SAT essay sample: Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things their

[nicnic344]

SAT essay sample from January 2006

 

Essay prompt: Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things their way?

 

Hey guys! I just finished writing up an essay... i have the SAT next week ... I was wondering if you guys could give me some comments on where i could improve and what I did that was good.. thanks!! A colleague 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 in 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 in their own way? 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.

 

Essay sample:

 

There is no doubt that each individual understands their own body, strengths and thoughts better than anyone else. Therefore, people do accomplish more when they are allowed to do things their own way as they know what works for them.

 

This past year, I was training vigorously for tennis and begun to fathom how I was going to take my playing ability to the next level. I recruited a new coach hoping his professional insights would be the key to my success. According to my coach my technique was too unconventional and inefficient and as a result I spent months altering my strokes. To my detriment I thought this would be a good idea, however after these changes to my style my tennis was at an all time low. Along with my tennis ability my confidence was also taking a major hit simply because I followed the crowd and did what society considered being correct. It makes me look back and think that today "society is overly concerned with efficiency" and makes me wonder how much I could have improved in those months if I had done it my own way.

 

This personal experience and also the experience of James Watson highlights that doing things your own way enables you to accomplish the most. This is also made evident by the difference in game styles of professional tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Both players do completely different things whilst on the tennis court, yet are still both considered two of the most competent players in the world, simply because of their unique game styles. By doing things your own way people are able to decipher what sort of person they are and the ways in which they will be able to succeed and achieve their goals in life.

 

Although the expression that "everyone is different" can sometimes become clouded by a society whose primary focus is efficiency, it is important to speculate that without people doing things their own way, society wouldn't be as developed as it is today.

[MysteryTutor]

probably around a 9

[Erin]

Yeah, it's probably either a 4/6 or a 5/6 (but closer to a 5/6). You've got some nice writing and an apparent ease with using language, but for the purposes of the SAT essay, this is a bit under-developed.

 

Feel free to follow up with questions!