perfect saturday essay

SAT Essay Scores: How To Get A Perfect Score

Many students ask me about SAT essay scores and request an example of an SAT essay with a perfect score.

I will share my response below and explain why this SAT essay example fulfills all the scoring requirements. There are four simple tips you can apply when completing the essay portion of the SAT that will allow you to replicate a perfect score on the SAT essay, which we will cover below!

How Are SAT Essays Scored?

According to the College Board , SAT essays are scored using a specific process. Additionally, the College Board states that every official scorer is trained to ensure all students are held to the same exacting standards listed below.

• Every essay will be read and scored by two different scorers.
• The scores for each dimension from both scorers are added together
• You will receive three separate scores—one for each of the dimensions listed above—that range from 2 to 8 points
• The SAT Essay score will not be a composite score in which all of the scores are added together, nor are there percentiles

What Is A Perfect SAT Essay Score

Based on the criteria from above, a perfect score on the SAT essay would be three scores of 8 .

In other words, you will need to score a 4 from each scorer in each dimension.

Here’s what a perfect score on the SAT essay will look like:

SAT Essay Example Assignment & Answer

Now that we know how SAT essays are scored, let’s take a look at the example I promised to share with you earlier. Then we’ll discuss how you can earn a perfect score on your SAT essay.

Example SAT Essay Assignment:

“Is it wise to be suspicious of the motives or honesty of other people, even those who appear to be trustworthy? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.”

Example of a Perfect Scoring SAT Essay Answer:

The quagmire of whether to trust categorically or to bring skepticism into all interactions is one that has plagued mankind since inception. From one perspective, to trust is to engage in humanity; however, from another angle, humans are a self-promoting species who will advance themselves while thwarting the less shrewd, if allowed. In the end, the answer is clear and evident: as proven through examples in history, literature, and current events, it is obvious that it is always better to enter interactions with a sense of cynicism toward all others.

Historically, Abraham Lincoln was an exemplar proving that it is always best to be skeptical of the motives of others. When he called upon the know how of General William Tecumseh Sherman, he was not without his doubts as to the motives of the once-radical general.

( Filler…………..Filler……………Filler……………Doesn’t matter what you write here because the introduction and the first two sentences the second paragraph were so strong……..Filler…………Filler……….Filler )*

Hence, Lincoln was a superlative leader not only because of his political acumen, but because of his persistent doubt of the morals and morays of other people.

Even in current times, the collapse of the housing market is a supreme example outlining the necessity of doubting the motives of others. Loan officers in the late ’90s encouraged homeowners to purchase with 100% loan-to-value ration, and because homeowners were not skeptical of this proposition, they found themselves upside down owing more than their house was worth

( ………..Filler……………………… )*

The literature of Dostoevsky confirms what history and current events have suggested: it is always better to be skeptical of others as demonstrated by the character  Ivan Fyodorovich in The Brothers  Karamazov. Vanka never lets down his guard in dealing with others, and resultantly is the only truly successful and fulfilled character in the novel

The debate of whether to trust everyone until he or she errs, or to be guarded against the motives of others is not lost in history, literature, or current events. Each tells us that it is far better and even necessary to doubt the motives of our cohort

(*Note: when you read “Filler…” in the SAT essay example, I just mean to write pretty much anything that is on topic—it doesn’t matter.)

And… done. ..

4 Things You Need To Do For A Perfect SAT Essay Score

Were you able to identify any of the four characteristics that make the example assignment answer earn a perfect SAT essay score?

They might be more obvious than you think!

What Earns A Perfect SAT Essay Score?

In a nutshell…

• A lot of writing
• Very high-level examples
• Clean, easy to follow logic

That’s all it takes.

That wasn’t so difficult, right?

SAT Essay Scoring FAQ

What is the most important thing to do when writing an ACT and SAT essay? Is it development, mechanics, originality or something else?

In this order:

• You have to write legibly. If they can’t read it, you’re going to do very poorly.
• You have to abide by the standard conventions of English. If you do not use complete sentences, if you avoid punctuation, or if you abuse capitalization or paragraph rules, you will do very poorly.
• You must address the question. Immaculate writing that is off-topic will receive a very low score.
• Clearly identify your points.
• Develop your points
• Use strong varied language
• Use unique arguments
• Be original

How Can I Cheat on the SAT?

I am assuming your intentions are to explore the question as an intellectual experiment, and not to actually cheat on the SAT . With that in mind, the way most people are able to cheat on the SAT is mostly through one of the following methods:

• identity fraud
• access to the material early (either by accident or intentionally)
• communication during the test

I suggest reading my article, How Can I Cheat on the SAT? , for more insight on this controversial topic.

When should my student take the SAT?

Unfortunately, there is no one single answer to this question. It depends on many factors including where your student is starting out from, which school they hope to get into, and how much prep time they will need. I wrote a comprehensive guide on when to take the SAT which includes many helpful and actionable tips to help you formulate the perfect plan for SAT test prep and when the best time for your student is to take the SAT. Read When To Take The SAT: Ideal Timeline .

Can you get a good score on the SAT if you’re taking it for the first time and studied for only a month?

That depends on what your starting score is and on what you consider “good.” There are too many factors to be able to answer this with any sense of certainty.

What I can tell you is how to make sure you have the highest likelihood of the largest improvement in the time you have. The tips and test prep techniques I outline in this article will show you how to do just that.

Does “Test Optional” mean optional for me?

We are all familiar with the difference between “optional” (it makes no difference whether you do or don’t) and “ optional ” (technically you can choose this, but you probably shouldn’t).

Just because a school touts a “testing optional” policy does not mean that they want all their applicants to forgo tests. However, the answer to this question depends on some specifics that will vary among students.

Read this article to help you understand what “testing optional” really means for students like you .

Everything You Need To Know About The SAT and ACT Tests:

Boost Your SAT Score 100 Points Or More

Remember, the SAT essay score is only one portion of the SAT test.

(Not to mention the SAT essay is technically optional .)

Many of the Ivy League schools don’t require the essay portion of the test , although I do recommend that students still complete the essay .

While the tips we’ve just covered will help you earn higher marks on the essay, it’s even more important to study and prep for the main sections of the SAT.

Here’s why:

Getting accepted to a top-tier college or university is more competitive than ever—and along with GPA and extracurricular activities, your child’s SAT score is one of the most important factors for gaining acceptance to the Ivy Leagues or other elite schools.

It’s also the only factor that can be substantially improved in a short period of time.

At Powerful Prep, we have a proven test prep method that does just that.

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Thinking about tackling the SAT Essay? Here's what you need to know: you'll be asked to read a text (typically a speech or editorial of some sort) and discuss how the author effectively builds an argument. This might be a familiar task if you’ve done it in school, but if not, don’t worry. The format is straightforward, and with some practice, you can learn how to write a great SAT essay.

What is the SAT essay?

The SAT essay is optional and costs an additional fee of $17.00. Currently, only 25 colleges and universities require the SAT essay. You can find a searchable list of school requirements for the essay here . If there is any chance that you might apply to one of those schools, you should sign up for the essay. If you are not sure where you will apply, you should strongly consider signing up for the essay. Your essay score will appear on every score report you send to colleges, regardless of whether or not the school requires an essay. 

Here are 5 tips for writing a killer SAT essay, should you decide to add on that section:

1. Stay Objective

The thing to remember here is that ETS (the company that writes the test) is not asking you for your opinion on a topic or a text. So be sure to maintain formal style and an objective tone. Tip: Avoid “I” and “you.

2. Keep It Tidy

Handwriting is becoming a lost art. Unfortunately, this is one occasion where your skill with a pencil matters. Graders read tons of essays each day. If they cannot decipher your script, they will lower your score. Do yourself a favor and write legibly.

3. (Indented) Paragraphs Are Your Friend

Remember the basic essay structure you learned in school: introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a conclusion? The SAT essay graders love it! Your introduction should describe the text and paraphrase the argument being made, as well as introduce the specific elements of the passage and argument that you will discuss in the essay. Your conclusion should restate the goal of the passage/argument and sum up the points you made.

Read More: SAT Tips and Strategies

4. For Example…

Use your body paragraphs to back up your thesis statement by citing specific examples. Use short, relevant quotes from the text to support your points.

5. Don't Worry About the Exact Terms for Things

Blanking on terminology? When describing how the author builds his or her argument, “appeal to the emotions” is fine instead of specifically referencing “pathos.” And “comparison of two things” can be used instead of referring to a metaphor. If you do know the official terms, though, feel free to use them!

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SAT® Writing

How to get a perfect score on the sat® writing and language test.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

Imagine waking up at midnight to the blaring sound of your fire alarm beeping loudly. The siren is blasting through the house warning you to leave. You leap from your bed and start towards the door, but before you get there your foot slips on a stack of books sitting across from the bed, and you fall. It takes you a few seconds to regain your footing and get out of the room.

Lucky for you, in this hypothetical scenario, there was no fire. It was just a false alarm. If this happened, though, you would work towards a better knowledge of the layout of your room, in case there was actually a fire next time.

This hypothetical situation is a lot like studying for the SAT® Writing and Language test. The better you know the layout, the better you will do on the test. If you have a good grasp of the rules of grammar, punctuation, and rhetoric, you will be more successful than if you don’t understand the rules that govern written English.

This guide exists to prepare you for the treacherous terrain of the SAT® Writing and Language test and help answer the question of “How to get a perfect score on SAT® Writing and Language”? Keep reading to get an in-depth overview of the test and key components that you will need to master to score a perfect 800.

What do they Test?

The SAT® Language section is designed to test two areas of English Language skills. The first area is Usage and Mechanics , which tests grammar, syntax, punctuation, and proper use. The second area focuses on Writing Strategy , which tests expression, command of evidence, and editing.

If you can’t already tell – one section of the test is going to be easier to study for than the other. Usage and Mechanics is a set of rules that you can learn. Those rules are laid out in a later section, but they will take some amount of memorization and practice to familiarize yourself with how they work.

Writing Strategy will be a more difficult section to practice. It requires you to understand more abstract ideas like how the topic of a passage is best expressed through organization or structure. Understanding the distinctive features that make the organization effective, or the reasoning behind those features, is much more complicated than just memorizing a set of rules.

Even though Writing Strategy might push you further, there are still strategies that you can practice to ensure you maximize your point totals. Sometimes it doesn’t matter so much that you know the right answer on the test, as long as you can determine the wrong answers. We will keep that in mind as we talk about the structure of the test.

Test Structure

Knowing what is on the test is important, but you must also keep in mind the overall structure of the test. It, like the rest of the SAT®, is set with a specific time limit. That limit will determine how you answer questions and will color your approach to the questions.

The test has 44 multiple choice questions to be answered over the course of 35 minutes. There will be four passages with 11 questions each. The math works out to mean that you have about 47 seconds for each question, and that isn’t even budgeting for reading the passages! If you want a perfect score on the new SAT® Verbal, you will need to get the most out of your time.

There are four passages with 11 sections each. The passages come from four different topics:

• Careers passages: The passage will present information and a debate within a career field like business, education, or medicine.
• Social Science passages: These passages will focus on a topic or phenomena from a field within social sciences like sociology, history, or psychology.
• Science passages: These passages will focus on topics and research within scientific fields like biology, chemistry, or physics.
• Humanities passages: These passages will explore the works or a particular era, author/artist, or genre of work. It could cover prose, poetry, dance, music, or art.

The writing and language section will break down to be roughly 24 questions on the writing strategies, with the other 20 focused on the grammar and usage. The breakdown between the two means that the test is almost evenly distributed between the two.

You might find, during your studying, that you are struggling to understand how to answer a particular type of question. Understanding the differences between the writing strategy and usage and mechanics sections is key to identifying weaknesses for correction.

The test is relatively straightforward in its structure. If you get all of the points, your raw score will then be scaled down to a 10-40 scale. Let’s talk about why getting an 800 on the new verbal section is important.

The Value of 800

Earning an 800 may seem impossible, but don’t be fooled. You can earn an 800. Thousands of students have done it before, and thousands of students will score 800 on their verbal sections in the future. The goal is to help you become one of those students.

For many students getting an 800 seems “extra”, and you might be thinking, “I don’t know if I will need an 800”. Most students don’t have what it takes to get an 800 on the verbal section, and an 800 isn’t necessary to achieve their goals. The average SAT® score is 500, and most schools do not look for students who score 800 because those students don’t apply. As a result, many students don’t worry about scoring 800.

You are different. You aren’t looking to get into any school. You are here, reading this article, which means that you are seeking to become excellent . The reality is that an 800 isn’t just useful, but necessary.

Depending on your goals, there is a very real possibility that an 800 on the verbal portion of the SAT® is what you need to gain admission to the college of your choice.

For many of the top universities, a perfect SAT® score is competitive. Yale University, one of the top three in the world, is an excellent example of the competition that the SAT® creates.

At Yale the average SAT® Verbal score of admitted students is 760, the 25th percentile is 710, and the 75th percentile is 800.

What does this mean?

Most students at Yale score around 760 on the SAT®, but you don’t want to be an average applicant. An 800 will set you apart. It will place you in the top 25 percent of students that are applying to the school.

Scoring an 800 is not only possible, but for many students intending to attend a top ten school, it is necessary. The breakdown of scores at Yale is similar to other top ten schools. When you apply to these schools, an 800 on the SAT® can show that you are a cut above, and help make up for weaknesses in your application.

The Challenge of Perfection

To earn an 800, you must score a 44 raw score on the Writing and Language section. A 44 raw score means that you must get every single question right . Take a look at the chart for how the raw scores on the test translate to scaled scores:

Notice that if you miss a single question, you will drop to a 39 scaled score. The scoring system leaves no room for error.

