Admission to college requires many things, one of which is taking a college entrance exam, most commonly referred to as the SAT. Consisting of three sections (math, critical reading and writing), the SAT is the cause of much anxiety and stress for high school students. This article serves as an introduction to the SAT Writing section.
SAT Writing is not as difficult or as intimidating as it may sound. Expectations are for students to read an assignment and compose a response in an essay format. The tester must take a stand and then support their position with examples from schoolwork, literature, history, and/or their own personal experiences. As this is a personal essay, it should come from the student’s point of view. Opinions should be support with passage references in addition to examples from their own experiences.
In addition to the essay, the also requires that students be able to indentify sentence errors and show an ability to improve the quality of provided sentences and paragraphs without changing their meaning. This section assesses a student’s grasp on grammar, usage and word choices. Broken into three segments (one 25-minute section, one 10-minute section and 25 minutes for the essay) the 60 minute SAT Writing section is composed of 49 multiple-choice questions and the SAT Essay assignment.
There are many tips that will help students succeed when taking the SAT. One of the most important SAT Writing tips is to take advantage of the correct answer explanations when using practice materials. Take time and actually read the essay assignment. Everything provided is there to help you and each assignment contains a short paragraph about the issue. Don’t be afraid to take a stand. That’s the purpose of the essay. Express how and why you agree or disagree with the author. Develop your opinion using one or two well thought out examples instead of numerous examples not explained sufficiently. Less is more. You won’t score extra points for the longest essay. Choose quality over quantity. Finally, be yourself. The essay is a personal essay. It is your opinion. Don’t be afraid to express yourself.