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What Is Essay Bot? AIs Writing an Essay for You Might Not Be Safe

Writing essays isn’t many people’s favorite part of studying for a qualification, but it’s necessary. Or is it? If you’ve ever sat in front of a computer and felt like you didn’t know where to start, you might have been tempted to get Essay Bot to do the work for you. Before you search for it, here is what you should be aware of.

What is Essay Bot?

Essay Bot is just one of many AI services which are on the increase. The Essay Bot website claims to have an inbuilt plagiarism checker, so you might think this is a positive aspect. However, the unlimited search database is basically information already available on the internet. The site states that the bot searches millions of websites and provides the most relevant information. This all sounds good, perhaps too good.

Is Essay Bot Safe?

Essay Bot might be okay if you just want to create a piece of writing which isn’t related to college work, or for some offline material that isn’t going to be published online and get you into trouble. However, it’s too risky for college work. The software just seems to rewrite content that is already online, and it doesn’t always do this well.

Of course, you could rewrite the text in a way that makes more sense to your essay and addresses the points you want to make, but there are several downsides to this.

You could spend more time rewriting than you would if you simply wrote the complete essay yourself. You may also end up plagiarizing someone else’s work during the rewrites. It’s likely that the words Essay Bot provides are a rearrangement of content already available, and in an attempt to make more sense, you accidentally rewrite some of the text it was taken from.

You could invest in high-quality plagiarism software to prevent this, but is it really worth the cost and the extra time of tweaking and rewriting until the essay becomes completely unique?

Probably not.

Can You Get in Trouble for Using Essay Bot?

Yes, you could get in trouble for using Essay Bot if your tutor or anyone else at your college found out.

Most colleges will use a plagiarism checker and if your essay fails this, you will put your place at risk. Each college or university will have different rules, but you could fail the essay, be made to redo the module or lose your place on the course. Education is not cheap, so it doesn’t seem worth the risk.

Even if you manage to craft your bot-written essay into something unique that also makes sense, getting someone to write your essay for you is still cheating. The writer being a bot doesn’t change that.

The easy way to determine if something is wrong is if you ask yourself whether you would admit to your tutor how you crafted your essay. If you wouldn’t tell them, you’re probably breaking the rules and could get into serious trouble if found out.

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SAT Writing , SAT Essay

Whether you've never written an SAT Essay or didn't get the score you wanted on your last test, you can benefit from knowing more: both about the essay itself, and what really matters when the graders are reading your essay.

To introduce you to what you'll have to do, we've gathered up these 15 tips to master the SAT essay . If you can reliably follow all these points, you'll be able to get at least a 6/6/6 on the SAT essay—guaranteed.

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

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In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

The Challenge

The SAT Essay is a very short assignment. You only get 50 minutes to read a 650-750 word passage, analyze the devices the author uses to structure her/his argument, and write a full-fledged essay —and it can pass in a flash if you don't have a method for attacking it.

Writing an SAT essay requires a very specific approach that's unlike the essays you've been writing for English class in school. The goal of this strategy is to cram in as many as possible of the desired components in the 50 minutes you've got. In this article, we give you 15 key tips for the SAT essay.

The first five tips in this article relate to what the College Board tells us about what's a good essay. The next five are truths that the College Board doesn't want you to know (or doesn’t make explicit). And the last five tips for SAT essay writing show you how to build an SAT essay, step by step.

What the College Board Does Tell You: 5 Tips

The College Board explains the main components of the successful SAT Essay in its scoring criteria. Here they are, condensed:

#1: Give a Clear Thesis

The SAT essay rubric states: "The response includes a precise central claim.”

What this means is that your essay needs to make a clear argument that the reader can easily identify.  All you have to do to create your "precise central claim" is to identify the main idea of the passage and list the methods the author uses to support it.

Fortunately, the SAT provides you with the passage’s main idea, so you don’t have to go hunting for it yourself. I've bolded the claim in this (fake) sample prompt so you can see this for yourself:

Write an essay in which you explain how Sam Lindsay builds an argument to persuade her audience that more works of art should feature monsters . In your essay, analyze how Lindsay uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of her argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Lindsay’s claims, but rather explain how Lindsay builds an argument to persuade her audience.

Now, here's an example of a thesis statement for an essay responding to this prompt:

In the article “Monsters Monsters Everywhere,” Sam Lindsay uses personal anecdotes, vivid language, and appeals to emotion to persuade her audience that more works of art should feature monsters.