Note: Let’s talk briefly about how the scaled to final score conversion works. You’ll notice that we included the reading raw -> scale conversion on the chart. That is because the SAT® Verbal score is made up of a combination of the Reading and Writing and Language sections. This is new to the SAT® system and just came into effect in March of 2016.

The two tests now combine to form an overall verbal score which is half of the overall 1600 you can earn on the SAT®. The two raw scores will convert to a 10-40 and then the scaled numbers are added for a possible 20-80 total. The 20-80 is then multiplied by 10 to give you the 200-800 you can receive on the Verbal Section.

Getting a perfect score on the writing and language section becomes more important now because unlike the old SAT® a lower score on Writing and Language can hurt your entire SAT® Verbal score.

The test is unforgiving. There is no place for a mistake. So, how can people get an 800 when there is no forgiveness on the test? An 800 is possible because each question has only one right answer.

The Right Answer

Every question has only one correct answer. Every question has three incorrect answers.

Any question that seems like it has two possible answers doesn’t, so don’t be tricked. Realizing that there is only one right answer to every question allows you to overcome that trap.

We’ve been taught, in our English classes, that most questions have many valid answers. The texts that we read in English classes are often complicated, dealing with topics like inequality or coming of age. When writing an essay or participating in discussions in English, class teachers don’t dismiss ideas as wrong.

In those classes, we often look for the question that is the most right, because no single answer can apply in all situations. That is not how the SAT® works.

The design of the SAT® acts as an equalizer so that any student can do well. Therefore, the answers are not subjective, and the questions all have a single correct response.

The key to scoring an 800 on the SAT® Writing and Language section is to find the right answer for every question. Let’s go over a few strategies that can help when finding the right answer.

“How to Get a Perfect Score on SAT® Writing and Language” in Five Strategies

Strategy 1: memorize the usage and mechanics rules.

The rules for usage and mechanics make up half of the SAT® Writing and Language section. The best way to study for Usage and Mechanics is to examine all parts of grammar.

Grasping the concepts contained within the subject of usage and mechanics can be difficult for many students. It’s hard for the same reason that students struggle with math. Despite being a part of English, grammar rules , and functions actually, share many similar concepts to math.

The rules are often complex. Depending on the particular mechanic or usage, there could be anywhere from 3 to 10+ rules associated with the specific part of grammar.

Consider commas. Commas are probably the most used punctuation after periods. However, if you asked around, you would find that most people are hazy on the rules of commas. Commas come with a myriad of uses and standards – below is a short list of the possible uses and standards associated with commas:

• Use commas between independent clauses when used with coordinating conjunctions.
• Use commas after introductory phrases or words.
• Use two commas in the middle of a sentence to indicate that there is extra information inside.
• Commas shouldn’t surround essential information.
• Use commas between words in a list or series.
• Use commas between two or more adjectives assigned to a noun
• Use commas to separate a phrase at the end of the sentence that references other information in the sentence.
• Use commas between places, dates, addresses, and titles.
• Use a comma in a dialogue between the prose and the speech.
• Use commas to prevent confusion.

That is ten rules. Ten . That is crazy. There are so many grammar rules that exist, most likely you don’t know them all, but you need to know them for the SAT® Writing and Language. That means you will need to memorize the rules for each part of usage and mechanics. Before we get into ways you can remember the rules, let’s review the concepts covered for usage and mechanics on the SAT® Writing and Language.

The parts of usage and mechanics break down like this:

• Apostrophes
• Pronoun Number Agreement
• Subject/Verb Agreement
• (Examples: affect/effect, either… or, to/two/too)
• Parallel Construction
• Comparison/Description
• Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences
• Pronoun Choice
• Pronoun Case
• Conjugation

It seems like a lot, but don’t let it overwhelm you. You already know some of the rules and concepts, and you have time to learn the others. Even if you only have two weeks before your test, you can drill and practice to memorize in many ways that will help you max out your scores.

The first step, before you begin memorizing, is to ascertain your weakness in usage and mechanics. You can find a test to identify your weaknesses here .

Once you know your weaknesses there are a few ways you can study for the usage and mechanics questions:

• Write Down the Grammar Rules on Flashcards: You can find the grammar rules here . On one side of a flashcard you will write down the particular usage or mechanic (like a comma) and a sentence that shows the rule used. On the other side of the flashcard, you write the rule. You will need to go through the flashcards by looking at the examples and reciting the rule to yourself.
• Work on Correction Worksheets: Download some copies of correction worksheets here or drill on Khan academy . Memorizing the rules is useful, but learning through correcting errors will also provide the opportunity to grow. Correcting improper usage and mechanics may be difficult, but it will give you practice that mirrors the test.
• Identify the Grammar Rules You See in Life: One simple solution to learning the rules of grammar is to look for them in the texts you are already reading. This type of practice is the most accessible. Despite the ease of access, it can be difficult to train yourself to notice grammar in the things you read every day. It will require careful observation and consistent reminders to yourself.

Those three strategies should help you keep on top of the grammar section of the SAT® Writing and Language test.

For more on “how to get a perfect score on SAT® Writing and Language” check out our next strategy that focuses on writing strategies.

Strategy 2: Begin to Notice Writing Strategies

Writing Strategies are the second set of skills tested on the SAT® Writing and Language section. The key to maxing out your score on the strategy section is to notice it in your everyday life. First, you need to understand the exam:

Writing Strategies tests a broad range of reading and writing skills. The section is officials testing the “expression of ideas” which covers the style, organization, and the effective use of language within texts.

When broken down into discreet skills, the Strategy section on the exam covers six broad categories:

• Tone: The attitude of the author on the subject of the piece.
• Cohesion: The coherence of paragraphs, sentences, and phrases
• Purpose: Understand why a text exists
• Formality: Determine the style of the text
• Congruence: Determine if a sentence fits
• Support: Examining evidence for inferences and claims.

Writing Strategy is going to be harder to beat than grammar. Grammar has a set of clear rules to memorize. Strategy, while it does have some objective and distinctive traits, usually relies more on inferences and experience to understand.

Some parts, like tone, are typically easy for students to identify. If you know words to describe the attitude, you match a word to the feeling portrayed by the author.

Others, like cohesion or congruence, require that you understand more of the nuance of writing. That only comes with focused reading and practice. To prepare for the SAT® Writing and Language, you will need to read texts (assigned or for pleasure) and focus on identifying where each of the tested parts of Strategy come into play.

Some readings that will show the distinct parts of Strategy are speeches and essays. If you have the chance, read some of those texts, and identify how the author uses each of the different parts of rhetoric.

You can work on some of the SAT® Writing and Language practice questions we have on the Albert.io website.

The key to strategy two is consistently analyzing texts to find those strategies that authors use.

Strategy 3: Practice for Perfection

Part of any winning strategy is practice. We practice for almost every activity. We spend endless hours shooting free throws or playing a particular measure from a piano concerto attempting to make it perfect. The old saying is “practice makes perfect” for a reason. It’s true.

If you want to know “how to get a perfect score on SAT® Writing and Language”, the first part is to realize that it means you will need to practice until you are perfect. It means long hours of commitment to studying and reading to improve your skills.

As a culture, we don’t believe practice can help you with a test. We like to treat tests like an either, or situation: either you know the material, or you don’t. That isn’t true. You can practice for a test. You can improve your skills and knowledge through repetition and practice.

When you practice for the SAT® Writing and Language section, you should use the materials and tools provided in strategies 1 and 2. Using those strategies by themselves will not be enough. You must commit your time and energy to the practice.

When you commit your time, it means you are setting aside those precious hours every week. You are attempting to earn a perfect score on the SAT® Writing and Language section. You will need to study approximately 40 hours in total to raise your scores from a 650 to 800.

40 hours divided over five weeks works out to 8 hours a week. That is a massive commitment, but this test is a huge part of your college admissions package. You have to devote the time necessary to get a perfect score.

When you set time aside to study, you must study fruitfully. Study time is easily wasted. When you study and practice, make sure you unplug: turn off your cell phone, don’t listen to distracting music, shut down the T.V., and log out of your social media. If you spend just one hour a day fully focused on beating the SAT® Writing and Language, you will be one step closer to scoring 800.

Along with your time, you will need to commit energy to practice. That means full focus every time you sit down to work. Many students fail to practice because they don’t focus their energy on the test. It is easy to be distracted or to fail to try your hardest when you know that the exam won’t count. That isn’t useful. You can’t go into your practice situations half-heartedly.

When you take your practice tests, treat them as if they are the actual SAT®. Give yourself the right amount of time for the test, and put in the energy necessary to finish in that time-frame. If you don’t put the energy of a real testing situation into your practice, you will never reach your full potential.

Finding Real Study Materials

Practice is only useful if it mirrors the test. You will want your practice materials to be as close to the test as possible. SAT® just redesigned the Writing and Language Section, so they are difficult to find. So difficult that there are no released tests to use. So the next best thing can be found here:

• SAT® Official Writing and Language Practice Questions
• CRACKSAT® Practice Tests

Those tests will be your best shot at finding out accurate scores on the SAT®. They should be used as benchmarks to gauge your progress. You should examine the amount of time you have left until the test, and space the tests out evenly.

The SAT® official practice questions should be something you complete to gauge your skills. Then you can drill the CrackSAT® tests as benchmarks to chart your progress.

Those practice tests are not going to make up the bulk of your study materials. You will need to use other training materials to improve your skills in between the tests. Some excellent materials for the test are on the Albert.io website. You should also check out practice books or articles online for free.

Regardless of the materials you use to drill the skills you will want to pick materials that are similar to the test. Read reviews before you purchase any books, and find websites that are highly rated by online communities.

Just Keep Practicing

Above all, keep practicing. Whatever schedule you set for yourself, keep to it. Whatever way you decide to practice, use it. There is little gained by sitting idle and waiting for the test to arrive. If you want to score 800, you will need to practice the test to perfection.

Strategy 4: Plug the Leaks

A practice schedule is important, but all the practice in the world won’t make any difference without focus. It is important that you learn where you have weaknesses, and compensate.

If you imagine your testing ability as a boat, every weakness you possess has the potential to spring a leak. Too many leaks and your boat will capsize. That is why you need to work on filling the holes. You must practice to correct and compensate for your weaknesses to have any chance at scoring 800.

Diagnosing your weaknesses isn’t easy. It will require you to begin to think seriously about the way you process information. If you find that there is a particular skill you lack or fundamental knowledge you haven’t learned, you can push to change before the test.

Ask the Right Questions

As you go through the officially released tests, you should keep track of the items that you didn’t know for certain. Marking all of the items that were not a 100% certainty will allow you to go back and ascertain the reason why you were confused even if you get the question right by chance.

Knowing that you couldn’t narrow down the correct answer is important because it should lead to some deep thinking. You should ask questions like:

• Why was this choice right?
• Why were the other choices incorrect?
• What about the choices I couldn’t rule out confused me?
• Why did I think those wrong answers could be correct?
• What rule or reasoning exists to prove the right answer?

Asking these deeper thinking questions will help you to go further in figuring out your weaknesses and making changes before you take your next test. As you test, always go deeper with the questions you ask, stopping at “what is the right answer” will never be fruitful.

Determine the Explanation Yourself

Beyond the questioning strategy, you will want to stop reading the answer explanations for the questions you drill. Instead, seek to figure out and explain the choices yourself. Nearly every test and program provide detailed explanations for why certain a choice is correct and why other choices are not, don’t read those until after you have already explained it yourself.

Part of the growth process is struggling with difficult concepts to come out stronger. Reading the explanations doesn’t challenge you to learn, and it means less focus on understanding the reasoning behind the choices. If you take the time to explain why one choice is correct and the others are not, you will learn much more about the test’s construction, and the specific skills tested.

So, don’t read the explanations until after you have already explained the choices yourself. Then read the explanations provided to ensure that they give similar responses to the ones you created. The logic should be similar in each, and as your explanations get closer to the ones provided, you can keep track to see if your scores improve.

Common Weaknesses

Some weaknesses are common among students. Here are the top three to avoid.

1 – Misreading the Question

One of the easiest mistakes to correct is misinterpreting the question. Testing situations often put students under pressure, leading to simple mistakes.

When you read the question, pay attention to the vital details mentioned. Questions on the SAT® give away major clues to finding the correct response in the wording of the question.

You must read the questions thoroughly so that you don’t miss any valuable information. Pay attention to those very specific words like not. Students overlook test items that use the word not, which can lead to mistakenly answering with the wrong choice. If it asks you to pick the option written incorrectly, you might accidentally select one of the three that is correct by mistake.

Always read the question closely to glean information.

2 – Over or Under Choice of “No Change.”

One of the choices on many of the grammar questions is “no change” which means that the chosen sentence has no grammatical issues. Students have trouble figuring out when that is the correct choice.

Some students choose to air on the side of caution, rarely choosing the “no change” option. While it is a good idea to look for grammatical errors on the test continually, it is not a good idea to see them where they don’t exist. “No change” will be the correct answer about 25% of the time, so that means you shouldn’t avoid it.

The flip side of this problem is students find no errors too often. If you are reading quickly and not thinking clearly – you might fall susceptible to this mistake. It is easy to skim a sentence and not see the error, so always make sure you re-read before picking “no change”.

3 – Too Many Commas

A comma splice is when you put a comma where it doesn’t belong. The comma splice is a common error on the SAT® Writing and Language because students read the sentences out loud to determine the errors. When they read, the students pause more often than is dictated by the grammar. This reading habit leads to placing commas where they don’t belong.

Take this sentence for example:

Lily walked up to the house and took a long, hard look into the darkness of the surrounding forest.

