Every kid has nightmares about facing the SAT exams, one of the hurdles to their progress to a good college. Enough cannot be said about the importance of these tests, so it is imperative that preparation is thorough, because only with intensive study and planned strategy can you ace the SATs. Most students find it hard to score high marks on the verbal and writing portions; although mathematics is difficult, it can be aced if you study diligently. With the essay, sentence completion and other parts of the verbal and writing tests, you never know how you’re going to be judged, so the best you can do is prepare as well as you can by:

• Starting young: The SATs may come into your life only when you graduate from high school, but that’s no reason to wait till your senior year to prepare for them. In fact, the groundwork for the SATs has to begin when you’re old enough to understand how important these exams are in your life. If you practice improving your vocabulary and reading as a daily habit right from the time you can read, you’re going to have an edge over the competition when you take the SATs.

• Reading the right kind of books: It’s not enough that you read; what’s more important is that you read the right kind of books. There are some authors who improve your English and vocabulary and entertain as well, so make sure you include their books as part of your education. While your interest may lie with popular best sellers, you must make an effort to get through and enjoy books that are known to have words that are commonly found in SAT vocabulary questions, like Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson, Vladimir Nabokov and K.W. Jeter.

• Improving your handwriting: You’re going to have to write the essay using pen and paper, without the help of a word processor. So work on writing a few pages everyday so that your handwriting is neat and presentable even when you’re writing at top speed. You also need to be able to write a complete essay without your fingers cramping or your writing going awry.

• Improving your presentation: You need to work on your presentation skills and learn how to use intelligent quotations in your essay, understand how to split it into paragraphs, and most important of all, know how to organize your thoughts and put them down in a cohesive format, one that flows from beginning to end and makes sense.

Remember, acing the SATs is a task that’s all in the mind. If you train yourself to think positively, you’re definitely going to be able to do well.

By-line:

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of engineering degree online at her blog The Engineering A Better World Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.

Here is a simple rule that might get you out of a confusing situation on the SAT:

When it’s the object of a preposition, choose “me.” Examples follow:

above me
below me
for me
from me
to me
at me
between you and me
among Jessica, Tim, and me
over Carlos and me
under Sandy and me

If you keep this in mind, you will surely score higher on the SAT and become a better writer. Good luck!

Use “between” when there are two actors and “among” whenever there are more than two. Examples follow:

Let’s keep this a secret between me and you.

Let’s keep this a secret among the three of us.

If you learn this lesson well, you will improve your writing and score higher on the SAT. Good luck!

Writing is important (my English teacher says so, and it is, after all, now part of the SAT), BUT

many colleges are not considering the SAT essay in the admissions process.

The very end of the article suggests that, despite the mixed messages, preparing for the SAT can be a positive experience, generally, and that preparing for the writing section, specifically, can help students improve their writing. I agree 100%. In fact, my own writing skills have improved since I began tutoring students for the “new” writing section a few years ago. (I admit my writing is not perfect, but it probably never will be!)

On a somewhat related point, I find it interesting that within the American school system, writing instructors stress clarity and brevity, yet most of what students are forced to read in their English classes is convoluted and difficult to understand. Talk about mixed messages.

1. Respect the word/character limits for the written responses. We have a lot to read and while we’re truly interested in your ideas, please stick to the prescribed space.

2. Be yourself. Don’t try to write what you think we want to read. The essay is our way of seeing your personality; we’re interested in who you actually are, as opposed to who you think we want you to be.

3. And in this same vein, write about what’s important to you. Any topic you can think up – well, we’ve probably read an essay about it. But having said that, please don’t write about your sex life. We’ve seen those essays from time to time, and in fact, they do stand out, but just don’t do this, OK?

4. Get to the point. This relates to #1, above. Right from the first sentence, you need to let us know what this essay is about. A subset of this concept relates to our Colby Supplemental essay, in which we ask you to choose one of five quotations and write about it with respect to yourself. At the end of the essay, it should be very clear to us which of those quotations you selected.

5. Put some effort into your “Why Colby” response. The most obvious point, and we make it over and over again in our presentations, is not to mention Bates or the Green Mountains of Vermont, etc. This would not exclude you from contention, but it’s not going to impress us either. Beyond that, do a little research and make sure you are specific to Colby. Mention your tour guide, or the visit to the Art Museum, or a specific course or two from the catalog, or something you read in inside Colby. Your reasons are important to us.

6. The more information you provide in the Optional section, the better. This is in fact optional information and we certainly do not hold it against you if you choose not to complete it. But the fact is: the more we know about you, the better decision we’ll be able to make. And the social security number is often used to match your SAT and/or ACT results with your application.