It's fine to copy the exact words describing the author’s central claim from the prompt into your thesis statement—in fact, this guarantees that the graders will see that your thesis is there and on-topic.

#2: Include Both an Introduction and a Conclusion

The SAT essay rubric states: "The response includes a skillful introduction and conclusion.”

Including an introduction paragraph in your essay is absolutely essential to getting a Writing score above a 4 (out of 8). The introduction paragraph introduces the reader to what you’ll be talking about and allows you to set up the structure for the rest of the essay. Plus, an introduction can be a pretty good indicator of the quality for the rest of the essay—a poorly constructed introduction is often a warning that the essay that follows will be equally discombobulated.

It's best to have both an introduction and a conclusion, but if you’re running short on time and can only have one, definitely pick the introduction. The main reason for this is that a good introduction includes your thesis statement. For the SAT essay, your thesis (or your "precise central claim") should be a statement about what devices the author uses to build her/his argument.

Introductions can be tricky to write, because whatever you write in that paragraph can then make you feel like you’re locked into writing just about that. If you’re struggling with the introduction paragraph, leave yourself 10 blank lines at the beginning of the essay and jump into writing your body paragraphs. Just make sure you remember to go back and write in your introduction before time’s up!

#3: Use Effective Language and Word Choice

There are a couple of parts of the Writing score section on the SAT essay rubric that pertain directly to style.

The SAT essay rubric states this about a perfect-Writing-score essay: "The response is cohesive and demonstrates a highly effective use and command of language."

For most of us, "command of language" is an area that takes a long time to develop, so unless your language skills are really rough or you're prepping at least a year ahead of time (or both), you'll probably get more out of focusing on the other components of the essay.

The SAT essay rubric also states: “The response has a wide variety in sentence structures. The response demonstrates a consistent use of precise word choice. The response maintains a formal style and objective tone.”

This basically boils down to: don't be repetitive and don't make grammar mistakes. In addition, you should avoid using first person statements like "I" or "My" in the essay, along with any other informality. You're writing the equivalent of a school paper, not an opinion piece.

Bad (Too informal):

“I think that Sam’s super persuasive in this article cause she’s just so passionate. It made me feel kinda bad that I don’t really monster it up in my everyday life.”

Good (Formal):

“Lindsay’s passionate defense of how drawing monsters 'allows us to laugh at our personal foibles' causes her audience to put themselves in her shoes and empathize with her position.”

Finally, try to use different words to describe the same idea—don't use "shows" 15 times. Take the chance to show off your vocabulary ( if, and only if , the vocabulary is appropriate and makes sense) . This component is the biggest reason why revising your SAT Essay is essential—it's fast and easy to change repeated words to other ones after you're finished, but it can slow you down during writing to worry about your word choice. If you're aiming for a top score, using advanced vocabulary appropriately is vital.

#4: Only Use Information From the Passage

All the relevant information is in the passage, so avoid getting drawn into the topic and using your outside knowledge—you want to be sure to show that you’ve read the passage.

In real life, there are many ways to support a thesis, depending on the topic. But on the SAT, there's one kind of correct support: specific details drawn from the passage you’re asked to analyze . We'll show you more below.

#5: Focus Your Essay on Relevant Details

You don’t have to mention every single detail that makes the argument effective. In fact, your essay will be more coherent and more likely to score higher in Analysis if you focus your discussion on just a few points . It's more important to show that you're able to pick out the most important parts of the argument and explain their function that it is to be able to identify every single persuasive device the author used.

Think about it as if you were asked to write a 50-minute essay describing the human face and what each part does. A clear essay would just focus on major features—eyes, nose, and mouth. A less effective essay might also try to discuss cheekbones, eyebrows, eyelashes, skin pores, chin clefts, and dimples as well. While all of these things are part of the face, it would be hard to get into detail about each of the parts in just 50 minutes.

And this is the eye, and this is the other eye, and this is the...other eye...and the other eye...and the other...wait...what's going on here?

What the College Board Doesn’t Tell You: 5 Secrets

Even though the SAT essay has clearly stated, publicly-available guidelines, there are a few secrets to writing the essay that most students don't know and that can give you a major advantage on the test.

#1: Read the Prompt Before the Passage

Why? Because the prompt includes the description of the author’s claim. Knowing what the author’s claim is going into the article can help keep you focused on the argument, rather than getting caught up in reading the passage (especially if the topic is one you're interested in).