This sentence has far too many commas. If we remove the commas, the sentence still works:

Lily walked up to the house and took a long hard look in the darkness of the surrounding forest.

The best remedy is to learn the comma rules. Once you know them, you will be less tempted to insert unneeded commas.

On the test, if all else fails, you can use the next strategy to narrow down to the right answer.

Strategy 5: One Answer to Rule Them All

The key to strategy five is remembering that there is only one correct answer to each question. No matter the appeal of the other choices, there is an obvious or apparent error in those choices. If you can rule out the three wrong options, it will give you the ability to choose the right answer every time.

Here is a sample question from Albert.io . Let’s find the issues present in three of the four choices:

The question is asking the reader to find the most “economical” way to restate the point from the passage. This will require the reader to understand the passage and find the best way to express the ideas in the sentence. Let’s examine the answer choices and determine which is correct.

Answer A – Correct Answer

Answer A is correct. The choice provides the shortest and most straightforward way to rephrase the sentence. The shortness of the answer choice is what accounts for the “economical” in the question.

Answer B – Convoluted Phrasing

Choice B is incorrect. The phrasing of this answer choice is confusing – which is the opposite of economical. Therefore it would not fit the criteria put forth by the question.

Answer C – Additional Rhetoric

Choice C is incorrect. Although it also retranslates the original phrase correctly, it adds in unnecessary elements. The use of parallel structure at the beginning of the sentence makes the phrase much more complicated than it needs to be, and the length of the sentence rules it out from being “economical” as the question requires.

Answer D – Repetition and Confusing Phrasing

Choice D is incorrect. It is also the easiest choice to rule out. It repeats its words multiple times, and it is so confusing that it doesn’t say much at all.

Narrow it down

When you work through every question, you need to work on narrowing down the possible choices. Every question has one correct answer. You are looking for what is wrong with the other three choices as much as you are looking for what is right about the correct choice.

Bonus Strategy: Bubbling for Time

One last strategy for the test revolves around filling in the answer bubbles. The traditional way to bubble a test is very time-consuming. Students will move back and forth between the test booklet and answer sheet after every item.

The physical act of moving, first your eyes and then your hand, from the test booklet to the answer sheet takes a lot of available time. If it takes you 3 seconds to move from the test booklet to the answer sheet and bubble in the answer, and you do that for 44 questions, it will take you a total of two minutes and twelve seconds just for bubbling.

You will need all the time you can get on the exam. To save time on bubbling the best advice is to change your strategy. Instead of moving back and forth between the booklet and the test, only mark the correct answers on the test booklet. After about ten answers you should bubble in on the answer sheet. If you memorize a series of solutions like ABDCBBADCA you can save yourself time in the way that you bubble and cut down on making mistakes.

Find out what type of bubbling strategy works best for you and go with it. The time you save in bubbling the best way will be invaluable towards getting a perfect score on the SAT® Writing and Language.

Go and Get a Perfect Score

There are the five strategies to help you get a perfect score on the SAT® Writing and Language. If you work hard on each of these strategies, implementing them in your daily study and practice, you will have an excellent shot at getting the 800.

Review the tools often, come back to this guide any time you need a refresher. Make the adjustments necessary, and keep focused on your goals.

Remember to check out the Albert.io website for more blog posts and study help. As promised, there is a short guide to scoring an eight on the SAT® Essay below.

The SAT® Essay section is an optional section of the test. The top colleges, the same ones that care about your 800 in Writing and Language, will look for a score on the SAT® Essay. Opting for the writing exam adds 50 minutes onto your testing time, so be prepared for a longer test.

Two readers give a raw score of 1-4 for three separate categories. The two raw scores add together for each category to give you a scaled score. If one reader scores the essay at 3 and another at 4, you end up with a 7 for the section. You have 50 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. If you do it right, you can score an 8 for each section and make yourself that much more marketable to a top tier university.

Each section is graded on its rubric. The three sections that will be assessed are Reading, Writing, and Analysis.

The essay must show that you understood the passage provided in the prompt. That means you understood the important details, main idea, and argument presented. The essay must also show you read the text and can use it as evidence.

Here is the holistic rubric for reading from the SAT® website:

Analysis 

The essay needs to show that you understand how arguments are constructed by:

• Examining the use of evidence, reasoning, and persuasion
• Creating a claim and supporting it with evidence of the text

The rubric from the SAT® Website:

The essay needs to be well written. The essay must be focused, organized, and utilize the writing strategies that are common to standard written English.

The rubric for the writing portion of the essay from the SAT® website:

The essay presents a prompt and some relevant background information. The SAT® will require you to read an excerpt from a larger work. The excerpt will display an opinion, and the prompt will ask you to analyze the opinion finding the structure of the argument and explaining the most relevant or important parts.

An example of an SAT® Essay prompt shows the required parts:

As you read the passage below, consider how Paul Bogard uses

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

Instructions:

Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved. In your essay, analyze how Bogard uses one or more of the features in the directions that precede the passage (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Bogard’s claims, but rather explain how Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience.

As you can see, the prompt is complicated. The essay asks you not to create your argument, but instead to analyze the argument put forth by the author. This and other essay prompts, as well as sample essays, can be found here .

This essay will be time-consuming, and it will be useful to practice your writing skills. Let’s talk about a few strategies that can help you get the best score possible on the test.

Strategy 1: Make a Plan

You won’t be able to anticipate the subject of the essay on the SAT® Essay section, but you can still work on the plan ahead for the exam. Along with the official practice prompts found on the SAT® website, the internet is full of prompts to analyze the argument of an article. The best way to prepare for the exam is to use those prompts to plan out essays.

You don’t have to write the essays. Instead, work on your planning abilities. Many students fail to do their best on the exam because they are not ready for the rigors of writing a long and complicated essay. The best tool you have, regardless of the topic or requirement, is the ability to outline a high-quality essay quickly.

The time spent drafting shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes, but the power of having a well thought out essay cannot be overstated. You should practice outlining on at least one essay a day for the three weeks leading up to your test. The act of planning will become second nature with practice, and that can make up for ignorance of the passage or subject matter.

A good outline should look like this:

• Thesis Statement: How is the author building their argument? Are they using facts, persuasion, or narrative techniques?
• Evidence from the text of this technique
• Wrapping up the argumentative strength of the essay

You’ll notice that the outline follows the standard five paragraph format. If you find that you have extra time, you can expand each of the reasons into a series of paragraphs using multiple pieces of evidence, but the time pressure may make that too difficult to complete.

You should find two analytical prompts per day, and work out an outline for each prompt. The prompt will not be complete without a short sentence that explains the focus of each paragraph. Instead of only writing “introductory paragraph” you would write a short sentence that explains what that section would cover.

Let’s look at an example outline for the prompt above:

• Thesis: He uses anecdotal evidence, rhetorical questions, and evidence of wasted money to make his argument.
• Evidence: The author explains how the beauty of darkness allowed him to experience the joys of the natural world at night, and how that provided a formative experience in his younger years.
• Evidence: You could point out some rhetorical questions he uses, but in particular he talks about the painting of starry night and asks if it would be possible that it could be painted without darkness. Which shows the value of darkness to beauty and humanity.
• Evidence: There is evidence in the text given by the author about the wasted use of electricity. This should be used in the essay to the point that out.
• Conclusion: Reassert the main point of the essay and describe what the author is doing to craft their argument.

That is a very detailed outline for the essay. Your outline shouldn’t be as detailed as this one, but it should still include all of the parts. You should have a short sentence in each part so that you know what you’re planning to write when you sit down to do the essay.

Work to make your essay as detailed as possible, and practice your planning. That way you can be clear in your writing, and won’t get stuck trying to figure out what should be in the next paragraph.

Strategy 2: Be Nice to Your Reader

This strategy is essential to doing well. You must make your writing easy to read. There are three essential things that you can do to make it easy for your readers to understand your writing, and therefore grade your essay faster.

Think about it; your readers will have about three minutes to read your writing, and they are reading about 500 essays in the entire session. The easier you make it on them, the more they are going to like you. As objective as we want to believe the test is, essay grading is still subjective. If they like you because you make their job easy, they might be more likely to give you a four over a three if your essay falls somewhere in between.

You need to make your writing legible. The better your hand writing, the less you cross out, and the better your grammar and spelling, the easier it will be to understand what you are saying. If your writing is messy, and the reader has been reading essays all day, you might end up getting a much lower score than you deserve.

It is very easy to write off an essay that is difficult to read than to give it more time and effort. You need to put in the effort to make it easy to read. So work on your legibility.

Five Paragraphs

You should follow the five-paragraph format for an argumentative essay. One of the reasons for following the format is that it is standard. Being standard means that it will make reading faster, and it can help a reader understand your points much more succinctly. Utilize the format and help your reader process.

Clear Thesis and Reasons

The last point is that you need to have a clearly established main point, all of your evidence should support that main point. If your main point and evidence work together, it will make your essay much easier to read. Work on establishing a clear connection between your thesis, reasoning, and evidence to gain some extra favor in the eyes of your reader.

Work Hard and Score High

So that is the guide for how to get a perfect score on SAT® Essay and How to get an eight on the SAT® Essay. Use these strategies to ensure that you do well on the test and get the perfect score that you deserve.

If you have any questions or any other study strategies, let us know in a comment below.

Looking for even more SAT® Writing tips? You may find this list of 125 SAT® tips helpful .

Looking SAT® practice?

You can find thousands of practice questions on Albert.io. Albert.io lets you customize your learning experience to target practice where you need the most help. We’ll give you challenging practice questions to help you achieve mastery of the SAT®.

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SAT Essay Prompts (10 Sample Questions)

What does it take to get a high SAT Essay score, if not perfect it? Practice, practice and more practice! Know the tricks and techniques of writing the perfect SAT Essay, so that you can score perfect as well. That’s not a far off idea, because there actually is a particular “formula” for perfecting the SAT Essay test. Consider that every prompt has a format, and what test-takers are required to do remain the same- even if the passage varies from test to test.

The SAT Essay test will ask you to read an argument that is intended to persuade a general audience. You’ll need to discuss how proficient the author is in arguing their point. Analyze the argument of the author and create an integrated and structured essay that explains your analysis.

On this page, we will feature 10 real SAT Essay prompts that have been recently released online by the College Board. You can utilize these Essay SAT prompts as 10 sample SAT Essay questions for easy practice. This set of SAT Essay prompts is the most comprehensive that you will find online today.

The predictability of the SAT Essay test necessitates students to perform an organized analytical method of writing instead of thinking up random ideas on their own. Consider that what you will see before and after the passage remains consistent. It is recommended that you initially read and apply the techniques suggested in writing the perfect SAT Essay (🡨link to SAT Essay —- SAT Essay Overview: How to Get a Perfect Score) before proceeding on using the following essay prompts for practice.

Check our SAT Reading Practice Tests

10 Official SAT Essay Prompts For Practice

Practice Test 1

“Write an essay in which you explain how Jimmy Carter builds an argument to persuade his audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry.”

Practice Test 2

“Write an essay in which you explain how Martin Luther King Jr. builds an argument to persuade his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust.”

Practice Test 3

“Write an essay in which you explain how Eliana Dockterman builds an argument to persuade her audience that there are benefits to early exposure to technology.”

Practice Test 4

“Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved.”

Practice Test 5

“Write an essay in which you explain how Eric Klinenberg builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to greatly reduce their reliance on air-conditioning.”

Practice Test 6

“Write an essay in which you explain how Christopher Hitchens builds an argument to persuade his audience that the original Parthenon sculptures should be returned to Greece.”

Practice Test 7

“Write an essay in which you explain how Zadie Smith builds an argument to persuade her audience that public libraries are important and should remain open”

Practice Test 8

“Write an essay in which you explain how Bobby Braun builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to invest in NASA.”

Practice Test 9

“Write an essay in which you explain how Richard Schiffman builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to work fewer hours.”

Practice Test 10

“Write an essay in which you explain how Todd Davidson builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to fund national parks.”

Visit our SAT Writing Practice Tests

What Is An Example Of A SAT Essay That Obtained A Perfect Score?

Here is an example of Practice Test 4 above and how a perfect SAT Essay in response to it looks like. This has been published in the College Board website.

Answer Essay with Perfect Score:

In response to our world’s growing reliance on artificial light, writer Paul Bogard argues that natural darkness should be preserved in his article “Let There be dark”. He effectively builds his argument by using a personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions.

Bogard starts his article off by recounting a personal story – a summer spent on a Minnesota lake where there was “woods so dark that [his] hands disappeared before [his] eyes.” In telling this brief anecdote, Bogard challenges the audience to remember a time where they could fully amass themselves in natural darkness void of artificial light. By drawing in his readers with a personal encounter about night darkness, the author means to establish the potential for beauty, glamour, and awe-inspiring mystery that genuine darkness can possess. He builds his argument for the preservation of natural darkness by reminiscing for his readers a first-hand encounter that proves the “irreplaceable value of darkness.” This anecdote provides a baseline of sorts for readers to find credence with the author’s claims.

