...The SAT Essay: Building a Repertoire of Examples The SAT essay is intended to measure your writing skills, not your knowledge of any specific subject. Therefore, the essay prompts given on the SAT must be fairly open-ended, so that anyone with a highschool education and life experiences common to all teenagers can respond to them. Most of them deal with basic philosophical, psychological, moral, or social issues. In my experience as a teacher, I’ve seen that the biggest challenge students face in writing the SAT essay is coming up with rich and relevant examples to discuss within the twenty-five minutes you’re given for the essay section. Quite often, students end up using examples that are inappropriate or superficial, or they don’t know enough about the examples they’ve chosen to write about them in detail. The way to combat this problem is to create your own repertoire of examples that you are well prepared to write detailed paragraphs about. Then, when you read the prompt you’re given on the day of the test, you can simply choose the examples from your repertoire that are most relevant to that particular topic. (Of course, this method isn’t fullproof; it may happen that you are unfortunate enough to get a topic that your prepared examples aren’t really appropriate for. If that’s the case, don’t try to force your examples to fit the topic. The process of coming up with these examples and writing several practice essays will also help you learn how to come up with new examples...
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...SAT Good or Bad for College Aptitude? During our lifetime from starting off at preschool to kindergarten to years later on finally making your way to high school and even going off to college to find the right career path that you choose. But many start to feel as if what is the point of the SAT, like sure it helps show your ability to figure out problems and makes it even easier to go to college. But in my opinion i find that making high schools students take the SAT’s is pointless only because it takes time and a lot of frustrating studying, another reason that students shouldn't take the SAT because it makes it very hard to get a high score on it and lowers the self esteem of the students and makes them question their intelligence....
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...Helping Your Teen Prepare for the SAT or ACT Test While some colleges no longer require SAT or ACT scores for admission, most college-bound students will need to take at least one of these tests. For some students, the idea that one test could make such a difference in their lives can be intimidating. If you have a high school-age child, there are several things you can do to help your teen prepare for the SAT or ACT tests. Classes Every school has specific graduation requirements. These minimum class requirements may not be enough to prepare your teen for either of these tests or for college. When possible, have your teen take math courses such as algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Taking upper level English classes, such as A.P. English, will also help your teen be better prepared for either the SAT or ACT test. Your teen should take the most challenging high school courses the student can handle. For some students, this may mean filling...
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...Grade 10 Multiple Choice Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question. Critical Reading Identify the letter of the choice that best answers the question. ____ 1. At the beginning of the story, what seems to be the most important thing in Tom Benecke's life? a. | opening the window that always sticks | b. | going to the movies with his wife | c. | getting paid at the end of the week | d. | getting a promotion at work | ____ 2. Which of the following events happened first in “Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket”? a. | Tom thought about what the police would find in his pockets. | b. | Tom dropped coins from his pockets to the street below. | c. | Tom watched his wife get ready to go out alone. | d. | Tom smashed his fist through the window. | ____ 3. Which of the following events causes Tom to go out on the ledge? a. | Tom does research on store displays. | b. | Clare goes to the movies alone. | c. | Tom's paper flies out the window. | d. | Tom puts on his coat. | ____ 4. Which event in “Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket” causes Tom to panic? a. | His wife goes to the movies. | b. | He sees the street below him. | c. | He thinks about the contents of his pockets. | d. | He sees a man reading a newspaper across the street. | ____ 5. Which of the following is a moment of high suspense in the story? a. | Clare leaves. | b. | Tom looks down and panics. | c. | Tom...
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...Title: | The American Experience: SAT Style Argument Essay | Task: | Suggested Engagement Scenario: In order to be well-prepared for the SAT that you will take this year, it is important to practice the essay component of the exam. That is what you will do today.Part 1: Compose a 25- minute timed SAT style argument essay. Use the rubric to guide your response to this prompt: Is the American Dream possible for all people? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your position on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.Part 2: Review anchor papers with rubric, then determine your own score. (This does not replace teacher evaluation)Part 3: (optional follow-up) Compose a diary entry focused on the American Dream from the perspective of a Colonial Era immigrant. (W.# Narrative Task) | Standards: | RI.11.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information in order to address a question or solve a problem.W.11.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.L.11.3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. | Materials: | Teacher Materials: * Teacher directions * Rubric | Student Materials: * SAT Style Essay prompt sheet * Rubric | General...
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...The SAT and ACT have become the nations most widely used admissions tests among colleges and universities. These tests display a student's ability to use Mathematical reasoning, Analytical reading, and Writing skills. The scholastic aptitude test was first introduced to high school students in 1926 By Carl C. Brigham, As a scholarship test for ivy league schools. It was experimentally administered to over 8,000 students at over 300 test centers, Then becoming standardized in the 1940s. It was intended for academically gifted students who did not come from prestigious boarding schools' known for supplying the majority of ivy league applicants, Today it is used to display one's academic strength and readiness for colleges and universities...
