http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/prep/essay-prompts
More words do not give you a higher score, but fewer words will give you a lower score (as you cannot adequately develop your idea).
Higher scoring essays will usually be 350--450 words in length. For most of you, that means you should shoot for close to two full pages of writing.
March 2014, Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.Many people are philanthropists, giving money to those in need. And many people believe that those who are rich—those who can afford to give the most—should contribute the most to charitable organizations. Others, however, disagree. Why should those who are more fortunate than others have more of a moral obligation to help those who are less fortunate?
Assignment: Should people who are more fortunate than others have more of a moral obligation to help those who are less fortunate? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2014, Prompt 2
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.Our culture puts entirely too much emphasis on popular entertainment. Of course, we all need to be distracted occasionally, but if we spend a lot of time browsing our favorite websites, watching television, playing video games, or updating our social networking accounts, we are merely avoiding life’s more important realities. Moreover, none of these activities helps us develop any of the skills or acquire any of the knowledge we need to succeed in the real world.
Assignment: Can popular entertainment offer us anything of value, or is it just a worthless distraction? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2014, Prompt 3
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.By never being satisfied with what we have, we are never content. Our focus on growth, progress, and the idea of “more” makes us fundamentally unhappy, always seeking more than what we need. I used to believe greatly in “growth,” but I’ve changed my mind. It now makes sense to me that growth for growth’s sake creates a fundamental dissatisfaction with what I have.
Adapted from Ron McDonald, The Spirituality of Community Life: When We Come ’Round Right
Assignment: Do growth and progress make us happy or do they lead to dissatisfaction? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2013, Prompt 1
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- We are often reminded that acquiring and owning material possessions—money, property, jewelry, even clothing—will not lead to true happiness. While it is certainly true that material possessions alone cannot bring happiness or provide us with genuine meaning in life, there is something to be said for having material possessions. Not only can they make us comfortable, but the happiness they can provide, while it may be momentary, is still happiness.
- Assignment: Do material possessions make us truly happy? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2013, Prompt 2
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Some people emphasize that strong leaders never depart from their goal, plan, or vision and that such dedication is, in fact, a measure of their strength. Others would argue, however, that strong leaders are flexible. Strong leaders know when to admit they have made a mistake and when it is appropriate to change their goal or mission. This flexibility shows their strength and the extent of their wisdom.
- Assignment: Is flexibility the sign of a strong and wise leader? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2013, Prompt 3
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Aiming advertisements for products directly at teenagers is a practice that occurs on television, in magazines, and on the Internet. These advertisements may help prepare young people for adulthood, as teenagers gain experience in evaluating and selecting from among the many options in our complex consumer society. Many critics, however, argue that teenagers are especially vulnerable to misleading claims of the advertising industry; moreover, they argue that advertisements often promote values harmful to young people.
- Assignment: Are advertisements harmful to teenagers? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2013, Prompt 4
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Too often, people—especially young people, who may not have settled on a firm identity yet—try to imitate others, because it is easier to do so than to develop their own unique individuality. They focus on trying to imitate what seems attractive or desirable in others. But imitating others is never a good idea: when we imitate others, all we do is harm our ability to develop our own individuality.
- Assignment: Is imitation of others always harmful? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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2009, Prompt 1
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Planning lets people impose order on the chaotic processes of making or doing something new. Too much planning, however, can lead people to follow the same predetermined course of action, to do things the same way they were done before. Creative thinking is about breaking free from the way that things have always been. That is why it is vital for people to know the difference between good planning and too much planning.
- Adapted from Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit
- Assignment: Does planning interfere with creativity? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Most people underestimate their own abilities. They tend to remember their failures more vividly than their successes, and for this reason they have unrealistically low expectations about what they are capable of. Those individuals who distinguish themselves through great accomplishments are usually no more talented than the average person: they simply set higher standards for themselves, since they have higher expectations about what they can do.
- Assignment: Do highly accomplished people achieve more than others mainly because they expect more of themselves? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2009, Prompt 3
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- People are taught that they should not go back on their decisions. In fact, our society supports the notion that to change your mind is evidence of weakness and unreliability, leading many people to say, "Once I decide, I decide!" But why do people make such a statement? If factors, feelings, and ideas change, isn't the ability to make a new decision evidence of flexibility, adaptability, and strength?
- Adapted from Theodore I. Rubin, Compassion and Self-Hate
- Assignment: Should people change their decisions when circumstances change, or is it best for them to stick with their original decisions? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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2007, Prompt 1
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- People are happy only when they have their minds fixed on some goal other than their own happiness. Happiness comes when people focus instead on the happiness of others, on the improvement of humanity, on some course of action that is followed not as a means to anything else but as an end in itself. Aiming at something other than their own happiness, they find happiness along the way. The only way to be happy is to pursue some goal external to your own happiness.
- Adapted from John Stuart Mill, Autobiography
- Assignment: Are people more likely to be happy if they focus on goals other than their own happiness? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
2007, Prompt 2
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Heroes may seem old-fashioned today. Many people are cynical and seem to enjoy discrediting role models more than creating new ones or cherishing those they already have. Some people, moreover, object to the very idea of heroes, arguing that we should not exalt individuals who, after all, are only flesh and blood, just like the rest of us. But we desperately need heroes—to teach us, to captivate us through their words and deeds, to inspire us to greatness.
- Adapted from Psychology Today, "How To Be Great! What Does It Take To Be A Hero?"