Bogard’s argument is also furthered by his use of allusion to art – Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” – and modern history – Paris’ reputation as “The City of Light”. By first referencing “Starry Night”, a painting generally considered to be undoubtedly beautiful, Bogard establishes that the natural magnificence of stars in a dark sky is definite. A world absent of excess artificial light could potentially hold the key to a grand, glorious night sky like Van Gogh’s according to the writer. This urges the readers to weigh the disadvantages of our world consumed by unnatural, vapid lighting. Furthermore, Bogard’s alludes to Paris as “the famed ‘city of light’”. He then goes on to state how Paris has taken steps to exercise more sustainable lighting practices. By doing this, Bogard creates a dichotomy between Paris’ traditionally alluded-to name and the reality of what Paris is becoming – no longer “the city of light”, but moreso “the city of light…before 2 AM”. This furthers his line of argumentation because it shows how steps can be and are being taken to preserve natural darkness. It shows that even a city that is literally famous for being constantly lit can practically address light pollution in a manner that preserves the beauty of both the city itself and the universe as a whole

Finally, Bogard makes subtle yet efficient use of rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that natural darkness preservation is essential. He asks the readers to consider “what the vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” in a way that brutally plays to each of our emotions. By asking this question, Bogard draws out heartfelt ponderance from his readers about the affecting power of an untainted night sky. This rhetorical question tugs at the readers’ heartstrings; while the reader may have seen an unobscured night skyline before, the possibility that their child or grandchild will never get the chance sways them to see as Bogard sees. This strategy is definitively an appeal to pathos, forcing the audience to directly face an emotionally-charged inquiry that will surely spur some kind of response. By doing this, Bogard develops his argument, adding gutthral power to the idea that the issue of maintaining natural darkness is relevant and multifaceted.

Writing as a reaction to his disappointment that artificial light has largely permeated the prescence of natural darkness, Paul Bogard argues that we must preserve true, unaffected darkness. He builds this claim by making use of a personal anecdote, allusions, and rhetorical questioning.

Related Topic:  SAT Requirements

This response scored a 4/4/4.

Reading—4: This response demonstrates thorough comprehension of the source text through skillful use of paraphrases and direct quotations. The writer briefly summarizes the central idea of Bogard’s piece ( natural darkness should be preserved ;  we must preserve true, unaffected darkness ), and presents many details from the text, such as referring to the personal anecdote that opens the passage and citing Bogard’s use of  Paris’ reputation as “The City of Light.” There are few long direct quotations from the source text; instead, the response succinctly and accurately captures the entirety of Bogard’s argument in the writer’s own words, and the writer is able to articulate how details in the source text interrelate with Bogard’s central claim. The response is also free of errors of fact or interpretation. Overall, the response demonstrates advanced reading comprehension.

Analysis—4:  This response offers an insightful analysis of the source text and demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the analytical task. In analyzing Bogard’s use of personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions , the writer is able to explain carefully and thoroughly how Bogard builds his argument over the course of the passage. For example, the writer offers a possible reason for why Bogard chose to open his argument with a personal anecdote, and is also able to describe the overall effect of that choice on his audience ( In telling this brief anecdote, Bogard challenges the audience to remember a time where they could fully amass themselves in natural darkness void of artificial light. By drawing in his readers with a personal encounter…the author means to establish the potential for beauty, glamour, and awe-inspiring mystery that genuine darkness can possess…. This anecdote provides a baseline of sorts for readers to find credence with the author’s claims ). The cogent chain of reasoning indicates an understanding of the overall effect of Bogard’s personal narrative both in terms of its function in the passage and how it affects his audience. This type of insightful analysis is evident throughout the response and indicates advanced analytical skill.

Writing—4: The response is cohesive and demonstrates highly effective use and command of language. The response contains a precise central claim ( He effectively builds his argument by using personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions ), and the body paragraphs are tightly focused on those three elements of Bogard’s text. There is a clear, deliberate progression of ideas within paragraphs and throughout the response. The writer’s brief introduction and conclusion are skillfully written and encapsulate the main ideas of Bogard’s piece as well as the overall structure of the writer’s analysis. There is a consistent use of both precise word choice and well-chosen turns of phrase ( the natural magnificence of stars in a dark sky is definite ,  our world consumed by unnatural, vapid lighting ,  the affecting power of an untainted night sky ). Moreover, the response features a wide variety in sentence structure and many examples of sophisticated sentences ( By doing this, Bogard creates a dichotomy between Paris’ traditionally alluded-to name and the reality of what Paris is becoming – no longer “the city of light”, but moreso “the city of light…before 2AM” ). The response demonstrates a strong command of the conventions of written English. Overall, the response exemplifies advanced writing proficiency.

Related Topics:

• Practice Tests for SAT Reading
• SAT Writing And Language Practice Tests
• SAT Languages Test
• SAT Essay Test  SAT Writing Practice Tests
• SAT Science Test, Topics & Subjects Content
• SAT Registration
• SAT Test Dates
• SAT vs ACT, Which One Should You Take?
• Why Take the SAT?

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How to Get a Perfect Score on the SAT Essay

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When the SAT was revamped in 2016, the SAT Essay underwent significant changes. For one, the essay became optional. Many colleges still require students to submit an SAT Essay score, however, so this change is not as major as those that occurred to the essay’s structure and purpose. The old SAT essay consisted of a question for debate, and students were to present a clear argument for one side. The new essay is now meant to test both reading comprehension and writing abilities; it is composed of three persuasive responses to a passage and prompts. Students must read a passage, form three cohesive arguments and prompts, and write clearly, all in 50 minutes.

This is no easy task, but with these tips from CollegeVine, you should be one step closer to achieving a perfect score on the SAT Essay.

How is the SAT Essay Scored? What Is a Perfect Score?

When you complete an SAT essay, two graders from CollegeBoard will score it, and they will give your essay a score from 1-4. Then, those two scores are added together to create your cumulative score, which can range anywhere from 2-8. If you receive a score of 8, that is a perfect score.

When you are graded on your essay, you are graded on three main categories: Reading, Analysis, and Writing. Here are some highlights of what the graders are looking for in each category:

• Reading: The student’s essay should include sufficient textual evidence in their essay to prove that they comprehended the material. The evidence provided in the text should be accurate–no fact-checking necessary! Most importantly, a strong essay should be able to synthesize the major points of the text and show how they interrelate.
• Analysis: Not only should the student be able to fully comprehend the text and use it as evidence, but the student’s essay should take it one step further and be able to make educated, persuasive claims about the central points of the text. It should include a thorough evaluation of the text and its elements and provide enough supporting evidence for its claims.
• Writing: This section is all about how the student presents their argument. The essay should be structured appropriately, with a proper thesis, introduction, and conclusion. The essay should have varied sentence structures so as to show a mastery of language. Of course, there should be few grammatical or spelling errors. 

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How To Structure an SAT Essay to Get A Perfect Score

Thankfully, in terms of structure, an SAT essay is similar to any persuasive or analytical essay you may be asked to write in class. The basic parts are as follows:

• Introduction
• Thesis Statement
• Supporting paragraph 1
• Supporting paragraph 2
• Supporting paragraph 3 (if time)

A few words about each section:

• Introduction: Make sure to keep this brief. Your introduction doesn’t add many points to your final score, so 2-3 sentences are usually plenty.
• Thesis Statement: This is the most important part of your essay, and it is the central argument that you are going to keep coming back to during the entire essay. It’s worth it to take the time to craft a strong thesis statement.
• Supporting Paragraphs: One supporting paragraph is required, two is recommended to gain a perfect score, and three is great, but optional. Your supporting paragraphs should have a topics sentence, evidence, and a concluding sentence that ties the paragraph back to your thesis statement.
• Conclusion: Again, keep this short. You don’t need to bring up any new arguments here. Simply summarize your argument in a concise manner.

How To Allocate Your Time To Get A Perfect Score

You only really get 50 minutes for the SAT essay. This means that you have to read a passage, read the prompts, plan each essay, and write three perfect essays, all in under an hour. This is no easy task, and it is certainly going to take some practice. However, here is how we recommend you allocate those 50 minutes:

• Read The Prompts First: 1 minute
• Reading the Passage, annotating along the way: 15 minutes
• Outlining: 5 minutes
• Writing: 29 minutes

We recommend reading the prompts first because it will give you an appropriate lens with which to read the passage. When you read it, you should be looking for the answers to the prompts and supporting evidence that you can use in your essay.

This is not a hard and fast rule for how you should spend your time. It is just a suggestion. With practice, you will find a time allocation system that works for you. Just keep it under 50 minutes!

Other Tips + Resources

1 . Practice, Practice, Practice: Here are some helpful resources that could help you get some good practice on the SAT essay:

• Sample SAT Essay Prompts (via CollegeBoard)
• Khan Academy’s SAT Practice Tool

Ultimate Guide To The New SAT Essay

2. Outline: Graders can usually tell when a student hasn’t structured and planned out their argument beforehand. Take those extra few minutes to plan out a good thesis and sketch a rough outline of your argument. This will help you plan your essay out, and it will do wonders for the organization of your essay.

3. Make Time For Edits: When students are in a time crunch, they tend to make simple grammatical errors that could lower their score. If you can, make sure you go back and read through your essay to correct for any such errors. Also, make sure that your essay makes sense and is communicating your intended argument effectively.

For More Information

Need more help on the SAT essay? Check out these blog posts:

Choosing Between SAT Essay and ACT Writing: How To Decide

What’s the Difference Between the New SAT Essay and the New SAT Writing Section?

Preparing for the SAT? Download our free guide with our top 8 tips for mastering the SAT.

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SAT Essay Samples | Low vs High-Scoring Examples

The SAT Essay is often used as an extra way to impress admissions officers with your overall academic preparedness. But what does a good essay look like vs a bad one? To make life easier, the College Board has provided some helpful SAT essay samples that you can study over.

Besides helping you get into college, here are a number of other SAT Essay benefits to consider .

SAT Essay Samples Prompt

Expect to see prompt directions like the ones below:

“As you read the passage below, consider how Paul Bogard uses:

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.”

SAT Essay Samples Passage

“ Adapted from Paul Bogard, “Let There Be Dark.” ©2012 by Los Angeles Times. Originally published December 21, 2012.

At my family’s cabin on a Minnesota lake, I knew woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes. I knew night skies in which meteors left smoky trails across sugary spreads of stars. But now, when 8 of 10 children born in the United States will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way, I worry we are rapidly losing night’s natural darkness before realizing its worth. This winter solstice, as we cheer the days’ gradual movement back toward light, let us also remember the irreplaceable value of darkness.

All life evolved to the steady rhythm of bright days and dark nights. Today, though, when we feel the closeness of nightfall, we reach quickly for a light switch. And too little darkness, meaning too much artificial light at night, spells trouble for all.

Already the World Health Organization classifies working the night shift as a probable human carcinogen, and the American Medical Association has voiced its unanimous support for “light pollution reduction efforts and glare reduction efforts at both the national and state levels.” Our bodies need darkness to produce the hormone melatonin, which keeps certain cancers from developing, and our bodies need darkness for sleep. Sleep disorders have been linked to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and depression, and recent research suggests one main cause of “short sleep” is “long light.” Whether we work at night or simply take our tablets, notebooks and smartphones to bed, there isn’t a place for this much artificial light in our lives.

The rest of the world depends on darkness as well, including nocturnal and crepuscular species of birds, insects, mammals, fish and reptiles. Some examples are well known—the 400 species of birds that migrate at night in North America, the sea turtles that come ashore to lay their eggs—and some are not, such as the bats that save American farmers billions in pest control and the moths that pollinate 80% of the world’s flora. Ecological light pollution is like the bulldozer of the night, wrecking habitat and disrupting ecosystems several billion years in the making. Simply put, without darkness, Earth’s ecology would collapse…

In today’s crowded, louder, more fast-paced world, night’s darkness can provide solitude, quiet and stillness, qualities increasingly in short supply. Every religious tradition has considered darkness invaluable for a soulful life, and the chance to witness the universe has inspired artists, philosophers and everyday stargazers since time began. In a world awash with electric light…how would Van Gogh have given the world his “Starry Night”? Who knows what this vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?

Yet all over the world, our nights are growing brighter. In the United States and Western Europe, the amount of light in the sky increases an average of about 6% every year. Computer images of the United States at night, based on NASA photographs, show that what was a very dark country as recently as the 1950s is now nearly covered with a blanket of light. Much of this light is wasted energy, which means wasted dollars. Those of us over 35 are perhaps among the last generation to have known truly dark nights. Even the northern lake where I was lucky to spend my summers has seen its darkness diminish.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Light pollution is readily within our ability to solve, using new lighting technologies and shielding existing lights. Already, many cities and towns across North America and Europe are changing to LED streetlights, which offer dramatic possibilities for controlling wasted light. Other communities are finding success with simply turning off portions of their public lighting after midnight. Even Paris, the famed “city of light,” which already turns off its monument lighting after 1 a.m., will this summer start to require its shops, offices and public buildings to turn off lights after 2 a.m. Though primarily designed to save energy, such reductions in light will also go far in addressing light pollution. But we will never truly address the problem of light pollution until we become aware of the irreplaceable value and beauty of the darkness we are losing.”

SAT Essay Samples Directions

Here is how the essay directions will be worded format-wise on test day.

“Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved. In your essay, analyze how Bogard uses one or more of the features in the directions that precede the passage (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Bogard’s claims, but rather explain how Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience.”

Essay Sample Response (Low Scoring)

“In “Let there be dark,” Paul Bogard talks about the importance of darkness.

Darkness is essential to humans. Bogard states, “Our bodies need darkness to produce the hormone melatonin, which keeps certain cancers from developing, and our bodies need darkness for sleep, sleep. Sleep disorders have been linked to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and depression and recent research suggests are main cause of “short sleep” is “long light.” Whether we work at night or simply take our tablets, notebooks and smartphones to bed, there isn’t a place for this much artificial light in our lives.” (Bogard 2). Here, Bogard talks about the importance of darkness to humans. Humans need darkness to sleep in order to be healthy.

Animals also need darkness. Bogard states, “The rest of the world depends on darkness as well, including nocturnal and crepuscular species of birds, insects, mammals, fish and reptiles. Some examples are well known—the 400 species of birds that migrate at night in North America, the sea turtles that come ashore to lay their eggs—and some are not, such as the bats that save American farmers billions in pest control and the moths that pollinate 80% of the world’s flora. Ecological light pollution is like the bulldozer of the night, wrecking habitat and disrupting ecosystems several billion years in the making. Simply put, without darkness, Earth’s ecology would collapse…” (Bogard 2). Here Bogard explains that animals, too, need darkness to survive.”

