If you live on the East Coast, then chances are pretty good that your January 23rd SAT just recently became your February 20th SAT. That’s a bummer, no? Then again, maybe you’re happy—you’ve just been given a whole extra month to study. My suggestion: take advantage. I was planning on taking my Math Guide and Essay (more…)
The College Board has released, at long last, its first full practice test since announcing sweeping changes to the PSAT and SAT last year. You may now finally, if you’re one of a small group of merry misfits that actually enjoy this kind of thing, sit down for 3 hours and take a prototype test (more…)
I have a lot to say about the new SAT’s essay; I might not end up being able to squeeze it all into one post, but I’m going to try. In order to give this post a bit of structure—both to help me organize my thoughts and to help you find what you’re looking for—I’m (more…)
PWN the SAT: Essay Guide is available now in two formats: Paperback (list price $12.99) Kindle (list price $7.99) Note that you don’t need an actual Kindle device to read the Kindle version—there are Kindle apps for iOS and Android devices, and Kindle books can also be read right on your web browser. About the (more…)
My Essay Guide is now available as a Kindle book. It’s about 100 pages long, and contains a bunch of the essay advice I’ve posted to this site over the years, plus a bunch of other stuff that I’d never really written down before I decided to write this book. It’s aimed at helping you (more…)
Note: this is an excerpt from the PWN the SAT Essay Guide, available now in paperback and Kindle. Mini-thesis The first sentence of any body paragraph should be what I call a mini-thesis. This sentence refers back to your main thesis, puts it in context of the evidence you plan to cite in the paragraph. (more…)
I find myself giving this bit of quick advice to students all the time, but realized today that I’d never written it down for y’all. You might not have time for this, and that’s OK, but if you finish your essay early, there are a few productive things you can do that don’t involve wholesale (more…)
© Copyright C P Smith and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. My grad school semester is winding down, and I’m starting to think about all the fun Essay Guide work I’m going to be doing the minute I had in my last paper. To that end, I wanted to invite you to write (more…)
I’ve been very slowly working on an Essay Guide. So frustratingly slowly. The plan is for it to be an ebook (and maybe, if people really like it, a print book at some point). And it’s still very far from being done, but it’s getting to a point where I think it’s not a waste (more…)
This is a bit of a cliche, but you really should hold your reader’s hand and guide him through your essay. Avoid reader whiplash at all costs—your grader should never have to pause to wonder how he got to where he is, because you should be there at every juncture, reminding him exactly how he (more…)
Source. What you should take away from this post: You don’t have to use examples that support your point directly You can also use reverse examples to support your point indirectly EXAMPLE: Let’s say the point you want to make is that teens to need make their own decisions and face the consequences to become (more…)
SAT essay assignments require you to take a position and support it using “reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.” In other words, you don’t just have to say what you believe, you need to try to persuade your reader to agree with you, or at the very least convince him (more…)
This is Part 5 of a multi-part series on how to write a stellar SAT essay. Check out the other parts here: [part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4] Things You’ll Learn From This Post: Paragraph 3 is identical to Paragraph 2 w/ one exception (transition) There needs to be transition between paragraphs “Like” and “Addition” transitions (more…)
This is Part 4 of a multi-part essay series. Check out those other parts first, if you haven’t already. [part 1, part 2, part 3] Deep analysis avoids claim and summary as much as possible. If you make a claim, you back it up with examples and reasoning. If you give a summary, you also (more…)
Katelyn’s 10 essay (in the comments) Because even though you only get one score, your essay can fail or succeed along 5 axes. The above is something I’m working on to try to help people understand a little better how, even if their grammar is perfect, for example, their essay score might not improve. It (more…)
