SAT Essay Practice Prompts

 

Here are a collection of SAT practice essay prompts I've gathered from various sources including online websites and many of the tests I've actually done.

1. Prompt:
   "That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value."
   Thomas Paine
   
   
   Assignment:
   Do we value only what we struggle for? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations.
   
   
   
   
2. Prompt:
   If we are afraid to reveal our lack of knowledge we will not be able to learn. In order to make progress we must admit where we are now. Such an admission of ignorance is not easy. As Thoreau says, “How can we remember our ignorance which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?”
   
   
   Assignment:
   Does the present system of education encourage us to admit our lack of knowledge, or is there too much pressure to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
3. Prompt:
   “A little inaccuracy saves a world of explanation.”
   C.E.Ayers
   
   
   Assignment:
   Is it always essential to tell the truth, or are there circumstances in which it is better to lie? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
   
   
4. Prompt:
   Many societies believe that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human right. But it is also true that attainment of happiness remains elusive. Perhaps Bertrand Russell had it right when he said, “To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
   
   
   Assignment:
   What gives us more pleasure and satisfaction: the pursuit of our desires or the attainment of them? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
   
   
5. Prompt:
   “The price of greatness is responsibility.”
   Winston Churchill
   
   
   Assignment:
   Do we expect too much from our public figures? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
6. Prompt:
   “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
   Alexander Pope
   
   
   Assignment:
   Do we learn more from finding out that we have made mistakes or from our successful actions? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
   
   
7. Prompt:
   “What man calls civilization always results in deserts. Man is never on the square – he uses up the fat and greenery of the earth. Each generation wastes a little more of the future with greed and lust for riches.”  Don Marquis
   
   
   Assignment:
   With our modern awareness of ecology are we likely to make sufficient progress in conservation, or are we still in danger of damaging the earth beyond repair? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
8. Prompt:
   A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he is not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning the ball stopped to think about his views of the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.
   Georges Clemenceau
   
   
   Assignment:
   Is it true that acting quickly and instinctively is the best response to a crisis? Or are there times when an urgent situation requires a more careful consideration and a slower response? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
   
   
9. Prompt:
   There is usually a kernel of truth in the words Oscar Wilde puts in the mouth of his most outrageous characters – they wouldn’t be funny otherwise. One such gem that is worth pondering is: The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
   
   
   Assignment:
   Is it true that when we most need advice we are least willing to listen to it? Or is good advice always welcome? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
   
   
   
   
10. Prompt:
    “Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” Bernard Shaw expected to provoke controversy with these words, but I would agree with him that these days there is too much emphasis on independence. While it is certainly true that excessive dependence on others is not a sign of maturity, total independence of others is neither attainable nor desirable: we need to be mature, and unselfish enough to recognize our interdependence.
    
    
    Assignment:
    Do we put too much emphasis on self-reliance and independence, and are we afraid of admitting that we need other people in our lives? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
    
    
    source:  http://www.majortests.com/sat/essay-topics.php
    
    

    From My Personal Practice

    1. In the 1950s, ads for newly available appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers suggested that such technological innovations would free up the housewife's time, allowing her more leisure. During the advent of personal computers, the same promise that machines would simplify our lives was regularly made or implied. However, people today work harder and are more rushed than they ever were before, and few feel that life has changed for the better.
                                                          adapted from Daryl Stradivarius, "Technical Difficulties"
    
    
    Assignment: Is it possible that things that make our lives easier can also make them more difficult? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
    
    
    
    
    2. In a recent speech, the President stressed the need for increased mathematics and science skills among students today, while saying nothing about humanities and the arts and never mentioning the word "creativity". Yet, it is not practical applications and economic incentives that best drive science forward- it is pure research done primarily for the sake of knowledge. And intellectual curiousity of that caliber requires creative minds, minds nurtured in the humanities and arts.
                                                       adapted from William Deverson, "Newton wrote Poetry"
    
    
    Assignment: How important is creativity in relation to progress in the world today? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations.  
    
    
    
    
    3.  People who engage in reckless or self-destructive behavior often justify their actions by saying  they are only hurting themselves and not anyone else. However, eveything a person does has an effect on the world. If a person behaves in an unacceptable way and other people copy that behavior, that person is responsible for the consequences. 
                                                                     adapted from Wim Dannin, "He Told Me To"
    
    
    Assignment: Are people responsible, through the examples they set, for the behaviors of other people? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations.  
    
    
    
    
    4. A collegue of the great scientist James Watson remarked that Watson was always "lounging around, arguing about problems instead of doing experiments". He concluded that "There is more than one way of doing good science". It was Watson's form of idleness, the scientist went on to say, that allowed him to solve "the greatest of all biological problems: the discovery of the structure of DNA". It is a point worth remembering a society overly concerned with efficiency.
                                                                 adapted from John C Polanyi, "Understanding Discovery"
    
    
    Assignment: Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things their own way? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations. 
    
    
    
    
    5.  No matter how definite a truth, no matter how resolute a conviction, there is always a "however". 
                                                                                                            Wellesley Dinton 
    
    
    Ever present, contrast is that marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats. 
                                                                                                            Ralph Waldo Emerson
    
    
    Assignment: What is the value of opposites and contrasts? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your readings, studies, or observations.