Essay Sample Response (High Scoring)

“In response to our world’s growing reliance on artificial light, writer Paul Bogard argues that natural darkness should be preserved in his article “Let There be dark”. He effectively builds his argument by using a personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions.

Bogard starts his article off by recounting a personal story – a summer spent on a Minnesota lake where there was “woods so dark that [his] hands disappeared before [his] eyes.” In telling this brief anecdote, Bogard challenges the audience to remember a time where they could fully amass themselves in natural darkness void of artificial light. By drawing in his readers with a personal encounter about night darkness, the author means to establish the potential for beauty, glamour, and awe-inspiring mystery that genuine darkness can possess. He builds his argument for the preservation of natural darkness by reminiscing for his readers a first-hand encounter that proves the “irreplaceable value of darkness.” This anecdote provides a baseline of sorts for readers to find credence with the author’s claims.

Bogard’s argument is also furthered by his use of allusion to art – Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” – and modern history – Paris’ reputation as “The City of Light”. By first referencing “Starry Night”, a painting generally considered to be undoubtedly beautiful, Bogard establishes that the natural magnificence of stars in a dark sky is definite. A world absent of excess artificial light could potentially hold the key to a grand, glorious night sky like Van Gogh’s according to the writer. This urges the readers to weigh the disadvantages of our world consumed by unnatural, vapid lighting. Furthermore, Bogard’s alludes to Paris as “the famed ‘city of light’”. He then goes on to state how Paris has taken steps to exercise more sustainable lighting practices. By doing this, Bogard creates a dichotomy between Paris’ traditionally alluded-to name and the reality of what Paris is becoming – no longer “the city of light”, but more so “the city of light…before 2 AM”. This furthers his line of argumentation because it shows how steps can be and are being taken to preserve natural darkness. It shows that even a city that is literally famous for being constantly lit can practically address light pollution in a manner that preserves the beauty of both the city itself and the universe as a whole.

Finally, Bogard makes subtle yet efficient use of rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that natural darkness preservation is essential. He asks the readers to consider “what the vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” in a way that brutally plays to each of our emotions. By asking this question, Bogard draws out heartfelt ponderance from his readers about the affecting power of an untainted night sky. This rhetorical question tugs at the readers’ heartstrings; while the reader may have seen an unobscured night skyline before, the possibility that their child or grandchild will never get the chance sways them to see as Bogard sees. This strategy is definitively an appeal to pathos, forcing the audience to directly face an emotionally-charged inquiry that will surely spur some kind of response. By doing this, Bogard develops his argument, adding guttural power to the idea that the issue of maintaining natural darkness is relevant and multifaceted.

Writing as a reaction to his disappointment that artificial light has largely permeated the presence of natural darkness, Paul Bogard argues that we must preserve true, unaffected darkness. He builds this claim by making use of a personal anecdote, allusions, and rhetorical questioning.”

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SAT School Day with Essay

If you are taking a state-provided SAT, you may be required, or have the option, to answer an essay question as part of your test. The SAT Essay is a lot like a typical college writing assignment that asks you to analyze a text. It shows colleges that you're able to read, analyze, and write at the college level.

The SAT Essay asks you to use your reading, analysis, and writing skills. You'll be asked to:

• Read a passage.
• Explain how the author builds an argument to persuade an audience.
• Support your explanation with evidence from the passage.

SAT Essay Overview

• Total questions: 1 prompt, with points to consider and directions
• Time allotted: 50 minutes to read and analyze the passage and to develop a written response

What the SAT Essay Measures

The SAT Essay shows how well you understand the passage and use it as the basis for a well-written, well-thought-out response. Your essay will be scored on three dimensions, each on a 2–8 scale:

• Reading: A successful essay shows that you understood the passage, including the interplay of central ideas and important details. It also shows effective use of textual evidence.
• Examining the author's use of evidence, reasoning, and/or stylistic and persuasive techniques (or other elements of your choosing)
• Supporting your claims and points effectively
• Focusing on those features of the passage that are most relevant for completing the task
• Writing: A successful essay is cohesive, organized, and precise, uses an appropriate style and tone, has varied sentences, and observes the conventions of standard written English.

The Essay Prompt

The prompt shown below is nearly identical to the one that will appear on the SAT.

As you read the passage below, consider how [the author] uses:

• Evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• Reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• Stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [their] audience that [author's claim]. In your essay, analyze how [the author] uses one or more of the features listed above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of [their] argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage. Your essay should not explain whether you agree with [the author's] claims, but rather explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [their] audience.

The Essay Passage

All passages have these things in common:

• Written for a broad audience
• Argue a point
• Express subtle views on complex subjects
• Use logical reasoning and evidence to support claims
• Examine ideas, debates, or trends in the arts and sciences or in civic, cultural, or political life
• Always taken from published works

All the information you need to write your essay will be included in the passage or in notes about it.

SAT Essay Scoring Guide

SAT Essay Practice

To practice for the SAT Essay:

• Download Bluebook™ .
• Go to Practice and Prepare on the Bluebook homepage, and select SAT Essay Practice . (You can access the essay practice with the same sign-in credentials provided by your school.)
• After you've finished the practice test in Bluebook, go to My Practice and sign in with the same credentials provided by your school to view your essay response, prompt, self-scoring rubric, and additional student sample essays.

SAT Practice Essays and Score Explanations—Digital

NOTE: The Essay is only available in certain states where it's required as part of SAT School Day administrations. If you're going to be taking the SAT on a school day, ask your counselor if it will include the Essay section.

SAT Practice Essay 1—Digital

This full-length, official SAT practice essay was written by the same people who wrote the SAT. Download it to get started.

SAT Practice Essay 1 Score Explanations—Digital

Download student sample essays—and the explanations that show why they received the score they did—for SAT Practice Essay 1.

SAT Practice Essay 2—Digital

Sat practice essay 2 score explanations—digital.

Download student sample essays—and the explanations that show why they received the score they did—for SAT Practice Essay 2.

SAT Practice Essay 3—Digital

Sat practice essay 3 score explanations—digital.

Download student sample essays—and the explanations that show why they received the score they did—for SAT Practice Essay 3.

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Get That High SAT Essay Score With These Tips

NOTE: The SAT Essay no longer exists as of 2024. The SAT has transitioned to a new digital format, which is radically different. For an updated guide to the new digital SAT, follow the link here.

You’ve decided to take the optional SAT Essay . You’re familiar with the essay’s format and instructions .

Now what does it take to get that high SAT Essay score?

The SAT Essay presents test-takers with a challenging task. Students must analyze an author’s argument and write a response that discusses the components of that argument.

AP English and SAT test prep students are at an advantage here. But keep in mind that the SAT Essay comes last , when students’ brains are already pretty tired! 

The good news? It is possible to achieve that amazing SAT essay score.

In this post, we’ll teach you how to use those 50 minutes to get closer to that perfect score.

Here’s what we cover:

The Anatomy of a Perfect SAT Essay

Breakdown of a perfect sat essay response, your game plan for writing a stellar sat essay.

• 10 Argument Techniques to Use in Your Essay  
• Quick Ways to Improve Writing Quality

As a reminder, the SAT Essay requires students to read an argumentative essay and then analyze how the author uses various techniques to build his/her argument.  

What does a perfect SAT essay look like? 

Notice how this skeleton structure looks a lot like a standard five-paragraph essay structure, commonly taught in high school.

Keep in mind, however, that on the SAT Essay, most students will likely only have time to compose two body paragraphs.  Plus, the introduction and conclusion paragraphs can consist of as few as two sentences .

Now, take a look at this SAT essay response that scored a 4 in each of the three categories: Analysis, Reading, and Writing. 

Notice how this response follows the skeleton structure we have just outlined.

Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved. In your essay, analyze how Bogard uses one or more of the features in the directions that precede the passage (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

[Find the full reading selection for this task here .]

Introduction 

• Sentence 1: Restates the argument
• Sentence 2: Thesis statement with three argument techniques

In response to our world’s growing reliance on artificial light, writer Paul Bogard argues that natural darkness should be preserved in his article “Let There be dark”. He effectively builds his argument by using a personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions.

Body Paragraph 1

• Sentence 1: Topic statement including argument technique and quote evidence of the technique
• Sentence 2: Paraphrases quote and explain the effect on the audience
• Sentence 3, 4: Continues to explain the effect of argument technique on the audience, the persuasive value of technique, and includes an additional quote reference
• Sentence 5: Conclusion sentence

[ 1] Bogard starts his article off by recounting a personal story – a summer spent on a Minnesota lake where there was “woods so dark that [his] hands disappeared before [his] eyes.” [2] In telling this brief anecdote, Bogard challenges the audience to remember a time where they could fully amass themselves in natural darkness void of artificial light. [3] By drawing in his readers with a personal encounter about night darkness, the author means to establish the potential for beauty, glamour, and awe-inspiring mystery that genuine darkness can possess. [4] He builds his argument for the preservation of natural darkness by reminiscing for his readers a first-hand encounter that proves the “irreplaceable value of darkness.” [5] This anecdote provides a baseline of sorts for readers to find credence with the author’s claims.

Body Paragraph 2

• Sentence 1: Topic statement includes argument type and includes two examples of the argument
• Sentence 2,3,4: Explains the persuasive value of example 1 and effect on the audience
• Sentence 5: Discusses example 2 and restates quote evidence
• Sentence 6, 7, 8, 9: Paraphrases content relevant to example, explains the persuasive value of example 2, explains how the technique and example build the argument

[1] Bogard’s argument is also furthered by his use of allusion to art – Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” – and modern history – Paris’ reputation as “The City of Light”. [2] By first referencing “Starry Night”, a painting generally considered to be undoubtedly beautiful, Bogard establishes that the natural magnificence of stars in a dark sky is definite. [3] A world absent of excess artificial light could potentially hold the key to a grand, glorious night sky like Van Gogh’s according to the writer. [4] This urges the readers to weigh the disadvantages of our world consumed by unnatural, vapid lighting. [5] Furthermore, Bogard’s alludes to Paris as “the famed ‘city of light’”. [6] He then goes on to state how Paris has taken steps to exercise more sustainable lighting practices. [7] By doing this, Bogard creates a dichotomy between Paris’ traditionally alluded-to name and the reality of what Paris is becoming – no longer “the city of light”, but more so “the city of light…before 2 AM”. [8] This furthers his line of argumentation because it shows how steps can be and are being taken to preserve natural darkness. [9] It shows that even a city that is literally famous for being constantly lit can practically address light pollution in a manner that preserves the beauty of both the city itself and the universe as a whole.

Body Paragraph 3

• Sentence 1: Topic statement includes an argument technique
• Sentence 2: Includes quote that includes evidence of the technique in action
• Sentence 3,4: Explains the persuasive value of example 1 and effect on the audience
• Sentence 5: Emphasizes how technique builds the argument

[1] Finally, Bogard makes subtle yet efficient use of rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that natural darkness preservation is essential. [2] He asks the readers to consider “what the vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” in a way that brutally plays to each of our emotions. [3] By asking this question, Bogard draws out heartfelt ponderance from his readers about the affecting power of an untainted night sky. This rhetorical question tugs at the readers’ heartstrings; while the reader may have seen an unobscured night skyline before, the possibility that their child or grandchild will never get the chance sways them to see as Bogard sees. [4] This strategy is definitively an appeal to pathos, forcing the audience to directly face an emotionally-charged inquiry that will surely spur some kind of response. [5] By doing this, Bogard develops his argument, adding guttural power to the idea that the issue of maintaining natural darkness is relevant and multifaceted.

• Sentence 2: Restates thesis statement with three argument techniques

Writing as a reaction to his disappointment that artificial light has largely permeated the presence of natural darkness, Paul Bogard argues that we must preserve true, unaffected darkness. He builds this claim by making use of a personal anecdote, allusions, and rhetorical questioning.

The College Board also has other sample responses to this prompt. We recommend viewing these as well.

What steps can you take to get that perfect SAT essay score? Here’s your game plan!

Step 1: Read and Annotate (~ 3-5 minutes)

Read carefully and mark up your text before diving into your response. Underline the author’s central claim.  

Pay particular attention to the author’s argument techniques and make sure to underline evidence of these in action.

Step 2:  Make an Outline and Thesis Statement (~ 3-5 minutes)

Consider 2 or more key argument techniques, and connect these techniques to 

• Specific examples from the text (IMPORTANT!)
• The purpose and effect of these techniques on the audience (IMPORTANT!)

If you have done this step properly, your essay will almost write itself. You must also study and prepare argument strategies and purposes of these strategies before the test.  

In the next section, we will show you common argument strategies and their purposes.

Backup Thesis: If you are completely lost, you can almost always use this emergency thesis statement format:

In [ essay ], [ author ] uses a combination of evidence and emotional appeals to build his/her argument.

Step 3:  Write! (~ 35 minutes)

Follow a standard Intro + Body Paragraph + Conclusion model, using tips from our skeleton structure. 

We also recommend integrating advanced vocabulary and transition words (discussed later on in this post).

Step 4:  Revise! (~2-3 minutes)

Make sure to take a couple of minutes at the end to revise your essay for spelling, grammar, and, if possible, content.

You won’t be marked off for individual grammatical errors. However, if these errors impede the reader’s understanding of your response, you will lose points!

10 Argument Techniques to Use in Your Essay

The SAT Essay prompt ultimately tests students’ knowledge of argument techniques. These are the “building blocks” that make an argument compelling and persuasive.

