Having trouble with timed essays. Any tips?

[Karenciavo]

My ds16 has yet to finish a timed essay and I have no idea how to help him. We've been doing them two ways: weekly since September using TOG's Evaluations - so he's familiar with the topics, but feels he has so much to say he needs more time; and monthly using SAT practice tests, he has to think about how he's going to approach the argument.

 

So, we need some pointers on picking up speed and I have a question re: the SAT essay - do you think it's more important to have a great argument with some very good analogies/references to lit/history and only get 2/3's of the way through it or should he focus more on getting through the essay, possibly leaving analogies/references out.

 

Thank you in advance. :001_smile:

[Tullia]

I'm not sure how much of this applies to your son, because mine had a quite different problem with the SAT/ACT essays. He had no problem finishing but his scores were consistently mediocre even though he received good feedback about clarity, his statements of the argument, and the organization of his essays. His main problem was in not developing his points with enough detail. That's why I bought LToW when he'd outrun the Classical Writing publishing schedule. :D

 

From what I've read about the experiences of other students, I'd say that in order to get an excellent score it's important to include good use of analogy/literary reference material. Good organization isn't enough by itself, and really good references can overcome minor deficiencies in arrangement.

 

For your son, I'd suggest that he limit the number of points covered to no more than three no matter how much he wants to to include more. Then, he needs to go back and review that part of Lost Tools which talks about arrangement of strongest point first, weakest point, and using the most emotionally effective point last.

 

However, I wouldn't stop with deciding on the order; I'd tell him that instead of writing all he can about all three points that he spend the most time on the first since that will tend to catch the grader's eye. The graders have to work quickly so first impressions count! Then, he should be quite brief in his development of the second point thus saving time for a somewhat more detailed treatment of his final point which will reinforce the impression that he does, indeed, know how to use references.

 

Also, my son's essays could have used more skillful transitions. I obtained some of his essays and they could have been better in that respect. Good transitions can also do a lot to relieve the deadening monotony of the standard essay form. However, in spite of my best efforts and all the work he did in CW on making skillful transitions ds just didn't see the point. His philosophy was just write it and get the job done. He did that all the way through LT, too.:glare: His English instructor this past semester zinged him on that very issue on his first paper last semester. Guess what? Problem solved--instantly.

 

I'm sure there are other resources out there for teaching how to allocate time, but Write-Shop's lesson on timed essays is excellent. Also, you need to put the essay portion in perspective by asking whether or not schools to which he intends to apply even care. I our case the answer was no, and a couple said don't even bother--we don't look at the essay scores. With the exception of essay questions on exams, in college writing your son will usually have time to fully develop his points and his grades will probably benefit from having written something worth reading.

 

Practice is important, and at first, we set the time at so many minutes for brainstorming, outlining, writing, and proofing separately. Then we tweaked the times because he was pretty consistent in needing more time on some sections and less on others. After that, he just did lots and lots of practice.

 

I think, too, it can be helpful to have some "stock" illustrations ready which can be applied widely. However, IMO, it would be unwise to have such things overly scripted since they might need to be modified in order to fit the prompt.

 

HTH,

Martha

 

Added thoughts on helping to develop the argument in a timely way: Look at the arrangement lesson on writing exordia, especially the five options which ask the student to choose from among rhetorical questions, relevant statistics, a challenging element (sometimes called a "hook"), a joke/maxim/anecdote, or a quotation relevant to the topic. Somehow, this helps get past the letdown that sometimes comes when you've constructed the thesis and proofs and wonder where to go next. I'd suggest you have him memorize the list of options and write it down in short form on the essay worksheet.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Martha in NM
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[Myra]

Martha,

 

Thanks so much for your reply! I've printed your answer off to go over with my son the next time we do an SAT essay prompt!

 

Myra

[Tullia]

I should not have been so dismissive of timed essays in my earlier post. Ds is finding that the discipline of writing timed essays is a valuable skill in some of his classes. For example, he took a course last fall in the history of architecture. Unlike his experiences with SAT/ACT essays, for this course, his problem was fitting in all he wanted to write into the time allowed.