- Assignment: Is there a value in celebrating certain individuals as heroes? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- The advancements that have been made over the past hundred years or more are too numerous to count. But has there been progress? Some people would say that the vast number of advancements tells us we have made progress. Others, however, disagree, saying that more is not necessarily better and that real progress—in politics, literature, the arts, science and technology, or any other field—can be achieved only when an advancement truly improves the quality of our lives.
- Assignment: Have modern advancements truly improved the quality of people's lives? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- It is not true that prosperity is better for people than adversity. When people are thriving and content, they seldom feel the need to look for ways to improve themselves or their situation. Hardship, on the other hand, forces people to closely examine—and possibly change—their own lives and even the lives of others. Misfortune rather than prosperity helps people to gain a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them.
- Assignment: Do people truly benefit from hardship and misfortune? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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2006, Prompt 1
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- It is wrong to think of ourselves as indispensable. We would love to think that our contributions are essential, but we are mistaken if we think that any one person has made the world what it is today. The contributions of individual people are seldom as important or as necessary as we think they are.
- Assignment: Do we put too much value on the ideas or actions of individuals. Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of View on each issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Many people deny that stories about characters and events that are not real can teach us about ourselves or about the world around us. They claim that literature does not offer us worthwhile information about the real world. These people argue that the feelings and ideas we gain from books and stories obstruct, rather than contribute to, clear thought.
- Adapted from Jennifer L. McMahon, “The Function of Fiction”
- Assignment: Can books and stories about characters and events that are not real teach us anything useful? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings studies, experience, or observations.
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- “No one is perfect.” There are few among us who would disagree with this familiar statement. Certain that perfection is an impossible goal, many people willingly accept flaws and shortcomings in themselves and others. Yet such behavior leads to failure. People can only succeed if they try to achieve perfection in everything they do.
- Assignment: Can people achieve success only if they aim to be perfect? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Supplement your position with reasoning and examples taken from your studies, experience, or observations.
- Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
- Everybody has some choice. People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, if they can’t find them, make them.
- Adapted from George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession
- Assignment: Do success and happiness depend on the choices people make rather than on factors beyond their control? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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2005, Prompt 1
- We like to think that if someone has “the right stuff,” he or she will naturally rise to the top. But it isn’t true. In that same way that acting talent doesn’t guarantee stardom, the capacity for doesn’t guarantee that one will run a corporation or a government. In fact, time, genuine3 achievement is not highly value, and those who are skilled at achieving greatness are not necessarily those who are ready to lead.
- Adapted from Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader
- Assignment: Are leaders necessarily people who are most capable of leadership? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.
- How valuable is history for our generation? On the surface this question is not as easy as it once might have been, for there is a widespread belief that history may no longer be relevant to modern life. We live, after all, in an age that appears very different from the world that came before us.
- Stephen Vaughn, “History: Is It Relevant?”
- Assignment: Is knowledge of the past no longer useful for us today? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on t his issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from hour reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- The free expression of thoughts and opinions is one of humanity’s most precious rights. Every Citizen must be able to speak, write, and publish freely, provided that he or she is held accountable for the abuse of this liberty in cases determined by the law.
- Adapted from Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
- Assignment: Is it necessary to limit or put restrictions on freedom of thought and expression? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- Progress is likely to slow down once science and technology have met our basics human needs. New developments in science and technology will not continue to produce more societal benefits. In fact, the promise that science and technology will continue to benefit us is increasingly doubtful when so many individuals find their lives changing in ways they cannot control and in directions they do not desire.
- Adapted for Daniel Sarewitz, “Social Change and Science Policy”
- Assignment: Do the benefits of scientific and technological developments come at the cost of undesirable changes to people’s lives? Plan and write an essay, etc., etc.
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More Prompts
Prompt 1
- There are situations where flattery is mandatory: The bride is always beautiful. If we look at someone’s artwork, we are obliged to say something complimentary to the artist. If we visit someone with a new baby, we are required to say the infant is cute. In such situations, to say nothing is interpreted as rudeness. We compliment each other because we understand that flattery makes life run smoothly.
- Adapted from Richard Stengel, "You’re Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery"
- Assignment: Is praising others, even if the praise is excessive or undeserved, a necessary part of life? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- Beauty is not a quality in people or in objects themselves. It exists in the mind that perceives those objects, and each mind perceives beauty differently. To seek real beauty, in some absolute sense, is pointless. Where one person sees beauty, another may even see the opposite. For this reason, we all ought to accept our own perceptions of who or what is beautiful, and not be influenced by the perceptions of others.
- Adapted from David Hume, “Of the Standard of Taste”
- Assignment: Should we be influenced by others’ perceptions of the beauty of people or things? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
- Conflict is not necessarily bad, and it does not necessarily indicate a failed interaction. It is a signal, a message that says, “Things aren’t working around here. We’ve got to do something different.” Thus, conflict can be a catalyst-a motivating force-encouraging people to interact and communicate in ways that are more satisfying. Conflict can actually benefit people by pushing them to make necessary changes.
- Adapted from Beverly Potter, From Conflict to Cooperation
- Assignment: Is conflict helpful? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Prompt 4
- What explains our increasing obsession with money and the things it can buy? It seems as though the acquisition of money is gradually replacing real measures of success, such as integrity, honesty, skill, and hard work.
- Adapted from Alan Durning, “Limiting Consumption: Toward a Sustainable Culture”
- Assignment: Has the acquisition of money and possessions replaced more meaningful ways of measuring our achievements? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