We highly recommend you study commonly used argumentative /persuasive techniques and their purposes before you take the SAT Essay. 

Remember: a successful essay states the techniques used in the text and analyzes these techniques. It also thoroughly explains their impact on the reader.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a great start! Whenever you’re reading an article/essay with a main claim of any kind, see if you can detect these techniques in action.   

Quick Tips to Improve Writing Quality

What are some other ways you can improve your SAT essay score?

We recommend using advanced vocabulary and transition words.

Transition Words 

Transition words show the relationship between ideas. They can improve the flow and organization of your essay. 

This chart shows transition words that connect similar, contrasting, and cause-and-effect ideas.

Doing so will impress your SAT essay reader and influence your writing score.

Advanced Word Choice

Another way to quickly improve your writing score is to arm yourself with a very specific set of strong vocabulary words and phrases before the essay.  

You should certainly keep working on building your overall vocabulary. A shortcut for the SAT Essay, however, is to build a strong vocabulary that is related to the specific writing task (analyzing an argument and its effectiveness) and prepare to use strong words and phrases on the essay.  

Here’s a sample set of effective essay words.

Other writing tips that can improve your score:

• Write legibly.
• Write more than one page! Quality is always better than quantity, but your analysis should be substantial. 

The SAT Essay task may feel daunting, but now you have a range of strategies for improving your score. 

In addition to these strategies, we strongly recommend that students regularly practice SAT essay responses . Doing so with the help of a professional instructor can be particularly beneficial.

Please note that the CollegeBoard has decided to discontinue the SAT Essay after the June 2021 administration of the SAT. 

Kate is a graduate of Princeton University. Over the last decade, Kate has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay.

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The Man to Bring Supreme Court Reform to the Conversation

Tim walz is not a lawyer—he’s a former civics teacher. that might be just what america needs to understand scotus..

There’s a truly excellent Tim Walz tweet circulating (thanks, Sal Gentile!) about all the things the Minnesota governor will do for you if elected vice president. It includes fixing your carburetor and putting a new chain on your lawn mower (read all the replies, I beseech you), and the upshot is that the former high school civics teacher and football coach is not just a menschy guy who will bring over a hot dish without even being asked but also a regular human who lives in the world. He doesn’t so much have an IVF “policy” as have an IVF daughter . His daughter is in fact the reason he changed his views on guns , in order to work more aggressively to prevent gun violence. Walz is not so much a creature of law and policy as a first responder. And, as People magazine put it when he was tapped Tuesday, Walz thus becomes the first candidate on a Democratic White House ticket since Jimmy Carter ran for reelection in 1980 to not have attended law school. The first nonlawyer in a quarter century! In a year in which the Democrats are putting the Supreme Court on the ballot, that makes him perfectly positioned to talk about what the court has done to ordinary Americans and why it matters.

In recent days alone, one sitting justice of the Supreme Court, in an interview with Fox News Sunday , cautioned President Joe Biden—kinda mobbishly—to “ be careful ” about proposing reforms that include imposing enforceable ethics rules (something all other judges in America must abide by). Justice Neil Gorsuch did this just as the New York Times reported on yet more undisclosed and unreported luxury travel by one of Gorsuch’s colleagues. In a new letter from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, we learned that Justice Clarence Thomas took a round-trip flight from Hawaii to New Zealand in November 2010 on Harlan Crow’s private jet but never disclosed it. As the Times points out, Thomas’ disclosure form for 2010 does not list any flights on Crow’s jet, and while he has recently amended other filings to account for luxury travel after the press has unearthed it, this form has never been corrected.

To briefly review, then, the same Supreme Court conservative supermajority that last month granted Donald Trump almost boundless immunity from criminal prosecution and in June took away the government’s power to ensure that water is clean and food and drugs are safe has opted to respond to criticism with yet another warning to “be careful” in even contemplating creating rules, an admonishment that comes alongside yet another brutish shrug from Thomas at the very existence of enforceable ethics guidelines. It’s a foolhardy response to a public that has, according to polling , lost all confidence in the court—but it’s not unremarkable from a branch that sees itself as floating above all law and regulation. As Svante Myrick aptly puts it, this lack of public confidence is about not merely what’s on the docket but the horse it rode in on: “It’s not just the rulings, it’s the recreational vehicle.”

So when Gorsuch and Thomas opt to spend their summers giving the middle finger to an American public that supports ethics reform and term limits by overwhelming margins ( 73 percent and 74 percent , respectively) while labeling such measures to be interference with “judicial independence,” that is certainly a choice. It’s just an objectively dumb one. And in that sense, finally having a nonlawyer on the ticket to speak to what the court has done to ordinary Americans in these few short years is both vital and long overdue.

If we have learned anything at all this year, it’s that far too many lawyers are far too timid and too institutionalized to be comfortable calling out the raft of bad decisions in which precedent is ignored, statutes are misread, and text and history are warped in order to achieve partisan political goals. It’s time to pass the torch.

And if that means that a former civics teacher can take us all to school and, in layman’s terms, about the urgent issues on which Americans can agree the court has screwed us all, well, his timing is perfect: The Supreme Court as currently constituted has eviscerated voting rights. Tim Walz has been a fervent proponent of expanding the franchise . In his first remarks this week as vice presidential candidate, Walz pledged that he and Kamala Harris would strive to create “a place where we settle our political differences not through violence but with our votes.” Americans overwhelmingly believe in democracy over authoritarianism.

The Supreme Court has just gutted abortion rights. Walz has consistently expanded them . The Supreme Court has worked persistently to dismantle public education in favor of sectarian religious schools . Walz has poured a lifetime of energy into bolstering public education . The high court has put lethal guns in the hands of violent Americans. Walz says he “sleeps just fine” with his F rating from the National Rifle Association. The list goes on.

On almost every signature issue Walz brings to the table as governor, the Supreme Court has worked to undermine and devalue public regulation, funding, and expertise. And as our friend Jay Willis keeps reminding us , you need not be an expert on constitutional law and methodological approaches to statutory interpretation to have informed opinions on the Supreme Court. You know who’s going to have informed nonlawyerly opinions on what’s wrong with the Supreme Court? The nominee for the vice presidency. And if the current justices of the Supreme Court believe that the law has no bearing on the ways in which they opt to live their lives, and if the current GOP front-runner for the presidency has lived his entire existence in that very same spirit, well, it may be useful to have someone in the race who not only is palpably and demonstrably affected by the law but can also speak to that in terms the rest of us can relate to and understand.

In a profound way, Walz is an avatar for someone who is attempting to do effective and lawful state governance and is being thwarted by an imperial Supreme Court, which is exactly what will happen to the Harris administration if court reforms are not enacted. Just as the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority stood in the way of Biden’s emergency COVID management, his air-pollution efforts, his college-loan-forgiveness program, and his emergency-room abortion-care regulations, it will joyfully throw a spanner into the Harris administration’s efforts to expand voting rights, protect LGBTQ+ Americans, and prevent climate crises. One doesn’t need Juris Doctor behind their name to call this out. One need only have had a semester or two of high school civics to understand that this is neither “checking” nor “balancing” as anticipated by the Framers but rather an untouchable juristocracy that travels by charter flight and superyacht.

It’s high time that a prominent nonlawyer take a turn at this critique of the Roberts court, and it’s clear that Walz may succeed where all of us polite eggheads have failed. The Supreme Court supermajority represents a democracy crisis that needs to be discussed at barbecues and high school lunch tables, not just pondered in the stacks at Ivy League law schools. If Walz can initiate and embody that conversation over the next 90 days, in terms that chime with swing voters and undecideds, and in language that is playful and irreverent and goofy, it will be the best thing to happen to a Democratic Party that has avoided the topic of court reform for two decades too long. To baldly paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, three generations of pointy-headed lawyers is enough. Let’s have a conversation on court reform from someone who has lived, and taught and governed, under the hand of a court that seems not to care about the real impacts of its decisions.

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Wisconsin Business World, ITU AbsorbTech: Award cash prizes in essay contest

MADISON  – Wisconsin Business World, an affiliate of WMC Foundation, announced the three winners of its essay contest on Monday. The program, sponsored by ITU AbsorbTech, encourages high school students to research and write about a Wisconsin company. 

Wisconsin Business World’s contests center around the theme, “Business is a Force for Good.” For the essay contest, students were prompted to describe a Wisconsin-based company, their product or service, and why they are a ‘Force for Good.’ Students described how the company of their choice supports their employees, families, and communities.

“Wisconsin companies do more than just provide a service or a product,” said Senior Director of Wisconsin Business World Michelle Grajkowski. “Businesses have the ability to impact their communities through career opportunity, philanthropy, and even economic influence. We want students to see the power of entrepreneurship and the free market.”

The winners of Wisconsin Business World’s Essay Contest:

Layna Wry  – 9th grade – McDonell Area Catholic School

Justin Hong – 11th grade – Brookfield East High School

Nicholas Ivanov – 11th grade – Nicolet High School

Winning students featured Olsen’s Ice Cream in Chippewa Falls, Sendik’s Food Markets in Milwaukee, and Snap-On in Kenosha. Many other impactful businesses, large and small, from across the state were featured by other contest applicants.

“Wisconsin businesses are the backbone of our state,” said ITU AbsorbTech President & CEO Jim Leef. “This essay contest pushes students to see the full scope of impact – from serving as great places of employment and providing great products and services to acting as community cornerstones and supporting great social causes. Layna, Justin and Nicholas researched and wrote about some great hometown companies, demonstrating their ability to see far beyond a finished product. Congratulations!”

Each of the winning essay writers was awarded $500. Wisconsin Business World will host a similar essay contest next spring.

Wisconsin Business World – a program of WMC Foundation – educates students on business, entrepreneurism and the free market through its statewide competitions, Summer Camps, one-day programs, online curriculum and classroom presentations. The Business World message is simple — Business is a Force for Good. For more information about Wisconsin Business World and its programs,  click here .

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First Impressions Matter: Writing Perfect Cover Page for Essay

Unleash your essay’s potential! Craft a perfect cover page for an essay that grabs attention & impresses graders.

Writing a cover page for your essay is a crucial task yet a hard one as well. You need to follow a set of procedures to write the perfect cover. That is what we are going to see in this article, a detailed guide to writing a cover page for essay.

Cover Page for Essay Outline 

Title of the essay.

The first thing to do when you’re writing an essay or a cover page for your essay is to decide upon a title.  The title of your essay is crucial because it gives the reader an immediate idea of what to expect. It should be clear, concise, and informative. Here’s how to craft a good title for your essay:

Be Specific: Make sure your title accurately reflects the main topic or argument of your essay. Avoid vague or broad titles. For example, instead of “Climate Change,” use “The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Ecosystems.”

Use Keywords: Incorporate important keywords related to your essay’s content. This helps in making your title more searchable and relevant. For example, if your essay is about the effects of social media on teenagers, you might title it “Social Media’s Influence on Teen Mental Health.”

Be Engaging: Try to make your title interesting to draw in your readers. A catchy title can spark curiosity. For example, “From Tweets to Anxiety: How Social Media Affects Teenagers.”

Keep it Short: Aim for a title that is not too long. A concise title is easier to read and remember. Ideally, keep it under 12 words.

Example Titles:

“The Benefits of Renewable Energy Sources” “Exploring the Cultural Significance of Traditional Music” “The Role of Technology in Modern Education”

By following these tips, you can create a compelling and informative title for your essay that grabs attention and sets the stage for your content.

Author Information

Including author information on your essay cover page is essential for identifying your work and providing context for the reader. Here’s a simple guide on what to include and how to format it:

Name: Start with your full name. This identifies you as the author of the essay. Place your name below the title of the essay, centered on the page. For example: Jane Doe

Course: Next, include the course name and number. This specifies for which class the essay is written and helps instructors keep track of submissions. Place this information below your name. For example: Biology 101

Institution: Include the name of your school or university. This provides additional context and helps if the essay is shared beyond your immediate class. Place this below the course information. For example: University of California, Berkeley

Date of submission: Finally, add the date of submission. This is important for record-keeping and helps both you and your instructor track when the work was completed. Place the date below the institution’s name. Use the format that is common in your region. For example: July 24, 2024, or 24 July 2024

Here’s how your author information should look on the cover page:

Jane Doe Biology 101 University of California, Berkeley July 24, 2024

Instructor Information

Including instructor information on your essay cover page is important for clarity and organization. It ensures that your work is correctly attributed and directed to the right person. Here’s how to include this information:

Name: Start by writing the full name of your instructor. This helps identify to whom the essay is being submitted. Place this below your own name on the cover page, centered on the page. For example: Professor John Smith

Position: Next, include the instructor’s position or title. This could be something like “Professor,” “Dr.,” or “Lecturer.” This information shows respect and provides more context about your instructor’s role . For example: Professor of Biology

Department: Finally, mention the department your instructor belongs to. This further clarifies the specific area of study and helps in categorizing the essay within the institution. Place this below the instructor’s position. For example: Department of Biological Sciences

Here’s how the instructor information should look on the cover page:

Professor John Smith Professor of Biology Department of Biological Sciences

Tips for Formatting

Center Align : Align all the instructor information to the center of the page, just like your own author information, to maintain a neat and professional appearance.

Font and Size : Use the same font and size as the rest of your cover page, typically Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point size.

Spacing : Ensure there is adequate space between each line to keep the information clear and easy to read.

Consistency : Keep the formatting consistent with the rest of your cover page for a polished look.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that the instructor information on your cover page is clear, professional, and respectful. This will help your essay be properly attributed and appreciated.

