One of the most troubling areas of the new SAT® test is the essay section. Parents consistently ask our Directors how the Writing/Essay portion of the new SAT® differs from the test they took in high school. Students often ask us how the sat essays are graded. Are they graded in the same fashion my timed writes from my AP classes are? The Waterton Group has spent countless hours analyzing past SAT® tests and students actual essay grades to create a system to dominate the SAT® essay section. We have mastered the rubric and have the strategy to mastering the SAT® essay.

How to get that Perfect SAT Essay Score?

Students and Parents must first understand who reads the essay. SAT® essays are graded by high school and college level writing/english teachers. Each of these teachers grade literally hundreds of these essays in the days following each test date. These SAT® essay graders are instructed to read through the essay once and grade the writing holistically. Keeping this in mind, SAT® essays are graded on a curve ranging from 1-6, therefore, 1/6th of all essays receive the top score of 6 (aggregate score of 12 between two readers). Students are competing against tens of thousands of other essays so proper planning and execution are critical. Only 10% of the essay is based on the ideas that the students presents in their essays. The other 90% of the score stems from execution. This page is designed to help all Dallas SAT® prep students maximize the first 10% of this equation. So what next?

Planning is Everything

The SAT® essay graders subliminally reward planning. Logically structured essays with tremendous content are likely candidates for the perfect 12. If every student had unlimited time to complete the SAT essay, more students would score an 11 or 12. Unfortunately, the 25 minute writing allotment confines most students to a low or mid-range score. The Waterton Group has polished a technique to allow students to properly plan their perfect SAT® essays before they receive the prompt. Imagine already having two adequate examples in your head that you feel comfortable writing about before receiving the SAT® essay prompt. Below you will find our introductory solution that we offer to all students: The SAT® Essay Idea Bank.

The Waterton SAT® Essay Idea Bank

The first step is to manufacture a list of 10-12 examples to use as your "go to" list. This idea bank will save you 4-8 minutes on test day that would otherwise be wasted on essay preparation. Click the link below to review a list of potential SAT topics and get started on your own list of SAT® essay ideas. An sample prompt is "Should people always tell the truth?" You should brainstorm different ideas from literature, history, etc. that you can use to support both a thesis that agrees and disagrees with this prompt.

This should help you with the first 10 percent of the essay. As mentioned above, the other 90 percent of the perfect SAT® essay is in the execution of writing and how you position your ideas. For execution questions, feel free to contact the office. If accepted into the Waterton Group's program, you will work closely with your instructor to polish your writing style in order to differentiate yourself from the millions of other test takers vying for that perfect "12" sat essay.