#2: Your Facts Must Be Accurate…But Your Interpretation Doesn’t Have to Be

A big part of the Analysis score for the SAT essay is not just identifying the devices the author uses to build her argument, but explaining the effect that the use of these devices has on the reader . You don’t have to be completely, 100% accurate about the effect the passage has on the reader, because there is no one right answer. As long as you are convincing in your explanation and cite specific examples, you’ll be good.

Here's an example of an interpretation about what effect a persuasive device has on the reader (backed by evidence from the passage):

Lindsay appeals to the emotions of her readers by describing the forlorn, many-eyed creatures that stare reproachfully at her from old school notebook margins. The sympathy the readers feel for these forgotten doodles is expertly transferred to Lindsay herself when she draws the connection between the drawn monsters and her own life: “Often, I feel like one of these monsters—hidden away in my studio, brushes yearning to create what no one else cares to see.”

Now, you don't necessarily know for sure if "sympathy for the doodles" is what the author was going for in her passage. The SAT essay graders probably don't know either (unless one of them wrote the passage). But as long as you can make a solid case for your interpretation, using facts and quotes from the passage to back it up , you'll be good.

#3: You Should Write More Than One Page

This has always been true for the SAT essay, but for the first time ever, the College Board actually came out in The Official SAT Study Guide and explicitly said that length really does matter . Here's the description of a one-paragraph, 120-word-long student response that received a Writing score of 2/8 (bolding mine).

“Due to the brief nature of the response , there is not enough evidence of writing ability to merit a score higher than 1. Overall, this response demonstrates inadequate writing .” (source: The Official SAT Study Guide , p. 176 )

You’ll have one page for (ungraded) scrap paper that you can use to plan out your essay, and four pages of writing paper for the essay—plan on writing at least two pages for your essay .

#4: Be Objective When Reading the Passage

Being able to stay detached while reading the passage you'll be writing the essay about can be tricky. This task might be especially difficult for students who were used to the old SAT essay (which pretty much made it mandatory for you to choose one side or the other). You’ll have to practice reading persuasive essays and gaining objectivity (so that you are able to write about how the argument is constructed, not whether it’s good or bad).

A good way to practice this is to read news articles on topics you care deeply about by people who hold the opposite view that you do . For instance, as a composer and violist/violinist, I might read articles about how children should not be encouraged to play musical instruments, since it holds no practical value later on in life (a view I disagree with vehemently). I would then work on my objectivity by jotting down the central ideas, most important details, and how these details relate to the central ideas of the article .

Being able to understand the central ideas in the passage and details without being sidetracked by rage (or other emotions) is key to writing an effective SAT essay.

Don't let the monster of rage distract you from your purpose.

#5: Memorize and Identify Specific Persuasive Techniques

Once you’re able to read articles objectively (as discussed in point #4 above), the next step is to be able to break down the essay passage's argument . To do this successfully, you'll need to be aware of some of the techniques that are frequently used to build arguments.

The SAT essay prompt does mention a few of these techniques (bolding mine):

As you read the passage below, consider how Lindsay uses

• evidence, such as facts or examples , to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion , to add power to the ideas expressed.

It’s certainly possible to wing it and go into the test without knowing specific names of particular persuasive devices and just organically build up your essay from features you notice in the article. However, it's way easier to go into the essay knowing certain techniques that you can then scan the passage for .

For instance, after noting the central ideas and important details in the article about how more works of art should feature monsters, I would then work on analyzing the way the author built her argument. Does she use statistics in the article? Personal anecdotes? Appeal to emotion?

I discuss the top persuasive devices you should know in more detail in the article " 6 SAT Essay Examples to Answer Every Prompt ".

How to Get All the Necessary Components in 50 Minutes: 5 Step-By-Step Strategies

When you write an SAT essay, you only have 50 minutes to read, analyze, and write an essay, which means that you need a game plan going in. Here's a short step-by-step guide on how to write an effective SAT essay.

#1: Answer the Prompt

Don’t just summarize the passage in your essay, or identify persuasive devices used by the author—instead, be sure to actually analyze the way the author of the passage builds her argument. As  The Official SAT Study Guide states ,

"[Y]our discussion should focus on what the author does, why he or she does it, and what effect this is likely to have on readers."