Also read: How To Make An Essay Longer: Effective Expansion Techniques

The abstract is a brief summary of your essay that provides an overview of your topic, main argument, and key points. It helps readers quickly understand the essence of your work. Here’s how to write an effective abstract:

Start by clearly stating the purpose of your essay. This should explain what your essay is about and why it is important. For example: “This essay explores the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts.”

Main Argument

Next, summarize your main argument or thesis statement. This is the central idea that you will be supporting throughout your essay. For example: “The essay argues that rising sea levels and increasing temperatures are causing significant damage to coastal habitats, which threatens biodiversity and human communities.”

Briefly outline the key points that support your main argument. These are the main sections or findings of your essay that you want the reader to know about. 

For example: 

• Rising Sea Levels: Discusses how higher sea levels lead to the erosion of coastlines and the loss of habitats for species such as turtles and shorebirds.
• Temperature Changes: Explains how warmer temperatures affect marine life, including coral bleaching and the migration patterns of fish.
• Human Impact: Examines how human activities, such as coastal development and pollution, exacerbate the effects of climate change on these ecosystems.
• Conservation Efforts: Highlights successful conservation strategies and suggests actions that can mitigate the impact of climate change.

Example Abstract :

“This essay explores the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts. It argues that rising sea levels and increasing temperatures are causing significant damage to coastal habitats, which threatens biodiversity and human communities. Key points include the effects of rising sea levels on erosion and habitat loss, temperature changes on marine life, human impacts, and effective conservation strategies.”

Tips for Writing

Keep it Concise: Aim for about 150-200 words. Be clear and to the point.

Engage the Reader: Use interesting and impactful language to draw in your audience.

Avoid Details: Focus on the main points without going into too much detail.

By following these guidelines, you can write a concise and engaging abstract that effectively summarizes your essay.

Related article: Words To Use In Essays: Amplifying Your Academic Writing

Keywords are crucial in capturing the essence of your essay topic and making it easier for others to find your work through searches. They summarize the main themes and concepts of your essay in just a few words. Here’s how to select and list effective keywords for your essay:

Purpose of Keywords

Keywords help categorize your essay and make it searchable in databases and on the internet. They should be specific to your topic and reflect the core ideas discussed in your essay.

Choosing Keywords

• Relevance: Choose words that are directly related to the main topics of your essay. Think about what terms someone might use to search for your work.
• Specificity: Be as specific as possible. Broad keywords can be less effective because they may bring up a wide range of unrelated results.
• Key Concepts: Identify the key concepts and terms that are central to your essay. These should reflect the main arguments and points you discuss.

Example Keywords for an Essay on Climate Change and Coastal Ecosystems:

Climate Change Coastal Ecosystems Sea Level Rise Biodiversity Loss Marine Life Coral Bleaching Conservation Efforts Human Impact Temperature Increase Environmental Policy

How to List Keywords

• Place the keywords at the end of your abstract or on a separate line following your abstract. 
• Format them in a way that they are easy to read and identify. 

For example:

Keywords: Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Sea Level Rise, Biodiversity Loss, Marine Life, Coral Bleaching, Conservation Efforts, Human Impact, Temperature Increase, Environmental Policy

Tips for Using Keywords

Limit the Number: Use between 5 to 10 keywords. Too many can be overwhelming and less effective.

Use Variations: Include variations of terms (e.g., “Climate Change” and “Temperature Increase”).

Review Your Essay: Ensure the keywords accurately reflect the content of your essay.

By selecting and listing effective keywords, you can enhance the visibility of your essay and make it easier for others to find and understand your work.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide: How to Write an Academic Essay

In conclusion, by creating an effective essay cover page you ensure your work is presented professionally and clearly. Start with a compelling title that accurately reflects your topic. Include your name, course details, institution, and submission date.

Add your instructor’s information to direct your work appropriately. Write a concise abstract summarizing your essay, and list relevant keywords to enhance searchability. By following these steps, your essay will be well-organized and accessible.

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About Sowjanya Pedada

Sowjanya is a passionate writer and an avid reader. She holds MBA in Agribusiness Management and now is working as a content writer. She loves to play with words and hopes to make a difference in the world through her writings. Apart from writing, she is interested in reading fiction novels and doing craftwork. She also loves to travel and explore different cuisines and spend time with her family and friends.

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Chevy chase becomes a grandfather as daughter emily gives birth to first baby.

Chevy Chase is taking on a new role — grandfatherhood!

The “Saturday Night Live” alum’s daughter Emily gave birth to her and Alex Baglieri’s first baby on August 1.

“💕 Ivy Jay Baglieri 💕 08.01.2024,” the new mom captioned an Instagram photo of the infant’s feet on Wednesday.

The actor spilled the 25-year-old’s pregnancy news in a March Instagram post , gushing that he couldn’t “wait to be a Grandad!”

Chase, 80, posted a sweet snap at the time as he and Emily’s partner each placed a hand on her baby bump.

The then-expectant star shared more shots on her own account , including a silly one where she and her dad “touch[ed] pregnant bellies.”

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Want celebrity news as it breaks? Hooked on Housewives?

The Emmy winner shares Emily and her sisters — Cydney, 41, and Caley, 39 — with his third wife, Jayni Chase.

Although Chevy is widely reported to also be the father of a son named Bryan Perkins who was allegedly born in 1979, Emily clapped back at this belief in March.

“Beyond hilarious that we have a mysterious, fake half brother who is routinely reported as being part of the family,” she told her Instagram followers.

“Who IS he?” Emily asked. “Where did this amazing rumor start? Why isn’t his last name Chase? ❤️ u imaginary Bryan.”

Chevy, notably, was married to Jacqueline Carlin at the time following his split from first wife Suzanne Chase.

The “Community” alum and Jayni tied the knot in 1982.

Emily often posts sweet family snaps via social media, including some in honor of Chevy’s 80th birthday in September 2023.

“Today the big Dab is 80, and what a f–kin’ life he’s led,” she gushed of her “BFF” at the time. “From driving NYC taxis to hosting the Oscars multiple times, he’s done more and lived harder than anyone I know.

“At his core he is deeply loving, sensitive, and a hilarious pain in the as,” she continued. “We wouldn’t have it any other way. Happy birthday to the bestest, mushiest, sweetest and most annoying Dab there is.”

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Gov. Tony Evers shares advice for eating Wisconsin State Fair cream puffs without the mess

How do you eat a cream puff at the Wisconsin State Fair without making a mess?

Gov. Tony Evers — arguably one of the most vocal supporters of the annual tradition — has a way to enjoy the sweet treat "in order not to make a complete fool of yourself."

"You have to get it in half. That way you're not getting it all over yourself. You kind of take it, twist it a little bit, and then one side comes up. That's the only way to eat it," Evers said. "I know it's a lot more fun to get it all over your face and all over your clothes, but I prefer eating it rather than worrying about taking a shower."

Another part of eating a cream puff 'Evers Style"? Taking a few home, putting them in the freezer and later cutting them in half with a sharp knife. That cuts down the mess even more.

"It's a perfect food," Evers told the Journal Sentinel at the Wisconsin State Fair Wednesday afternoon.

The history of politics and cream puffs at the state fair

Wisconsin governors and cream puffs have a long history. The Original Cream Puff debuted at the fair in 1924 at the request of John Blaine, Wisconsin's 24th governor, who wanted to showcase the state's dairy industry.

100 Objects: The history of the Wisconsin State Fair cream puff

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker also championed cream puffs at the State Fair, requesting $6 mi llion in his state budget in 2017 to renovate and expand the Cream Puff Pavilion. And in 2021, Evers encouraged people to get a COVID-19 vaccination at the State Fair and sweetened the deal with a free cream puff .

This year, Evers issued a proclamation declaring Saturday, Aug. 10, as Cream Puff Day across Wisconsin in honor of the food's 100th anniversary at the fair.

There was some pushback of the Democratic governor's move — Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Evers should be paying more attention to issues like crime and inflation than cream puffs.

State fairs are a common summer appearance for governors, senators and other politicians, especially in the Midwest. Neighboring Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the new running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, recently went viral for going on a Slingshot ride with his daughter in 2023.

Evers said he's been attending the State Fair with his wife, Kathy, for 55 years. Sometimes, he can be spotted serving up the cream puffs to customers.

"We usually end up talking about politics, something that's concerning them or something that they think went well," Evers said. "They don't usually ask me about cream puffs, because they're already in line. They've already purchased it. It's mainly, 'Hey, how's it going?' or 'Why did you do this?' or 'Why didn't you do that?'"

Evers also attended the State Fair last week, posting a video of himself standing with a brat and a cow-print baseball hat at his hip. It was a reference to "Brat Summer," a meme that has resonated with young voters after pop singer Charli XCX endorsed Harris.

"It's just a fun place. People are here not to talk about politics too much. They're here to have fun," he said. "It's always fun having people recognize you and having a chance to talk to them."

More: 'Brat summer' vs bratwurst summer: How Wisconsinites are reacting to trend on social media

New specialty cream puff flavors available at Wisconsin State Fair for 100th anniversary

For the first time, limited-edition flavored cream puffs are being offered at the State Fair. The first 1,924 visitors each day can get a taste of one of the new flavors: root beer float, raspberry cheesecake, English toffee or chocolate birthday cake.

Evers hadn't tried one of those flavors yet but said he's "up for anything." At the end of the day, the original cream puff is the best, he said.

The English toffee flavor is still available through Friday, and the chocolate birthday cake flavor is only available Saturday. The state fair ends at 10 p.m. Sunday.

According to Evers' proclamation, it's estimated that 50 to 60 cream puffs are purchased each minute at the fair, bringing the total to 400,000 cream puffs consumed each year.

More: Wisconsin State Fair 2024: Dates, cost, discounts, carry-in policies and other need-to-know info

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How an Instagram-Perfect Life in the Hamptons Ended in Tragedy

Candice and Brandon Miller showed the public a world of glittering parties and vacations. The money to sustain it did not exist.

Candice and Brandon Miller. In photographs shared online, their lives were full of parties and luxurious vacations. Credit... Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com, via Shutterstock

Supported by

By Katherine Rosman

• Published Aug. 8, 2024 Updated Aug. 9, 2024, 12:10 p.m. ET

In the modern Gilded Age of New York, where Instagram is awash in unrestrained displays of wealth, Brandon and Candice Miller were royalty.

At their 10th wedding anniversary “Midsummer Night’s Dream” party, they celebrated with a few dozen friends in the backyard of their 5,500-square-foot vacation home in the Hamptons.

Beautiful women in gowns watched with their handsome husbands as the couple renewed their vows near a swimming pool strewn with peonies and rose petals beneath a canopy of lights.

It was a grand public display of their perfect life and marriage. Ms. Miller told a lifestyle blogger who wrote about the party that her husband’s speech “made me cry by the end with his authentic, raw emotion and romantic words.”

It all culminated in the kind of envy-inducing images anticipated by the roughly 80,000 followers of “Mama and Tata,” Ms. Miller’s popular Instagram feed, which featured a near-constant stream of photographs and videos of her glittering life.

The Midsummer Night party was in 2019. Five years later, the glamorous image that Ms. Miller cultivated and promoted has disappeared, replaced with heartbreak, anger and a mountain of once-secret debt.

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SAT Essay Rubric: Full Analysis and Writing Strategies

We're about to dive deep into the details of that least beloved* of SAT sections, the SAT essay . Prepare for a discussion of the SAT essay rubric and how the SAT essay is graded based on that. I'll break down what each item on the rubric means and what you need to do to meet those requirements.

On the SAT, the last section you'll encounter is the (optional) essay. You have 50 minutes to read a passage, analyze the author's argument, and write an essay. If you don’t write on the assignment, plagiarize, or don't use your own original work, you'll get a 0 on your essay. Otherwise, your essay scoring is done by two graders - each one grades you on a scale of 1-4 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing, for a total essay score out of 8 in each of those three areas . But how do these graders assign your writing a numerical grade? By using an essay scoring guide, or rubric.

*may not actually be the least belovèd.

Feature image credit: Day 148: the end of time by Bruce Guenter , used under CC BY 2.0 /Cropped from original. 

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

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In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

The Complete SAT Essay Grading Rubric: Item-by-Item Breakdown

Based on the CollegeBoard’s stated Reading, Analysis, and Writing criteria, I've created the below charts (for easier comparison across score points). For the purpose of going deeper into just what the SAT is looking for in your essay, I've then broken down each category further (with examples).

The information in all three charts is taken from the College Board site .

The biggest change to the SAT essay (and the thing that really distinguishes it from the ACT essay) is that you are required to read and analyze a text , then write about your analysis of the author's argument in your essay. Your "Reading" grade on the SAT essay reflects how well you were able to demonstrate your understanding of the text and the author's argument in your essay.

You'll need to show your understanding of the text on two different levels: the surface level of getting your facts right and the deeper level of getting the relationship of the details and the central ideas right.

Surface Level: Factual Accuracy

One of the most important ways you can show you've actually read the passage is making sure you stick to what is said in the text . If you’re writing about things the author didn’t say, or things that contradict other things the author said, your argument will be fundamentally flawed.

For instance, take this quotation from a (made-up) passage about why a hot dog is not a sandwich:

“The fact that you can’t, or wouldn’t, cut a hot dog in half and eat it that way, proves that a hot dog is once and for all NOT a sandwich”

Here's an example of a factually inaccurate paraphrasing of this quotation:

The author builds his argument by discussing how, since hot-dogs are often served cut in half, this makes them different from sandwiches.

The paraphrase contradicts the passage, and so would negatively affect your reading score. Now let's look at an accurate paraphrasing of the quotation:

The author builds his argument by discussing how, since hot-dogs are never served cut in half, they are therefore different from sandwiches.