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...ACT/SAT T EST Preparation and Practice Workbook Grateful acknowledgment is given to authors, publishers, and agents for permission to reprint the following copyrighted material. Every effort has been made to determine copyright owners. In case of any omissions, the Publisher will be pleased to make suitable acknowledgments in future editions. Excerpt from The Mystery of Comets by Fred L. Whipple. Copyright © 1985 by Smithsonian Institution. Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories, by Ellen Levine. Copyright © 1993 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Putnam. Excerpt from New Essays on the Psychology of Art by Rudolf Arnheim. Copyright © 1986, University of California Press. Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from The Natural History of Cats by Claire Necker. Copyright © 1970, A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc. Reprinted by permission. Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher. Send all inquiries to: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 8787 Orion Place Columbus, OH 43240-4027 ISBN-13: 978-0-07-876567-4 ISBN-10: 0-07-876567-6 Printed in the United States of America. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 021 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 ACT/SAT Test Preparation and Practice ...
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...SAT WRITING ESSENTIALS SAT WRITING ESSENTIALS ® NEW YORK Copyright © 2006 LearningExpress All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Starkey, Lauren B., 1962– SAT writing essentials / Lauren Starkey. p. cm. ISBN 1-57685-532-5 1. English language—Composition and exercises—Examinations—Study guides. 2. SAT (Educational test)—Study guides. I. Title. LB1631.5.S785 2006 378.1'662—dc22 2005027520 Printed in the United States of America 987654321 ISBN 1-57685-532-5 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at: www.learnatest.com About the Author Lauren Starkey is a writer and editor who specializes in educational and reference works. Her thirteen years of experience include eight years on the editorial staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. The author of more than ten volumes, Lauren lives in Essex, Vermont, with her husband and three children. v Contents CHAPTER 1 Getting to Know the Writing Section of the New SAT Old versus New Strategies for Test Taking Scoring SAT Study Timetable 1 1 2 4 5 11 12 32 45 55 56 58 59 59 65 68 69 CHAPTER 2 The Multiple-Choice Section Identifying Sentence Errors Improving Sentences Improving Paragraphs CHAPTER 3 The Essay Strategies for Timed Essays Understanding the Prompts...
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...SAT WRITING ESSENTIALS SAT WRITING ESSENTIALS ® NEW YORK Copyright © 2006 LearningExpress All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Starkey, Lauren B., 1962– SAT writing essentials / Lauren Starkey. p. cm. ISBN 1-57685-532-5 1. English language—Composition and exercises—Examinations—Study guides. 2. SAT (Educational test)—Study guides. I. Title. LB1631.5.S785 2006 378.1'662—dc22 2005027520 Printed in the United States of America 987654321 ISBN 1-57685-532-5 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at: www.learnatest.com About the Author Lauren Starkey is a writer and editor who specializes in educational and reference works. Her thirteen years of experience include eight years on the editorial staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. The author of more than ten volumes, Lauren lives in Essex, Vermont, with her husband and three children. v Contents CHAPTER 1 1 Old versus New 1 Strategies for Test Taking 2 Scoring 4 SAT Study Timetable CHAPTER 2 Getting to Know the Writing Section of the New SAT 5 11 Identifying Sentence Errors 12 Improving Sentences 32 Improving Paragraphs CHAPTER 3 The Multiple-Choice Section 45 The Essay 55 ...
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...Why do colleges rely heavily on the S.A.T & A.C.T. scores? The SAT is essentially a reasoning test used to evaluate potential college students in an unbiased way. The SAT, unlike high school academic tests, is not a place to demonstrate accumulated knowledge, and high school alone does not prepare a student for a good score on the SAT. The SAT is neither an IQ test nor a measure of academic potential. Higher scores on the SAT significantly increase a student’s college options, learning about and preparing to take the SAT is an extremely important part of the college process. Some students have a high g.p.a. but can be bad test takers regardless if they study or not. We all know that many college admissions offices imbue SAT and ACT scores with importance. At schools that are deluged with tens of thousands of applications, numbers matter, so these scores can play an outsized role in admission decisions. That means these scores can affect where individual students get to go to school. Through my High School experience, teachers told me the SAT would determine a lot of my potential in life. Having been told this, I still feel the ways that it has affected me, and I still remember all of the years it took to undo the feeling of having a test define the rest of your life. Having to apply for fee waivers and the worry related to not scoring "high enough." because of this experience, I didn’t apply to the schools I didn’t think would accept me (based on my grade), and I didn’t...
