SAT-Lucy Haagen Method offers classes to prepare Chinese students for the SAT. While all sections of the examination are challenging, we have found the writing section poses the greatest obstacle to SAT success.
Can I Prepare?
Some students believe that because they don’t know the essay question ahead of time, they cannot prepare. This attitude is very wrong. Runners cannot predict how they will do in a particular race, but they still spend long hours getting ready for competition. You should follow their example. Specifically:
1. Prepare a chart of famous people in books and history and the ideas that their lives and experience illustrate.
2. Read examples of good SAT essays. We have included on at the end of this article. You can find others on the website of the company that writes the SAT (http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/prep_one/essay/pracStart.html. We do not advise buying Chinese books that claim to contain examples of good essays. We have found that these contain many errors and do not provide useful models.
3. Write practice SAT essays using real topics. We have also included a list of topics for your practice. Students interested in having their practice essays graded can contact us for more information about this affordable service
Sample SAT Essay : Rags to Riches
Prompt: "Rags to Riches" is an American phrase that refers to upward mobility - the possibility that a poor child can, through intelligence and hard work, become an affluent adult. While inheriting a billion dollars is still the easiest way to land on our list of the world's wealthiest, it certainly isn't the most common. Almost two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination, and not good genes.
Assignment: Do you believe that in the global economy it is possible to go from "rags to riches?" Using examples from your reading, studies or personal experience, write an essay developing your point of view.
As I look around contemporary China, I see strong evidence that it is possible to go from “rags to riches.” Not long ago, China was an underdeveloped country. Now, China is predicted to overtake the United States before mid-century as the world’s largest economy. The story of China’s emergence from rags to riches is reflected in the life experiences of two men, each of whom proves that rags to riches is more than just a motivating slogan.
Successful entrepreneur Li Jai Cheng began his adult life under difficult financial circumstances. Though born to an educated family, when he was fourteen, his father died. As a result he had to leave school to work to support his mother and sisters. Had he just worked, he might have moved from rags to regular clothes, but certainly not to riches. The key to Li Jai’s success was his extraordinary commitment to education. After a long day of factory work, he would stay up late at night reading used books he would buy cheaply and then resell to buy more used books. In this way, he learned many valuable business skills and became proficient in English. As a result he was promoted and ultimately able to start his first of many successful businesses, among them a number of joint ventures with global partners.
Like Li Jai Cheng, Li Yanhong experienced hardship during his childhood. Born during the Cultural Revolution, Li was typical of his generation in experiencing the privations of a nation in transition. For Li Yanhong, formal education opened the door to opportunity. With a degree in Information Technology, Li was able to study in the United States. Ther,e he took advantage of this opportunity to learn about search engines. In 2000, upon his return to China, he founded Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, and in 2004, his company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Li Jai Cheng and Li Yan Hong demonstrate that it is possible to rise from rags to riches in the global economy. The experiences of these contemporary Chinese “Horatio Algers” point to three ingredients crucial to business success in the 21st century: Education, English and International Cooperation.
Sample SAT Essay Questions from the November, 2009 SAT Examination
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