It's also important to be faithful to the text when you're using direct quotations from the passage. Misquoting or badly paraphrasing the author’s words weakens your essay, because the evidence you’re using to support your points is faulty.

Higher Level: Understanding of Central Ideas

The next step beyond being factually accurate about the passage is showing that you understand the central ideas of the text and how details of the passage relate back to this central idea.

Why does this matter? In order to be able to explain why the author is persuasive, you need to be able to explain the structure of the argument. And you can’t deconstruct the author's argument if you don’t understand the central idea of the passage and how the details relate to it.

Here's an example of a statement about our fictional "hot dogs are sandwiches" passage that shows understanding of the central idea of the passage:

Hodgman’s third primary defense of why hot dogs are not sandwiches is that a hot dog is not a subset of any other type of food. He uses the analogy of asking the question “is cereal milk a broth, sauce, or gravy?” to show that making such a comparison between hot dogs and sandwiches is patently illogical.

The above statement takes one step beyond merely being factually accurate to explain the relation between different parts of the passage (in this case, the relation between the "what is cereal milk?" analogy and the hot dog/sandwich debate).

Of course, if you want to score well in all three essay areas, you’ll need to do more in your essay than merely summarizing the author’s argument. This leads directly into the next grading area of the SAT Essay.

The items covered under this criterion are the most important when it comes to writing a strong essay. You can use well-spelled vocabulary in sentences with varied structure all you want, but if you don't analyze the author's argument, demonstrate critical thinking, and support your position, you will not get a high Analysis score .

Because this category is so important, I've broken it down even further into its two different (but equally important) component parts to make sure everything is as clearly explained as possible.

Part I: Critical Thinking (Logic)

Critical thinking, also known as critical reasoning, also known as logic, is the skill that SAT essay graders are really looking to see displayed in the essay. You need to be able to evaluate and analyze the claim put forward in the prompt. This is where a lot of students may get tripped up, because they think “oh, well, if I can just write a lot, then I’ll do well.” While there is some truth to the assertion that longer essays tend to score higher , if you don’t display critical thinking you won’t be able to get a top score on your essay.

What do I mean by critical thinking? Let's take the previous prompt example:

Write an essay in which you explain how Hodgman builds an argument to persuade his audience that the hot dog cannot, and never should be, considered a sandwich.

An answer to this prompt that does not display critical thinking (and would fall into a 1 or 2 on the rubric) would be something like:

The author argues that hot dogs aren’t sandwiches, which is persuasive to the reader.

While this does evaluate the prompt (by providing a statement that the author's claim "is persuasive to the reader"), there is no corresponding analysis. An answer to this prompt that displays critical thinking (and would net a higher score on the rubric) could be something like this:

The author uses analogies to hammer home his point that hot dogs are not sandwiches. Because the readers will readily believe the first part of the analogy is true, they will be more likely to accept that the second part (that hot dogs aren't sandwiches) is true as well.

See the difference? Critical thinking involves reasoning your way through a situation (analysis) as well as making a judgement (evaluation) . On the SAT essay, however, you can’t just stop at abstract critical reasoning - analysis involves one more crucial step...

Part II: Examples, Reasons, and Other Evidence (Support)

The other piece of the puzzle (apparently this is a tiny puzzle) is making sure you are able to back up your point of view and critical thinking with concrete evidence . The SAT essay rubric says that the best (that is, 4-scoring) essay uses “ relevant, sufficient, and strategically chosen support for claim(s) or point(s) made. ” This means you can’t just stick to abstract reasoning like this:

That explanation is a good starting point, but if you don't back up your point of view with quoted or paraphrased information from the text to support your discussion of the way the author builds his/her argument, you will not be able to get above a 3 on the Analysis portion of the essay (and possibly the Reading portion as well, if you don't show you've read the passage). Let's take a look of an example of how you might support an interpretation of the author's effect on the reader using facts from the passage :

The author’s reference to the Biblical story about King Solomon elevates the debate about hot dogs from a petty squabble between friends to a life-or-death disagreement. The reader cannot help but see the parallels between the two situations and thus find themselves agreeing with the author on this point.

Does the author's reference to King Solomon actually "elevate the debate," causing the reader to agree with the author? From the sentences above, it certainly seems plausible that it might. While your facts do need to be correct,  you get a little more leeway with your interpretations of how the author’s persuasive techniques might affect the audience. As long as you can make a convincing argument for the effect a technique the author uses might have on the reader, you’ll be good.

Say whaaat?! #tbt by tradlands , used under CC BY 2.0 /Cropped and color-adjusted from original.

Did I just blow your mind? Read more about the secrets the SAT doesn’t want you to know in this article . 

Your Writing score on the SAT essay is not just a reflection of your grasp of the conventions of written English (although it is that as well). You'll also need to be focused, organized, and precise.

Because there's a lot of different factors that go into calculating your Writing score, I've divided the discussion of this rubric area into five separate items:

Precise Central Claim

Organization, vocab and word choice, sentence structure, grammar, etc..

One of the most basic rules of the SAT essay is that you need to express a clear opinion on the "assignment" (the prompt) . While in school (and everywhere else in life, pretty much) you’re encouraged to take into account all sides of a topic, it behooves you to NOT do this on the SAT essay. Why? Because you only have 50 minutes to read the passage, analyze the author's argument, and write the essay, there's no way you can discuss every single way in which the author builds his/her argument, every single detail of the passage, or a nuanced argument about what works and what doesn't work.

Instead, I recommend focusing your discussion on a few key ways the author is successful in persuading his/her audience of his/her claim.

Let’s go back to the assignment we've been using as an example throughout this article:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Hodgman builds an argument to persuade his audience that the hot dog cannot, and never should be, considered a sandwich."

Your instinct (trained from many years of schooling) might be to answer:

"There are a variety of ways in which the author builds his argument."

This is a nice, vague statement that leaves you a lot of wiggle room. If you disagree with the author, it's also a way of avoiding having to say that the author is persuasive. Don't fall into this trap! You do not necessarily have to agree with the author's claim in order to analyze how the author persuades his/her readers that the claim is true.

Here's an example of a precise central claim about the example assignment:

The author effectively builds his argument that hot dogs are not sandwiches by using logic, allusions to history and mythology, and factual evidence.

In contrast to the vague claim that "There are a variety of ways in which the author builds his argument," this thesis both specifies what the author's argument is and the ways in which he builds the argument (that you'll be discussing in the essay).

While it's extremely important to make sure your essay has a clear point of view, strong critical reasoning, and support for your position, that's not enough to get you a top score. You need to make sure that your essay  "demonstrates a deliberate and highly effective progression of ideas both within paragraphs and throughout the essay."

What does this mean? Part of the way you can make sure your essay is "well organized" has to do with following standard essay construction points. Don't write your essay in one huge paragraph; instead, include an introduction (with your thesis stating your point of view), body paragraphs (one for each example, usually), and a conclusion. This structure might seem boring, but it really works to keep your essay organized, and the more clearly organized your essay is, the easier it will be for the essay grader to understand your critical reasoning.

The second part of this criteria has to do with keeping your essay focused, making sure it contains "a deliberate and highly effective progression of ideas." You can't just say "well, I have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, so I guess my essay is organized" and expect to get a 4/4 on your essay. You need to make sure that each paragraph is also organized . Recall the sample prompt:

“Write an essay in which you explain how Hodgman builds an argument to persuade his audience that the hot dog cannot, and never should be, considered a sandwich.”

And our hypothetical thesis:

Let's say that you're writing the paragraph about the author's use of logic to persuade his reader that hot dogs aren't sandwiches. You should NOT just list ways that the author is logical in support of his claim, then explain why logic in general is an effective persuasive device. While your points might all be valid, your essay would be better served by connecting each instance of logic in the passage with an explanation of how that example of logic persuades the reader to agree with the author.

Above all, it is imperative that you make your thesis (your central claim) clear in the opening paragraph of your essay - this helps the grader keep track of your argument. There's no reason you’d want to make following your reasoning more difficult for the person grading your essay (unless you’re cranky and don’t want to do well on the essay. Listen, I don’t want to tell you how to live your life).

In your essay, you should use a wide array of vocabulary (and use it correctly). An essay that scores a 4 in Writing on the grading rubric “demonstrates a consistent use of precise word choice.”

You’re allowed a few errors, even on a 4-scoring essay, so you can sometimes get away with misusing a word or two. In general, though, it’s best to stick to using words you are certain you not only know the meaning of, but also know how to use. If you’ve been studying up on vocab, make sure you practice using the words you’ve learned in sentences, and have those sentences checked by someone who is good at writing (in English), before you use those words in an SAT essay.

Creating elegant, non-awkward sentences is the thing I struggle most with under time pressure. For instance, here’s my first try at the previous sentence: “Making sure a sentence structure makes sense is the thing that I have the most problems with when I’m writing in a short amount of time” (hahaha NOPE - way too convoluted and wordy, self). As another example, take a look at these two excerpts from the hypothetical essay discussing how the author persuaded his readers that a hot dog is not a sandwich:

Score of 2: "The author makes his point by critiquing the argument against him. The author pointed out the logical fallacy of saying a hot dog was a sandwich because it was meat "sandwiched" between two breads. The author thus persuades the reader his point makes sense to be agreed with and convinces them."

The above sentences lack variety in structure (they all begin with the words "the author"), and the last sentence has serious flaws in its structure (it makes no sense).

Score of 4: "The author's rigorous examination of his opponent's position invites the reader, too, to consider this issue seriously. By laying out his reasoning, step by step, Hodgman makes it easy for the reader to follow along with his train of thought and arrive at the same destination that he has. This destination is Hodgman's claim that a hot dog is not a sandwich."

The above sentences demonstrate variety in sentence structure (they don't all begin with the same word and don't have the same underlying structure) that presumably forward the point of the essay.

In general, if you're doing well in all the other Writing areas, your sentence structures will also naturally vary. If you're really worried that your sentences are not varied enough, however, my advice for working on "demonstrating meaningful variety in sentence structure" (without ending up with terribly worded sentences) is twofold:

• Read over what you’ve written before you hand it in and change any wordings that seem awkward, clunky, or just plain incorrect.
• As you’re doing practice essays, have a friend, family member, or teacher who is good at (English) writing look over your essays and point out any issues that arise. 

This part of the Writing grade is all about the nitty gritty details of writing: grammar, punctuation, and spelling . It's rare that an essay with serious flaws in this area can score a 4/4 in Reading, Analysis, or Writing, because such persistent errors often "interfere with meaning" (that is, persistent errors make it difficult for the grader to understand what you're trying to get across).

On the other hand, if they occur in small quantities, grammar/punctuation/spelling errors are also the things that are most likely to be overlooked. If two essays are otherwise of equal quality, but one writer misspells "definitely" as "definately" and the other writer fails to explain how one of her examples supports her thesis, the first writer will receive a higher essay score. It's only when poor grammar, use of punctuation, and spelling start to make it difficult to understand your essay that the graders start penalizing you.

My advice for working on this rubric area is the same advice as for sentence structure: look over what you’ve written to double check for mistakes, and ask someone who’s good at writing to look over your practice essays and point out your errors. If you're really struggling with spelling, simply typing up your (handwritten) essay into a program like Microsoft Word and running spellcheck can alert you to problems. We've also got a great set of articles up on our blog about SAT Writing questions that may help you better understand any grammatical errors you are making.

How Do I Use The SAT Essay Grading Rubric?

Now that you understand the SAT essay rubric, how can you use it in your SAT prep? There are a couple of different ways.

Use The SAT Essay Rubric To...Shape Your Essays

Since you know what the SAT is looking for in an essay, you can now use that knowledge to guide what you write about in your essays!

A tale from my youth: when I was preparing to take the SAT for the first time, I did not really know what the essay was looking for, and assumed that since I was a good writer, I’d be fine.

Not true! The most important part of the SAT essay is using specific examples from the passage and explaining how they convince the reader of the author's point. By reading this article and realizing there's more to the essay than "being a strong writer," you’re already doing better than high school me.

Change the object in that girl’s left hand from a mirror to a textbook and you have a pretty good sketch of what my junior year of high school looked like.

Use The SAT Essay Rubric To...Grade Your Practice Essays

The SAT can’t exactly give you an answer key to the essay. Even when an example of an essay that scored a particular score is provided, that essay will probably use different examples than you did, make different arguments, maybe even argue different interpretations of the text...making it difficult to compare the two. The SAT essay rubric is the next best thing to an answer key for the essay - use it as a lens through which to view and assess your essay.

Of course, you don’t have the time to become an expert SAT essay grader - that’s not your job. You just have to apply the rubric as best as you can to your essays and work on fixing your weak areas . For the sentence structure, grammar, usage, and mechanics stuff I highly recommend asking a friend, teacher, or family member who is really good at (English) writing to take a look over your practice essays and point out the mistakes.

If you really want custom feedback on your practice essays from experienced essay graders, may I also suggest the PrepScholar test prep platform ? I manage the essay grading and so happen to know quite a bit about the essay part of this platform, which gives you both an essay grade and custom feedback for each essay you complete. Learn more about how it all works here .

What’s Next?

Are you so excited by this article that you want to read even more articles on the SAT essay? Of course you are. Don't worry, I’ve got you covered. Learn how to write an SAT essay step-by-step and read about the 6 types of SAT essay prompts .

Want to go even more in depth with the SAT essay? We have a complete list of past SAT essay prompts as well as tips and strategies for how to get a 12 on the SAT essay .

Still not satisfied? Maybe a five-day free trial of our very own PrepScholar test prep platform (which includes essay practice and feedback) is just what you need.

Trying to figure out whether the old or new SAT essay is better for you? Take a look at our article on the new SAT essay assignment to find out!

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Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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