Borland Educational News and Views: Top 10 SAT Essay Tips
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Borland Educational News and Views
To teach is to create possibility; to learn is to discover who we are.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Top 10 SAT Essay Tips
Examine the sample essays in any SAT test prep book, including the
College Board’s own publications, and you’ll find, despite all the hot
air to the contrary, that the single factor most obviously correlated
to high SAT essay scores is ... LENGTH!
It’s a fact: all else being equal, long essays get much higher scores
than short essays.
Of course, it helps to be an award-winning writer who can pen a
remarkably solid, insightful, and moving essay in his sleep ... but
honestly, how many high school students (or award-winning writers,
for that matter) can be counted on to produce such a work in the
short 25 minute period allowed for the essay on the SAT1?
Remember, above all ... it’s about LENGTH!
---
Top 10 SAT essay tips:
1. You simply MUST write a long essay, if you expect to earn a high
score. How long is long? More than one and a half pages of the two
pages provided to you on which to write and submit your essay
(ideally, you’d finish within a few lines of the very end of the last
page).
2. In addition, your essay needs to be properly structured. That is, it
must have 4-5 distinct paragraphs: an introduction, 2-3 body
paragraphs, and a conclusion. A representative of the Princeton
Review told me that SAT essays are initially scanned by computer to
see how many lines are written on (again, it’s about length) and
how may paragraphs there are (i.e. how many indented lines there
are); essays that are too short or unstructured (i.e. not enough
paragraphs) are assigned low scores (1-3) by a computer, and not
even read by a real human being!
3. Therefore, you should "super indent" each paragraph. If your
paragraphs are not well indented, the computer scanning your essay
may not realize when you’re beginning a new paragraph, and assign
a low score to your essay because it appeared to lack the required 4-
5 paragraph structure. You do NOT want that to happen. So, make
SURE the machine will recognize each of your paragraphs by using
super-sized indents. I recommend using a huge two-inch indent (at
least one full thumb-length) on the first line of each paragraph, just
to be absolutely sure (this also adds a little bit to the overall length
of your essay).
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About
Chris Borland
I help students to learn and love
mathematics, attain outstanding scores on
standardized tests like the SAT, SAT Subject
Tests, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, and HSPT, and
become more prosperous, productive, and
successful in school. Students of mine go
from D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s, raise their
SAT scores by as much as 450 points, and
greatly increase their academic competence
and confidence. I began my private teaching
career giving music lessons at the age of 16,
and have operated a professional academic
coaching practice for nearly three decades.
Since 1978, it has been my privilege to
serve as academic coach, tutor, and mentor
to more than a thousand private students of
all ages and abilities, assisting them in
reaching their personal best, achieving their
educational goals, and finding enduring
success as students and young people. My
interests include visiting family in Bali,
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archery, Macs, music, philosophy, comedy,
and recreational math and science. I'm most
grateful for my wife and daughter, for love,
forgiveness, freedom, courage, inspiration,
enthusiasm, certainty, uncertainty, and for
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2/2/2010
Borland Educational News and Views: Top 10 SAT Essay Tips Page 2 of 6

4. Spend the first two to three minutes writing a very short outline
Archive
for your essay, in which you answer the following two questions: 1. ► 2009 (18)
WHAT do I believe (your thesis), and 2. WHY do I believe it ► 2008 (25)
(convincing examples that prove your point, ordered so that the ► 2007 (31)
best example comes last and the second best coming first). ▼  2006 (32)
► December (4)
5. Then, write furiously for about 20 minutes, sticking to your ▼  November (3)
outline, and be SURE to finish writing your conclusion before time is Top 10 SAT Essay Tips
up (so you'll have at least some time left over to quickly proofread “Provide The Answer” vs. “Pick The
your essay). Time is very short – you really do have to hurry – and Answer”
any essay submitted without a conclusion will not (of course) be Front And Center
given a high score. ► October (5)
► September (3)
6. Finally, take two to three minutes to proofread your essay, ► August (6)
making simple corrections and edits, improving overall neatness and ► July (5)
appearance, etc. ► June (6)

7. Write legibly, keeping your left margins neatly aligned. SAT essay
readers have hundreds of essays to read in a single day. This means Posts
that your essay will not be carefully read, and the
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Borland Educational News and Views: Top 10 SAT Essay Tips Page 3 of 6

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are quite comfortable doing so in under 25 minutes. Get essay
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prompts for practice essays from the internet (google “SAT essay
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prompts”), or take them from published SAT workbooks. Gifted Ones
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In a March 4, 2005 article in the New York Times, M.I.T. testing Distance Learning for High Schoolers

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Read the entire article here. SAT Prep Planning (Part 1)
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Top 10 SAT Essay Tips
“Provide The Answer” vs. “Pick The
Answer”
Chris Borland said... Front And Center
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RocketReview Revolution, by original Princeton Review founder ACT’s Financial Aid Need Estimator
Adam Robinson, the "father of SAT prep," seems like a great Support Net Neutrality!
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Specific resources available there include an automated online
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Borland Educational News and Views: Top 10 SAT Essay Tips Page 4 of 6

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Snips
“Whatever the subject, what the
teacher really teaches is himself.”

"A mathematics teacher is a midwife to

ideas."

"A GREAT discovery solves a great

problem, but there is a grain of
discovery in the solution of any
problem. Your problem may be modest,
but if it challenges your curiosity and
brings into play your inventive faculties,
and if you solve it by your own means,
you may experience the tension and
enjoy the triumph of discovery."

George Pólya

---

"The desire to understand the world

and the desire to reform it are the two
great engines of progress."

"Although this may seem a paradox, all

exact science is dominated by the idea
of approximation."

"Boredom is a vital problem for the

moralist, since at least half the sins of
mankind are caused by the fear of it."

Betrand Russell

---

"Imagination is more important than

knowledge."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in

mathematics, I assure you that mine
are greater."

"There are two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a
miracle."

Albert Einstein

Action

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Borland Educational News and Views: Top 10 SAT Essay Tips Page 6 of 6

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