College Board makes a point of specifying this very point in its grading rubric as well—an essay that scores a 2 (out of 4) or below in Analysis " merely asserts, rather than explains [the persuasive devices'] importance. " If you want to get at least a 3/4 (or a 6/8) in Analysis, you need to heed this warning and stay on task .

#2: Support Your Points With Concrete Evidence From the Passage

The best way to get a high Reading score for your essay is to quote from the passage appropriately to support your points . This shows not only that you’ve read the passage (without your having to summarize the passage at all), but also that you understand what the author is saying and the way the author constructed her argument.

As an alternative to using direct quotations from the passage, it’s also okay to paraphrase some of what you discuss. If you are explaining the author's argument in your own words, however, you need to be extra careful to make sure that the facts you're stating are accurate —in contrast to scoring on the old SAT essay, scoring on the new SAT essay takes into account factual inaccuracies and penalizes you for them.

#3: Keep Your Essay Organized

The SAT essay rubric states: “The response demonstrates a deliberate and highly effective progression of ideas both within paragraphs and throughout the essay.”

The main point to take away from this is that you should follow the standard structure for an SAT essay (introduction-body-body-conclusion) . Using a basic four- to five-paragraph essay structure will both keep you organized and make it easier for the essay graders to follow your reasoning—a win-win situation!

Furthermore, you should connect each paragraph to each other through effective transitions. We'll give you ways to improve your performance in this area in the articles linked at the end of this article.

#4: Make Time to Read, Analyze, Plan, Write, and Revise

Make sure you allocate appropriate amounts of time for each of the steps you’ll need to take to write the essay—50 minutes may seem like a long time, but it goes by awfully quick with all the things you need to do.

Reading the passage, analyzing the argument, planning your essay, writing your essay, and revising are all important components for writing an 8/8/8 essay. For a breakdown of how much time to spend on each of these steps, be sure to check out our article on how to write an SAT essay, step-by-step .

#5: Practice

The more you practice analysis and writing, the better you’ll get at the task of writing an SAT essay (as you work up to it a little at a time).

It's especially important to practice the analysis and writing components of the essay if you are a slow reader (since reading speed can be difficult to change). Being able to analyze and write quickly can help balance out the extra time you take to read and comprehend the material. Plus, the time you put into working on analysis and writing will yield greater rewards than time spent trying to increase your reading speed.

But don't forget : while it’s okay to break up the practice at first, you also really do need to get practice buckling down and doing the whole task in one sitting .

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning of improving your SAT essay score. Next, you actually need to put this into practice with a real SAT essay.

Looking to get even deeper into the essay prompt? Read our complete list of SAT essay prompts and our detailed explanation of the SAT essay prompt .

Hone your SAT essay writing skills with our articles about how to write a high-scoring essay, step by step and how to get a 8/8/8 on the SAT essay .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?

Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep classes . We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more.

Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by SAT experts . If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next.

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Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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Thinking about tackling the SAT Essay? Here's what you need to know: you'll be asked to read a text (typically a speech or editorial of some sort) and discuss how the author effectively builds an argument. This might be a familiar task if you’ve done it in school, but if not, don’t worry. The format is straightforward, and with some practice, you can learn how to write a great SAT essay.

What is the SAT essay?

The SAT essay is optional and costs an additional fee of $17.00. Currently, only 25 colleges and universities require the SAT essay. You can find a searchable list of school requirements for the essay here . If there is any chance that you might apply to one of those schools, you should sign up for the essay. If you are not sure where you will apply, you should strongly consider signing up for the essay. Your essay score will appear on every score report you send to colleges, regardless of whether or not the school requires an essay. 

Here are 5 tips for writing a killer SAT essay, should you decide to add on that section:

1. Stay Objective

The thing to remember here is that ETS (the company that writes the test) is not asking you for your opinion on a topic or a text. So be sure to maintain formal style and an objective tone. Tip: Avoid “I” and “you.

2. Keep It Tidy

Handwriting is becoming a lost art. Unfortunately, this is one occasion where your skill with a pencil matters. Graders read tons of essays each day. If they cannot decipher your script, they will lower your score. Do yourself a favor and write legibly.

3. (Indented) Paragraphs Are Your Friend

Remember the basic essay structure you learned in school: introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a conclusion? The SAT essay graders love it! Your introduction should describe the text and paraphrase the argument being made, as well as introduce the specific elements of the passage and argument that you will discuss in the essay. Your conclusion should restate the goal of the passage/argument and sum up the points you made.

