How to Write a Perfect SAT Essay in 4 Simple Steps
Do you have questions about how the essay portion of the SAT is scored? Are you interested in a formula that will maximize your score? The good news is that the SAT essay is the same process regardless of the test date and we have the formula you’re looking for. The passage on test day will be between 650 and 750 words, and you will have 50 minutes to complete the SAT Essay. To understand how to write a perfect essay follow these steps, but before we begin, let's look at how the essay portion is graded.
How is the essay graded?
The essay portion is scored in 3 categories: Reading, Analysis, and Writing. Your essay is scored by two graders, who each rate your essay on a scale of 1-4; the two graders' categorical scores are added together for a final score out of 8 in each category. There is no composite essay score, the three categorical scores are not added together, and there is no percentile ranking comparing your score to other students. A perfect essay: is extremely clear, consistent, smooth, and easy to read. A good essay has few grammatical errors, is not repetitive in content or language, but is sufficiently detailed and illustrates that you understand the text and the author’s claim.
Step #1: Understand your goal
Your goal for the essay is NOT to summarize the passage. Your goal is to explain how the author builds an argument to persuade the reader. The trick is to communicate to the grader that you understand the passage, and evaluate the author’s use of evidence, reasoning, and/or stylistic and persuasive elements. The essay prompt will be the same in every test. What will change is the passage you’ll be asked to analyze. If you are familiar with the essay prompt ahead of time you will save time on test day and write a better essay.
Step #2: Writing your thesis
While you are reading you should identify at least 3 persuasive techniques that the author uses in the passage. Types of techniques include, but not limited to, appeal to authority, use of facts and figures, word choice, personal anecdotes, emotional appeal, and anticipation of counter arguments. In the thesis paragraph you will want to identify the main idea of the passage, introduce the techniques you would like to analyze, and show how these techniques relate back to the main idea of the passage.
Step #3: Writing your body paragraphs.
These paragraphs are the main portion of your essay, but each body paragraph will follow the same process. The first thing you will want to do is re-introduce the rhetorical technique you will be analyzing in a given paragraph and how this technique is used to support the main idea of the passage. The second thing you will need to do is provide an example from the passage of the rhetorical strategy in question and explain how the technique contributes to the author’s message and meaning. Lastly, you will need to describe the impact the technique has on the reader.
To illustrate this structure lets break down why this response, provided as an example by the college board, scored perfectly:
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.
In this response the student follows the 3 step process we have outlined above: reintroduction of rhetorical device, an example of the rhetorical devices with an explanation of how it supports the main idea, and finally how the technique impacts the reader. To get a perfect score just repeat this format for all 3 body paragraphs and will you be on your way to success in the essay portion
Step #4: Fantastic Fundamentals
In the example response provided in the previous section, notice how the response is thorough, while avoiding repetition. You should try your best to use varied word choice that is clear and concise to get a better writing score. Furthermore, the structure of the paragraph is logical, and the ideas are well organized, each idea flows to the next without issue. The writer also makes sure to identify the what/how/why of the author's argumentative devices. Thus ensuring the paragraph has the appropriate length. Shorter essays will receive lower writing scores; your target for each body paragraph should be at least 6 sentences. Finally, your response should have 5 paragraphs: a thesis paragraph, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The conclusions should tie the whole response together with a reiteration of the main idea and the techniques you covered.
Now What?
Now that you know the 4 steps to writing a perfect SAT essay, you will need to practice. Remember, you are given only 50 minutes to read the passage, write the response, and have enough time to quickly revise your writing. To get a perfect score on the SAT essay you will need to practice, and practice is more productive with feedback. If you have any questions you can reach out to us at 650-273-7258 or by email at info@studytime.com.
Attributions:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sample-questions/essay/1
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/test-specifications-redesigned-sat-1.pdf
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/full-length-practice-tests