7. If you have something to explain, explain it. If you had a bad second semester in your sophomore year, tell us why. If you couldn’t take Physics because it wouldn’t fit in your schedule, let us know. If you had to change schools three times, let us know the story. If a tragedy has befallen your family, it might be helpful for us to take that into consideration, and you don’t need to make it an appeal for sympathy.

8. Presentation is important. Please please please preview your application before you hit the Submit button. I read an essay yesterday in which words were clumped together without spaces. Sometimes the paragraph breaks don’t make sense. You can see this before you submit, so you can take corrective action. Also, don’t rely entirely on Spell Check: homonyms can be your undoing. And don’t swear. We’re not prudes, but all the same you should use appropriate language. It’s part of being a grown up.

To read the article in full, click on the Link below.

Link

www.colby.edu

Link:
College Board

To avoid a dreaded zero, be sure to avoid three specific mistakes when writing your SATessay. In this video, I discuss the three ways to secure a zero.

Oh yeah, in this video I also discuss the characteristics of essays that received the “perfect” score of six.

The SAT Essay: What Not To Do (Unless You *Want* a Zero) (Transcript)

I want to talk a minute about Essay Scoring. There are 3 different ways to earn a score of zero. You can get a zero if you fail to write an essay. If you just leave those 2 pages blank – you don’t write the essay – you will get a zero. That kind of makes sense, don’t you think? Another way to get a zero is if you write so illegibly that the reader cannot read your handwriting. You could also get a zero for that. A third way to get a zero is if you write on a topic other than the one assigned. So if you have this pre-canned essay that you think you are going to write and wow the reader with, but it has nothing to do with the topic assigned, you will get a zero for that.

The next thing I want to do is talk about the Score of Six. Two people are going to grade your essay. They will each score you from zero to six. You are going to get a zero, one, two, three, four, five or six from each of the two graders. Six is the highest score you can get from any one grader.

But what does a six mean? A six does not mean that you have written a perfect essay. You are not being judged as if what you wrote is an essay, You are being judged as if what you wrote is the first draft of an essay. So a six is actually a perfect first draft of an essay.

Why am I saying this? I am saying this because I think there are some kids out there who think that in order to get a six you need to write a perfect essay. You don’t have to write a perfect essay, you can make some mistakes; everybody will have some mistakes and things that they can improve upon in a first draft.

Don’t put pressure on yourself to get everything perfect. You can make a few minor mistakes and still get a six, because again, you are being graded as if what you’ve written is a first draft. So a six is a perfect first draft, keep that in mind and I think you can find a way to cruise through the essay and get the high score that you want.

SAT Essay Rubric – Grammar and Word Usage (Transcript)

This is the last of five videos in which I discuss the essay gracing rubric. In the first 4 videos I discussed Development of Position, Organization, Use of Language and Sentence Structure. In this video I’d like to discuss Grammar and Word Usage.

Let me give you an example of poor grammar; If a person wants to become a tennis player, they should practice everyday. There is a grammatical error here; If a person – person is singular – If a person wants to become a better tennis player – they – they is a plural pronoun and a person cant be its proper noun antecedent. There is an inconsistency in number. A person is singular, and they is plural. The sentence should read; If a person wants to become a tennis player, he or she should practice everyday. That’s an example of a grammatical error.

Word Usage. When I hear Word Usage, I think of idioms. If you said in a sentence; Somebody was preoccupied in something, there is a word usage error. You’re not preoccupied in something; you can be preoccupied with something. So the word in is not right, with is the proper word. Somebody can be preoccupied with something. You want to watch out for Word Usage error.

Also in this category is Punctuation. When do you use a comma? When do you use a semicolon? When do you use a colon? My advice is this; if you feel like you’re not great at grammar, you’re not on top of your game when it comes to word usage or punctuation I think you should you work really hard on preparing yourself with the writing section of the SAT the multiple choice portion. If you go through those multiple choice exams, you launch yourself into review and you get some expert help and you learn the rules that are tested in the multiple choice section, this will teach you everything you need to know with regard to Word Usage, Grammar and Punctuation to nail the essay and score high in this category.

So again, if you feel that your grammar skills are not where they should be, word usage is something that confuses you and punctuation is something that you never got right, spend some time working on the multiple section of the writing test and you will get there eventually.

SAT Essay Rubric – Use of Language (Transcript)
This is the 3rd of five videos in which I discuss the essay grading rubric. In the 1st video I discuss the category Development of Position, in the second video I discuss the category Organization and in this video I’d like to discuss the category Use of Language.