Read More: SAT Tips and Strategies

4. For Example…

Use your body paragraphs to back up your thesis statement by citing specific examples. Use short, relevant quotes from the text to support your points.

5. Don't Worry About the Exact Terms for Things

Blanking on terminology? When describing how the author builds his or her argument, “appeal to the emotions” is fine instead of specifically referencing “pathos.” And “comparison of two things” can be used instead of referring to a metaphor. If you do know the official terms, though, feel free to use them!

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Top SAT Essay Tips To Improve Your Score

We’ve compiled a few SAT essay tips to help you have a better idea of what you’ll be doing. 

Many institutions demand SAT or ACT scores as part of the admissions process. Your SAT score is an essential part of your college application. The SAT essay is an elective section of the SAT that you need to pay an extra $17.00 to take. Are you still unsure where you would like to enroll in college? Only 25 institutions in the United States require the SAT essay. If you want to apply to one of those colleges, you should highly consider signing up for the essay.

Whether the SAT Essay is new to you or you’re just trying to improve the score you received on your last exam, you can gain important information by learning about the essay and what appeals most to the evaluators grading you. 

Benefits of Writing the SAT Essay

Even if a school you’re considering doesn’t mandate it, there are advantages to taking the SAT with Essay. One benefit is that it expands your college options, irrespective of what you’ve settled on so far. 

While some institutions may not need an SAT Essay score, they may suggest it as a component of the admissions process. Usually, having a higher SAT Essay score helps you distinguish yourself from thousands of other candidates. SAT essays are a fantastic way to demonstrate your writing ability.

Colleges can learn from your SAT essay that you have a strong command of the English language, can write well-organized work, and can reason logically. Some institutions require both the essay portion and SAT scores, while others do not. In that case, if you have chosen your potential colleges, check our guide to Colleges And Universities That Don’t Require SAT.  

SAT Essay Tips to Improve Your Score

Given below are some SAT Essay Tips to improve your score : 

1: State your Thesis Clearly

Your essay must give a coherent argument that the audience can understand. An SAT essay analysis tip that helps make your primary argument is identifying the passage’s key concept and describing the author’s strategies to support it.

The SAT provides you with the main concept of the paragraph to make your job simpler. You can summarise the author’s primary argument in your thesis statement word for word.

2: Include an Introduction and a Conclusion in your Paper

A new SAT essay writing tip is to open with a compelling paragraph. The opening paragraph informs the audience regarding the topic at hand and helps you lay the groundwork for the entire essay. The introduction can always determine the caliber of the paper. A sloppy start is sometimes a warning that the article will be cluttered.

The SAT essay is 50 minutes long, and it may not always be possible to have both an introduction and a conclusion. In such scenarios, an SAT essay analysis tip is to give preference to the opening as it includes your primary argument, forming your thesis.

3: Creating Effective Choice Of words and Using Correct Grammar

The SAT rubric emphasizes a command of language and style of writing skill. This essentially means you should avoid redundancy and grammatical errors. An excellent new SAT essay professional writing tip is to avoid repeating the same word in the essay multiple times; instead, aim to use synonyms to show off your vocabulary.

You should avoid utilizing first-person words such as “I” or “My” throughout the essay, as well as any other informality. It is vital to remember that this is a college admissions test and not an informal article. These are some of the critical SAT essay tips to improve your score.

4: Only Use Data from the Passage Given to You

An important SAT Essay tips to improve your score is utilizing the data given beforehand. The passage given to you contains all the necessary information you need to frame your essay. The most essential SAT essay analysis tip that we can give you is to focus on precise information extracted from the paragraph you’re analyzing.

5: Concentrate Your Essay Only on the Important Details

You have to remember that SAT Essay is a 50-minute assignment. To take full advantage of the allotted time, you need to focus your explanation on only a few ideas that make your argument clear and compelling. You will be guaranteed to score more marks with this approach. You need to identify the crucial arguments that the writer has put forward. A new SAT essay writing tip would be to not use examples from outside the text to support the author’s claims. 

A good example would be writing a 50-minute essay on the human face, with an explanation and functional details of each part. A clear, concise essay only includes the eyes, nose, and mouth. 

