The SAT Essay: Myth vs Reality

"Do I have to quote a great book on the SAT writing exam?" students ask. The good news to this and other questions: No you don't -- not if it's not your style. There are multiple paths to a high scoring SAT essay.

The SAT instructions state that students can draw essay support from a variety of places: including personal experience as well as literature or history. The scoring rubric reminds students -- as well as scorers -- that one type of support is not valued above the others.

Having been involved with the SAT essay since nearly its inception, I have heard a lot of test taking myths. Some are simply the fears and misconceptions of young test takers: These students may have been chastised by parents and teachers over handwriting issues (perhaps for a continued preference for print over script). Now the students wonder if their handwriting will affect their SAT score. SAT writing scorers are themselves scored and judged, and they have incentive to interpret the rubric correctly. Is the handwriting so poor that an experienced scorer would have to read sentences over and over again to try and piece together what the student wrote? If so, it could have some impact on the score. In most cases, if it's legible it's just fine -- and many people find print easier to read than cursive.

Some myths spring from simple lack of information; others owe their origins to the test prep industry itself. Essay test formulas can be overemphasized and carelessly applied. One of the most infamous of these: You should quote a great work of literature... and decide in advance what that piece of literature that will be! Sure, one can write a thoughtful SAT essay about a classic work, especially if s/he's spent weeks discussing it in English -- and, yes, it's indeed worthwhile to spend time brainstorming books with universal themes. There are limits, however, to how much that will help a student. It's best if one doesn't try to relate The Great Gatsby to every SAT essay topic!