Use of Language is vocabulary. I sometimes ask kids “What do you think is easier to notice a good bus driver or a bad bus driver?” After a minute, most kids come up with the right answer and it’s a bad bus driver. A bad bus driver is pretty easy to notice. Why? Because the bus gets jerked around, it’s an uncomfortable ride, and you might be thinking “What’s going on here? Am I in danger?” You definitely notice a bad bus driver. A good bus driver is not so easy to notice. Why? Because you get on the bus and it’s a smooth ride and you can forget that you’re on a bus. You can fall asleep, you can read a book, you can have a conversation, you can daydream. You can completely forget that you’re on a bus. So good bus drivers are not really noticed but bad bus driver are very easy to notice.

How does this apply to the essay and Use of Language? I’m going to tell you right now. If for example you are writing an essay and you want to use the word ecstatic because you think it’s the perfect word and you want to use it in your essay, but you say to yourself “ I’m not sure if I know how to spell ecstatic.” My suggestion is this – don’t take the chance. If you try to spell ecstatic and you get it wrong, you’re going to be like a bad bus driver – you’re going to be noticed. Your misspelling is going to jump off the page at the reader and you’re going to be noticed for something bad. If you don’t take the chance and you write the phrase very happy instead, that will probably go unnoticed by the reader. So rather than flag yourself for something bad, you’re better off playing it safe and saying very happy in the example I just gave.

The other thing is this. Don’t force vocabulary. If you have a sophisticated word that you want to use in the essay because you want to show off how smart you are, but you’re not 100% sure what the word means and your not 100% sure that the word actually works where you want to use it, you’re better off not taking the chance. You don’t want to come across as somebody who’s just trying to force these sophisticated and fancy vocabulary words into the essay almost gratuitously. They weren’t asked for, they are not appropriate and if you’re just kind of forcing them in, you are definitely going to be noticed if you don’t get it right – if you force the issue.

So when it comes to Use of Language, its all about vocabulary. And again my advice is this; if you’re unsure, don’t take the chance. If you’re not sure how to spell a word, use the less sophisticated version that you know how to spell properly. If you’re not sure what a fancy word is don’t take the chance. Put in the word that (1) you know works and that (2) you know how to spell. If you keep these 2 things in mind you will score very high in Use of Language.

SAT Essay Rubric – Organization (Transcript)

This is the 2nd of 5 videos in which I discuss the essay grading rubric. In the first video I discuss the category Development of Position. In this video I’d like to discuss the category Organization. To me, Organization means a few things, but it first means that you need to write in paragraph form. When the reader picks up your essay and first glances at it, they should see paragraphs. That is the first indication that you’re organized. You want to indent clearly and write in paragraph form.

Now lets talk about the different paragraphs you should have. The first one you should have should be your introduction. In your introduction the fist thing you want to do is to make a clear Statement of your Position, you want to say something like I believe that hard work can be disastrous . Period. Keep it simple. Clear Statement of Position. After that clear Statement of Position you may want give your reason or reasons for holding that position, you may want to tweak the topic a bit or you may to begin to introduce your examples. So that’s what the introduction contains.

The second paragraph is going to be your first body paragraph. This contains your first example. And what I would do is launch right into the example – My uncle worked so hard that he neglected his family and even though he achieved financial success he was miserable and had a disastrous life because his wife left him and his kids wanted nothing to do with him . You want to give an example of somebody who lived through something, who had an experience that bears out your position . That’s what an example is. So your second paragraph, which is your first body paragraph, should contain your first example and again, an example needs to support your position, it needs to be consistent with your reasoning and it needs to be an example – not just more reasoning, not just opinion and not just a hypothetical situation you’re making up. It’s got to come from your personal experiences, from literature , your studies, your observations, from history, wherever, but it must be an illustration of somebody living though something that bears out your position. So that’s what you want to do in your second paragraph.

When you get to the 3rd paragraph you want to add your second example. And the way I usually I begin the 3rd paragraph is by saying another illustration of and then restate your position .if you do that it’s going to remind you to stay on topic and its going to remind the reader that you’re staying on topic. So when you being your 3rd paragraph – which is your 2nd example – you may want to start with something like: Another illustration of why I believe that hard work can be disastrous comes from my readings .” And then you can launch into a discussion of a book that you’ve read that supports your position.

The last paragraph – the 4th one – should be your conclusion and there is nothing wrong with starting that paragraph by saying In conclusion , hard work can be disastrous. You can then recap or summarize your examples or you can summarize your reasonings and you’re done. It’s that simple. If you stay organized you’ll be on your way to scoring a very high essay grade.