 

Most of the exams included discussion questions which could be answered in 2-3 paragraphs, and included at least one question which called for writing an in-class essay w/o the use of notes. The final had three essay questions plus brief discussion questions. Ds always came out of the AH exams with writer's cramp.

 

The first exam in that course was take-home and required him to write the equivalent of 10 brief essays in 4 days. So, I think that the time we spent on timed essays has been helpful for more than just SAT prep.

[Jann in TX]

We have the big blue one from the college board.

My daughter really found the sample essays helpful. She tended to go into too much detail in the first few paragraphs and was always running out of time--never could finish the last one--until she studied the samples.

[April in CA]

Hi Karen,

In my son's SAT experience, he found that he had time to develop two main points along with a good intro and conclusion. Having the conclusion is better than having three developed ideas and no conclusion. My son also found that knowing a couple of novels really well (Pride and Prejudice, and All Quiet on the Western Front) allowed him to pull ideas and examples from literature pretty easily. All the history work with TOG really pays off as well! It is also helpful if you can add a personal example, depending on the prompt. Really what the SAT evaluators are looking for is if the student can pick a position and support it. Another big thing is to make sure the student actually responds to the prompt as it is rather than changing it into something else. If the student does not address the prompt, the score is zero, regardless of how eloquent his writing sample may be.

Hope these ramblings are helpful!

Blessings,

April

[Tullia]

Martha,

 

Thanks so much for your reply! I've printed your answer off to go over with my son the next time we do an SAT essay prompt!

 

Myra

 

You're welcome, and I hope some of my ideas are useful. BTW, I think April's suggestions are excellent. It's better to develop two points fully than try to fit in three short points that aren't well supported. Looking at a variety of sample essays is a good strategy too. One of the prep books we used asked the student to write an essay and then compare it to samples which had been graded and then guess what grade their essay might earn.

[Karenciavo]

Thanks everyone :001_smile:

[Leonor]

From what I have learned from attending Andrew Pudewa's High School Essay Intensive seminar, the SAT Essay is different from what one might expect as an essay response to a test in college.

 

The previous posts recommending looking at SAT responses are great suggestions.

What April recommends is exactly what Andrew talks about.

 

He gaves us sample responses without telling us how they were graded. We had to score them. I was shocked at the scores. My friends and I (independently) would have scored all of them lower. He made us compare 2. The one we would have score higher (better written) was the one that scored lower (it was shorter). I was surprised how a longer paper with more grammatical mistakes could score better than another.

The one with the personal example (mother dying of cancer) scored higher. He also told us there is someone from MIT who did a study and just by looking at an essay(without reading it) he could estimate the score that was given. Obviously, sometimes length plays a role. Remeber, they have very little time to grade these.

 

Andrew's seminar was helpful. I didn't buy the course. We attended a one-day seminar.

[Karenciavo]

Andrew's seminar was helpful. I didn't buy the course. We attended a one-day seminar.

 

I have a friend who is organizing a seminar, but I haven't really paid it much mind because we don't use IEW. Rethinking that now.

Thanks.

[April in CA]

Hello again!

I bought the IEW SAT prep course and my son found it very helpful, even though we haven't used IEW for writing. The DVD course comes with a couple of CDs from which you can print a variety of essay prompts along with instructions on how to use the ideas from the seminar over a longer period of time. We only had time for a "crash-course," but I am hoping to do better with my younger son. We also used a couple of SAT prep books, including the 10 real SATs book; my son found those very helpful in practicing with real SAT prompts. He much prefers to have a longer period of time to write an essay, but he really was able to get quite good in a short period of time at getting something credible down in 25 minutes. The payoff, in addition to a great SAT score, is that he is a faster writer in general now!

Hope this helps and encourages!

Blessings,

April

[Karenciavo]

Thanks again April, I'll check that out.