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The following is quoted directly from the College Board’s website.
Below are essay prompts from the most recent SAT administration in December 2011.
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
The pressures to conform in a modern free society are not as drastic as they were in the past, when failure to conform meant imprisonment or worse. Such influences are, however, more dangerous because they are hard to detect. These are the pressures to live like our neighbors, to think like our community, to reshape ourselves in the image of someone else. The appeal of belonging to a group is attractive, but doesn’t such conformity destroy our individuality?
Adapted from Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn By Living
Assignment: Is it always harmful for an individual to think and live as other people do? 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.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” However, it is hard to believe that just a few people can make a significant difference. Given the many great challenges that the world faces, it seems impossible to change anything for the better unless one can attract a lot of people and spend a lot of money.
Assignment: Can a small group of concerned individuals have a significant impact on the world? 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.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
We all know idealists—people who have goals that are noble but often impractical. We also know realists—people who limit their goals to achievements that they are likely to accomplish and who only make plans that are practical and manageable. While it is true that practical people often accomplish their individual goals, humanity as a whole has more to gain from the idealistic dreamers.
Assignment: Do idealists contribute more to the world than realists do? 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.
Prompt 4
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Experts seem to agree that people benefit from the increased number of choices available to them in modern society. For instance, if consumers can decide from among a hundred breakfast cereals or dozens of types of cell phones, they ought to be able to find the product that is best for them. But with so many choices available, people can never be sure they chose the right thing. They agonize over every choice.
Adapted from Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox
Assignment: Do people benefit more from having many choices or few choices? 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.
By admin
The following is taken directly from the College Board website.
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
“Discipline” is a negative word for many people because it is associated with rigorous training, strict rules, and strong self-control. But we fail to realize that freedom comes only through discipline. Discipline compels us to sacrifice immediate rewards and pleasures, but it also gives our lives structure and prevents us from making costly mistakes. It keeps us from being subject to our impulses and weaknesses and thus frees us to achieve our true goals.
Assignment: Do people need discipline to achieve freedom? 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.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
We are often encouraged to stop worrying about making mistakes and advised not to dwell on those we have already made. But without analyzing mistakes—decisions and actions that made a project fail, for instance—how can anyone be successful? Besides, there are some well-known mistakes others have made that seem worth studying carefully. Perhaps these mistakes could have been prevented if those responsible had been more concerned about making mistakes in the first place.
Assignment: Do people have to pay attention to mistakes in order to make progress? 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.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
The making of illusions—misleading images or ideas that appear to be authentic or true—has become the primary business of our society. Included in this category are not only the false promises made by advertisers and politicians but all of the activities which supposedly inform, comfort, and improve us, such as the work of our best writers and our most influential leaders. These promises and activities only encourage people to have unrealistic expectations and to ignore facts.
Adapted from Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image
Assignment: Are people overly influenced by unrealistic claims and misleading images? 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.
Prompt 4
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Although most of us do not like being criticized, it is said that we can always benefit from being told what we are doing wrong. We may lose a valuable learning opportunity if we do not listen to the criticisms expressed by others. Yet criticism, even when honest and well-intended, can be more harmful than helpful. We have more to gain by ignoring or shielding ourselves from the criticisms of others.
Assignment: Are people better off if they do not listen to criticism? 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.
By admin
The following is quoted directly from the College Board’s website:
Below are essay prompts from the most recent SAT administration in June 2011.
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
People assume that every accomplishment—each step in what we call progress—will lead to the solution to a problem and will help them reach the goal of understanding themselves and the world around them. In reality, however, each new answer provokes additional questions and each fresh discovery uncovers further complications. Every accomplishment leads to further problems, added responsibilities, more complications, and new challenges.
Assignment: Does every achievement bring with it new challenges? 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.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Loyalty is a virtue that is encouraged and rewarded in every aspect of our lives. We are, therefore, loyal to our families, our teams, our schools, and our countries. But too often loyalty is blind: by automatically identifying ourselves with a group and accepting its values as our own, we avoid taking responsibility for our own thoughts and actions.
Assignment: Does accepting the values of a group allow people to avoid taking responsibility for their own thoughts and actions? 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.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
A requirement for membership in any group is conformity. Members must agree on such vital issues as how decisions will be made, who will serve as leaders, and how much freedom group members will have. The quality of decision making, however, is better when groups encourage nonconformity and disagreement among their members. Although it sometimes creates disorder and conflict, disagreement may prevent powerful majorities from making mistakes.
Assignment: Do groups that encourage nonconformity and disagreement function better than those that discourage it? 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.
By admin
These are quoted from the College Board’s website:
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Again and again we hear the complaint that we have no heroes anymore. Heroes—people who should be admired for their great courage or noble achievements—are no longer recognized in our modern world. Many people, in fact, believe that heroes existed only in the past. But this belief is wrong. Because more praise is given to the latest technological innovation than to one individual’s heroic achievements, we may not be aware of our heroes, but we do have them.
