12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

1 2 Practice Tests for the SAT
Practice Test Six Answers and Explanations 553
I
Answers and
Explanations
SECTION l
6 Score Essay
If I had been asked this question a month ago, I would have
said, "Of course, failure is possible." Whenever we embark
on a project, we have a picture in our minds of what the
"successful" result will be. And, if things don't turn out that
way, we usually define the attempt as a failure. The answer
seems obvious and simple, right?
Maybe not.
All my life, I have wanted to become a writer. For my
birthday last year, my best friend gave me a book called No
Plot? No Problem. The premise of this book is that you can
write a novel in one month. I read the entire book, cover to
cover, in one night, and was convinced there was no way
I would not succeed. All you have to write is 1,667 words
a day and, at the end of one month, you will have a novel
approximately the length of The Great Gatsby. This didn't
seem like an excessive amount of writing to me-I probably
write than many words in e-mails to my friends every night,
anyway.
For the first week I met, and even exceeded, my daily
writing quota. My story, which was about a young girl
who didn't get into any of her first-choice colleges and
thought her life was over until she met the love of her life
at a community college, was going very well. I had a large
amount of interesting writing. F. Scott Fitzgerald, watch out!
Then, all of a sudden I hit the wall. A big wall. I couldn't
think of 67 words to write, let alone 1,667. My story, which
I had loved, became a symbol to me of the fact that I would
probably never achieve my dream of writing professionally. I
had "failed" to complete a novel in thirty days.
About six weeks ago, however, I saw an ad in the
newspaper for a summer course at a college nearby. The
course, which is called "Discovering Your Inner Writer," is
being taught by members of the college's creative writing
faculty, and is open to all ages. To apply, you had to submit
five pages of original writing. I submitted the first five pages
of my "failed" novel, and I got accepted into the class!
So, yes, I "failed" to complete my novel in the time frame
I had set for myself. But this "failure" has resulted in my
getting into a class that may benefit my future as a writer,
even more than finishing that novel would have. My "failure"
turned into a very exciting success! It is impossible to fail, I
now know, because each and every event that happens has
the possibility of opening a new and interesting door that
you might not have even considered!
6 Score Critique
All essays are evaluated on four criteria: Topic, Support,
Organization, and Language. This essay answers the
question posed by the prompt, and it does so in a very
interesting way. The writer states that, had she been asked
the question a month ago, her answer to the question
would have been different. Clearly, her essay is going to let
us know what happened to change her mind. This piques
the reader's interest right away.
The support offered consists of only one anecdote,
but it is extremely well developed. The writer takes us
chronologically through her experience trying to write a
novel, her initial feeling that she "failed," and how that
failure turned into a success. She then sums up her
message with a closing statement that wraps up the essay
nicely. This indicates that she spent sufficient time on her
plan before she began to produce her essay.
In addition, her sentence structure is varied and interesting.
The language is strong with some good SAT-level
vocabulary (embark, premise, excessive, quota), and there
are no errors in grammar or usage. This indicates that the
writer took time to proofread her work.