6: Focus on Length of the Essay 

SAT essay tips typically focus on the quality of writing but forget that the length is equally important. You will receive one page of scratch paper and four pages to write your essay. Ensure that at least two sheets are adequately filled. 

SAT Essay Tips: How to Effectively Manage Time?

As mentioned above, candidates get 50 minutes to complete the SAT Essay. This includes time for reading, comprehension, analysis, and writing. You must carefully use the time allotted along with the SAT essay tips to improve your score . 

Read the Passage Carefully in the First 5 Minutes:

Take notes to assist you in remembering the important ideas. Focus on how the author conveys his point of view through the passage and find a connecting link between paragraphs. Finally, identify the different rhetorical devices that the author employs.  

Plan your Essay in the Next 10 Minutes:

Utilize your scratch sheet to sketch out your essay once you’ve thoroughly understood the passage. Utilize the SAT essay analysis tips mentioned earlier and identify if the paragraph you read is more of a first-person account or a thesis where the author uses figures and numbers to make a point. An SAT essay analysis tip that may help candidates recognize three features of the author’s claim you want to discuss in each paragraph. 

Write your Essay in 25 Minutes.

This gives you ample time to write your essay, mainly if you’ve already spent time reading and organizing the contents of your essay. If at any stage you are not very clear about the essay, return to your scratch paper and make adjustments if needed. 

Proofread for Ten Minutes.

Make sure that you have enough time to go through your work and make any modifications if required. Edit grammatical or spelling issues, mark out and rephrase sections, and double-check that the text and concepts are coherent and logical. 

SAT Essay Scoring 

The new SAT essay writing tips are different. You no longer need to write a 5-paragraph essay stating your point of view and backing it with clear instances; the new SAT essay demands you to read a long section and then evaluate it with an essay. We have included new SAT essay writing tips to improve your score in this article.

The advantage of the new SAT essay is that you won’t have to come up with particular examples from literature, world affairs, or other sources anymore! The paragraph supplied in the prompt contains everything you’ll need to compose your essay.

The Important Facts of the New SAT Essay are: 

• You will get a time of 50 minutes to read the passage and write the essay. 
• Essays that are not on topic won’t be evaluated. 
• Two different evaluators will be scoring your essay. 
• The maximum score for each is 8, and the minimum is 2. 

SAT Essay Dimensions  

Update: the sat essay is discontinued.

The body that administers the SAT exam every year, stated in January 2021 that the Essay section of the SAT will be discontinued after June 2021. The College Board confirmed that the SAT Essay would not be offered anymore unless your institution is one of the few that chooses to administer it during SAT School Day Testing. This change will certainly lead to other college application modifications. 

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SAT Essay Writing Tips: All about the SAT Essay Preparation

The Scholastic Aptitude Test or SAT consists of 2 major segments: evidence-based reading and writing, and mathematics. Apart from these two sections, there is also the SAT essay. The essay writing section has a specific and separate set of demands that you might need to satisfy in order to score well in this section. 

So, if you find yourself stressing at the prospect of taking on yet another section, take a deep breath and consider that the SAT Essay is completely optional. Stay with us till the end to know if you should opt for the SAT essay or not. And if you are, this blog will also give you lots of SAT essay writing tips, along with last minute SAT writing tips! 

What is the SAT Essay?

An optional section of the SAT exam, the SAT essay will give you a passage by an author who is taking a stance on an issue. Your job will be to analyse how the author built that argument. If you choose to take the essay, it will be its own section of the SAT, and the score you get on the essay will be separate from your score on the rest of the exam. 

Your main SAT score will be out of 1600 while your essay will be graded across three different categories: Reading, Analysis, and Writing. For each area, your essay will be given a score from 2-8.

Check Out the SAT Exam Syllabus 2022! 

SAT Essay Structure

While pursuing the SAT essay, you’ll be presented with a passage between 650 and 750 words. In the 50 minutes allotted to you, it’ll be your job to both read the passage and respond to the corresponding SAT Essay prompts. This tests your ability to analyse the author’s argument in terms of the author's use of evidence, reasoning, and other rhetorical techniques.

All about the SAT Exam Pattern! 

Tips for Conquering SAT Essay

Moving on, let us understand how to prepare for SAT essay. This section will make you familiar with the most important SAT writing tips, and the kind of SAT essay strategy that you should follow to ace the exam! 