Assignment: Is it possible to be a hero in the modern world? 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.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Technology has dramatically increased the speed with which we can communicate and share information. Some people are critical of this development, claiming that rapid communication, often made possible by some form of technology, discourages people from focusing at length on any one topic, shortens their attention spans, and prevents them from truly learning about the world and people around them. But what is wrong with how instantly and easily information is communicated thanks to the wonders of modern technology?
Assignment: Does the way that information is communicated today result in people learning less than ever before? 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.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Is a temporary or partial solution to a problem better than no solution at all? Many people would say so. All that humanity can hope to accomplish is to find workable solutions to the serious problems of the world. Others would argue, however, that the world’s serious problems are, in fact, caused by the so-called solutions. These solutions are creating problems more serious than the problems they are addressing.
Assignment: Do temporary or otherwise imperfect solutions to problems only create more serious problems? 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.
Prompt 4
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Choice improves the quality of our lives. On the other hand, the fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better. There is a problem with having too much choice. We are unwilling to give up any of our options, but stubbornly insisting upon having all the choices available to us can lead to bad decisions, stress, and dissatisfaction.
Adapted from Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Assignment: Is it better for people to have limited choices? 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.
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The College Board has released the March 2010 essay prompts. The text below is quoted directly from the College Board site.
From the College Board:
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Many powerful leaders throughout history have considered themselves above the law and acted in ways that violated the laws or guidelines of their own country or group. People are quick to condemn these leaders, but shouldn’t leaders be held to different standards? If what a leader is doing benefits the majority of the people in a country or group, it does not matter if a law or guideline is violated.
Assignment: Should leaders of a country or group be judged by different standards? 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.
Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
People are often advised to practice moderation in everything they do. The way to succeed in achieving their goals, they are told, is to remain balanced, controlled, and restrained. But this advice is misguided. Instead of being moderate, people should be passionate and intense. Throughout history, moderation has produced nothing extraordinary or exceptional. Excellence in any pursuit requires excess — great enthusiasm, high energy, and extreme effort.
Assignment: Is moderation an obstacle to achievement and success? 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.
Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
Possibly because we live in a work-oriented society, most of us feel that we must be continually busy in order to be successful. We are led to believe that fabulous wealth and fame await the person who works the hardest and is always busy. The irony is that taking it easy now and then would help us achieve our goals a lot sooner. In fact, overwork can stifle our creative ability.
Adapted from Ernie J. Zelinski, The Joy of Not Working
Assignment: Does society put too much emphasis on working hard? 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.
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Want a quick way to get data on tuition and fees? Search the Chronicle of Higher Education’s database.
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I’ve been reading The Choice (the NYTimes blog about college admission) closely this week. They’ve run a seven part series answering parents’ questions about paying for school. I learned a lot and thought the series was pretty valuable overall. It’s not like sitting down with a financial planner, but it does raise a lot of points to consider.
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A student applying to the University of Chicago wrote a psuedo-love letter as his college essay. The dean, with the student’s permission, sent it out to applicants as a way to ‘lighten the mood.’ Controversy ensued. I heard about it on the Choice, the NYTimes blog about college admissions.
I haven’t read the whole essay, but given that Chicago has unusual prompts, it seems entirely reasonable to take a risk and write an unusual essay for that application. And in this case, the student was granted early acceptance. Ideally, an essay will let admissions committees know who the applicant is. In this case, the student struck me as someone willing to take risks, to poke fun at the whole college process. Clearly, that held some appeal at the University of Chicago.
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The Texas Commission on the Arts has a great scholarship for artistic students — it’s called the Young Masters program. Read this to learn more.
The deadline for applying is November 15.
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1. Buy a book with lots of practice tests. Take one at 8am on a Saturday morning, under test-like conditions.
*Go to a library or an office or someplace quiet.
*Time each section.
*Stop. Then begin the next timed section.
*Leave your phone at home. Use a watch.
*Take 5 minute breaks between sections. Make the experience truly test-like.
2. Grade the practice test.
3. Within two days of taking the practice test, examine each question you got wrong. See if you can determine what you did wrong — did you make a simple math error? Did you misread the question? Did you get the problem set up but then get stuck? The more specific you can be here, the better. Make a list of each question missed and the reason you think you missed it.
4. Read through the explanations in the back of the book of all your wrong answers. See if you can add to the reasons you might have missed a question.
5. Read through all the right answers (sometimes you get a question right for the wrong reason).
6. Review your list of errors that you made. Look for patterns (ie ‘I missed three questions because I didn’t pay attention to the word EXCEPT in the question’).
7. Choose two or three of your patterns and find solutions (’I will put a box around the word EXCEPT’).
8. Put your test materials away for a day or two.
9. Take another full practice test. Before you take it, review all of your notes. As you take it, make sure that you pay careful attention to the two or three patterns you identified in your errors.
10. Grade your test. Then repeat steps 3- 9. Eventually, you should know your patterns and habits well enough to be able to prevent most of your errors and raise your scores.
If you have trouble identifying your errors or don’t understand what you did wrong, meet with a tutor who can help you.