that can help me gear up to study? I’ve been studying for my first SAT for quite a long time; now I’m just too tired, lazy, and just plain sick of studying – that’s not good, especially one week before the test! What usually gets you motivated to perform your daily tasks? I have a bunch of practice tests, quizzes, and problems to do before my SAT, so I really need to get moving!

- One last thing: I’ve been reading SAT info a lot lately and I’ve heard that it’s better to write an essay that is in standard format – five paragraphs; an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I’ve also gotten the same advice from an english teacher. Should I keep writing in a four-paragraph format or move up to five paragraphs? I only chose to write in four paragraphs because I know it’s managable for me, especially in 25 minutes. Now I’m not so sure. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Thank you for taking the time to answer all of my SAT-based questions. Your blog is awesome; keep up the good work!

Blanks do count against you in the sense that each time you skip a question, you lose the opportunity to add a point to your raw score. On the other hand, a skip is better than an incorrect answer because, unlike a skip, an incorrect answer will generally lower your raw score by a quarter of a point.

Statistically speaking, if on a given problem you cannot find the correct answer but you can eliminate one or more answers that you know do not work, it is to your advantage to guess.

That being said, I (personally) have a different approach when it comes to the math section. I believe that if you can find the single correct answer, you should obviously pick it. If, on the other hand, you fail to find the single correct answer, you should generally leave it blank. (I say “generally” because there are exceptions. First, you should always answer all of the free-response questions because there are no penalties for incorrect answers in that section. Second, you should allow yourself two guesses because two bad guesses (assuming all other answers are correct) will not lower your final, “rounded” raw score.)

When it comes to critical reading and writing, it is usually easy to identify and eliminate one, two or three answer choices that definitely do not work. Thus, my rule for CR and writing is as follows: If you can eliminate one or more wrong answers, you might as well take a guess.

When it comes to the essay, it seems like you are wasting too much time on structure and transitional phrases.

I always start the essay with a clear statement of my position. (“I agree/disagree with the statement . . . “) I then tweak, refine, or more generally restate the topic in the second sentence. The third and final sentence of my first paragraph always reads something like, “My belief on this topic is grounded in examples from [personal experience] and [literature or history].

My second paragraph simply presents my first example – a personal experience. (“When I was in middle school, my father . . . ” or “My cousin Sarah used to . . . “)

My third paragraph, which by the way is well indented like the others, always reads something like, “Another illustration of [restate position] comes from [literature or history]. I then present my second example.

Before writing my conclusion I always re-read my introduction. (If you are not concluding what you introduced, you have in a sense failed to stay on topic.) The intro and conclusion should be like bookends. I always begin the final paragraph with, “In conclusion, [I then restate my general position on the topic].” In the next sentence or two, I always recap, or summarize, the examples. I then restate my position, in general terms, on last time.

I hope this helps, Maha.

Good luck. Send me an update when you get a chance.

Karl