SAT prep tips: Writing section

• Writing: Essay

You will be given an open-ended essay prompt that asks you to state a viewpoint and support it. Your essay does not have to be grammatically perfect, but it does have to be focused and organized. The standard five-paragraph essay can be an effective way to make your point.

• Writing: Multiple Choice Questions

There are three types of multiple-choice writing questions: Improving Sentence, Sentence Error, and Improving Paragraphs. For all of these question types, think about the simplest, clearest way to express an idea. If an answer choice sounds awkward or overly complicated, chances are good that it's wrong.

Tips

Understand the test structure well. SAT questions can be divided into three levels of difficulty: easy, medium and hard. The questions in the first third of each section are easy, those in the second third are medium and those in the last third are hard. So you should spend your time making sure you get the easy and medium questions correct and tackle the hard questions if time remains. Rushing through the test to get to the hardest questions will only drag your score down.