Understand the SAT Essay Scoring System

The SAT essay is not scored as correct or wrong as the multiple-choice questions. Two evaluators will read your essay separately and give you a grade in the range of 1-4 for each of the 3 sections: reading, analysis, and writing. The two reader's scores are then added together. 

• Your Reading score will reflect how well your essay shows that you understood the passage. 
• Your Analysis score will reflect how well your essay analyzes how the author went about persuading the audience. 
• Finally, your Writing score will reflect the cohesiveness of your essay as well as how well it demonstrates a command of language and the conventions of standard written English.

Study and Analyse Sample SAT essays

One crucial SAT essay strategy is analysing the high-scored sample SAT essay which will help you understand what exactly is expected in a good SAT essay. Take time to review the sample essays in detail and as you read through each of the example passages and corresponding responses, consider how and why the author used evidence, reasoning, and stylistic or persuasive elements.

Turn to Professional Writing and Editorial Outlets

One of the most crucial SAT writing test tips is to consistently read and analyse op-ed pieces from reputed media outlets. The more often you apply the skills required of you for the SAT Essay in your everyday life, the more prepared you’ll be to apply them in a test setting.

Prepare with Practice Essays

Quite common tips for writing SAT essay is to set aside an exact 50 minutes for the SAT essay as you would allow time for the rest of SAT paper practice. Take up the practice essay in a near actual test environment and evaluate your essay precisely.Compare your response to that of the student examples provided at different score points to discover possible weaknesses in your reading, analytics, and writing skills that you'll need to focus on in your preparations.

Read Your Test Day SAT Essay Passage Thoroughly

You may feel like you need to start writing as quickly as possible, but make sure you understand the author's argument thoroughly before beginning. Give yourself enough time to write, but don’t underestimate the importance of reading carefully as well.

Start with an Outline

Mapping out your approach for an introduction, body, and conclusion when the content is fresh in your mind will ensure that you don’t arrive at the end of your response with holes in your argument. An outline also helps you plan your writing by giving you a clear sense of direction when transitioning from one point to the next.

Start Strong, Build Strong, End Strong

‘First impact is the last impact’ will never make more sense to you than in your SAT essay. Make sure your essay has a really strong beginning and closure. Apart from that, the build-up has to be comparably impactful. 

Make Time for Edits

While not always possible, aim to leave some time at the end for review. In doing so, you may catch misinterpreted information or find other ways to further build on the points you made in your response. Rectifying your mistakes before giving in your answer scripts can save you the loss of a lot of marks.

Do’s and Don’ts for SAT Essay Writing Preparation

It is necessary to understand precisely what you have to do in your SAT Essay. Here is a list for how to prepare for SAT essay in the form of “Do’s”: 

• Use a thesis statement
• Use specific examples
• Refer to specific ideas in the sample argument
• Restate your thesis
• Leave time to edit

Having seen the “Do’s”, it is also important to keep in mind what we don't have to do in our SAT essays: 

• Don’t restate the prompt
• Don't repeat yourself
• Don't use phrases like “I think”, “I believe”
• Don't push your sentence structure
• Don't stuff your essay with big words

Suggested: What is the SAT Exam Eligibility Criteria?  

Because of the College Board’s recent decision to make the SAT essay optional, students are now faced with the decision of whether they should take it or not. The best way to decide is to learn the essay policy for each of the colleges you're interested in applying to. Some schools will still require the essay, some won’t even look at an applicant’s essay scores, and other schools don’t require the essay but will look at your score if you do take it. These last minute SAT writing tips will definitely help you up your game! 

Frequently Asked Questions about SAT Essay

Should You Take the SAT Essay?

Before you think about taking the SAT essay, you should realise that the SAT essay is completely optional now. In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT except at schools that opt-in during School Day Testing. While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay.  Taking up the essay or not solely depends on whether your school demands it or not, but if you take it up you are covered for all schools.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of taking the SAT essay?

Here are some other benefits of taking up the SAT essay: 1. You're Covered for All Schools 2. A Good Score May Boost Your Application Slightly But it doesn’t come with just benefits. These are the major drawbacks of taking up the SAT essay: 1. It's Another Section to Study For 2. It Makes the Exam Longer 3. The Essay Costs Extra

Is 3 months enough to study for the SAT?

Three months is a great amount of time to prepare for the SAT. You can spread out your studying and you'll have ample time to master the concepts tested on the SAT. With a good SAT study plan, 3 months is good enough for you to crack the SAT.

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