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...I knew I wasn’t worried about passing my class because I was open-minded for doing everything I needed to do for school. The struggle I’m going to talk bout in this essay is about my struggle of FCAT and how I accomplished it and what I went through after knowing I failed it. It all started just because I transfer schools. Let me tell you how it all started. When FCAT came in October and I couldn’t take it because I had transfer to University High. I knew I had lost my chance of passing the most important part to get my diploma, I was scared and depress about it. I knew there was other ways to replace FCAT and get my degree, but I didn’t wanted to do that. Then, March came and it was my last chance to get a passing score on the most stressful test I ever take, FCAT. Knowing this day was coming I got terrified. Having help from my favorite reading teacher in high school, Mrs. Hartman. She really helped get through everything I felt when I found out I wasn’t to move on with my career goal. When Scores came in from March FCAT and the teacher told me I didn’t pass I started crying and I got really upset. Then I knew I had to take a stand and find another solution about what I can do to pass my FCAT. So I went to my Guidance Counselor and I asked her what other choices I had. She said, “ You can take ACT or SAT,” I was surprise when she said, “ You can take it for free because you have reduce lunch,” I was more excited because I had a free opportunities. I was able to take...
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...The Florida State University Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement Summer Bridge Program www.care.fsu.edu Florida State University is committed to recruiting, retaining, and graduating first-time-in-college students who may have been disadvantaged due to economic, educational, or cultural circumstances. To assist with these goals, the Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement (CARE) was created. The CARE Summer Bridge Program (SBP) provides a comprehensive program of orientation and academic support designed to ease the transition from high school to college while building a strong academic foundation. The majority of applicants selected to participate in SBP will be first-generation college students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who have demonstrated a strong desire to succeed. Applicants must be legal Florida residents to be eligible for SBP. All SBP participants will live together in campus housing during the initial summer term, along with current Florida State students who will serve as residential peer counselors, guides, and mentors. Participants will also: • Tour campus facilities and the local community. • Meet key University faculty, staff, and administrators who will become part of the student’s support system. • Meet campus student leaders and representatives of student organizations to learn more about what the University has to offer. • Participate in cultural enrichment activities. • Have fun and make lifelong friends. Students admitted...
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...Gustavo Villarroel 8801 Villa View Cir APT 204 Orlando Fl, 32821 Gustavo Villarroel 8801 Villa View Cir APT 204 Orlando Fl, 32821 Hello Sir or Madam, I realize that this is not one of the prompts for the essay. But I thought instead of going through the same essays over and over again, you can get to know more about me and what I’d like to do for the future. Sound good? Ok let’s go. First of all my name is Gustavo Arturo Villarroel De La Concha Alvarez. Pretty long isn’t it? Don’t worry you can call me Gus for short. Over the past year when I still a junior in high school I conjured up a multitude of ideas for innovations that could very well alter the way we manufacture vehicles for the future, but first I need to be educated in the field that best suits that subject, Mechanical Engineering. During my junior year, I bought a 2001 6 cylinder Laser Red Ford Mustang. It was a stick shift too, so it was fun to drive on the highway switching in and out of gears and really hear the engine roar. I went with my mother and step father to the Rolex 24 since they worked for BRA Motorsports and went inside the garages for the racers and I was mesmerized by the array of sport horses as well as the components that make them up. I was always a curious soul, I just felt the need to poke my nose into things that fascinated me and I always had the urge to obtain a COMPLETE understanding of them...
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...SAT Vocabulary A abase (v.) to humiliate, degrade (After being overthrown and abased, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.) abate (v.) to reduce, lessen (The rain poured down for a while, then abated.) abdicate (v.) to give up a position, usually one of leadership (When he realized that the revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne.) abduct (v.) to kidnap, take by force (The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her happy home.) aberration (n.) something that differs from the norm (In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and the Red Sox have not won a World Series since.) abet (v.) to aid, help, encourage (The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him.) SAT Vocabulary A abhor (v.) to hate, detest (Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to abhor the sport.) abide 1. (v.) to put up with (Though he did not agree with the decision, Chuck decided to abide by it.) 2. (v.) to remain (Despite the beating they’ve taken from the weather throughout the millennia, the mountains abide.) abject (adj.) wretched, pitiful (After losing all her money, falling into a puddle, and breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject.) abjure (v.) to reject, renounce (To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil policies of his wicked predecessor.) abnegation ...
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...SAT Essay Prompt 1 I may not be a impressive psychiatrist but I have increased my knowledge on feelings due to the fact of me wanting to become a psychiatrist. I don’t believe that it is better for people to act on their feelings than to talk about them. Furthermore, people should continue to talk about their feelings. I’m the type of person who gets furious quick and does not like to talk about my feelings, but when I hold it in it just builds up and gets worse. I tried almost everything I could think of to not let it out but nothing worked. I couldn’t sleep, eat, and I wasn’t myself. Everyone began to notice that I have been acting very strange so they begin to torture me which made it no better. So finally my best friend gave me some advice which was to just write things in a diary which is just like talking but is letting it out silently until I was ready to talk out loud. Once I did that I felt releved and was able to eat, sleep, and I became myself again. After a couple of weeks, I began to gradually tell my best friend what was going on with me and it felt even greater. My example shows that it is easier to talk out your feelings because from the way I was acting I could tell people didn’t like that and was very shocked that it was coming from me. Putting across about how you feel, either if you are writing it down or talking to someone about it, it should make you feel a different way and I hope it’s better. This is why most people who need to share their feelings...
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