SAT ESSAY QUESTION COLLECTION

No. 1

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Nowadays nothing is private: our culture has become too confessional and self-expressive. People think

that to hide one’s thoughts or feelings is to pretend not to have those thoughts or feelings. They

assume that honesty requires one to express every inclination and impulse.

Adapted from J. David Velleman, “The Genesis of Shame”

Assignment: Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? 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.

No. 2

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Every important discovery results from patience, perseverance, and concentration — sometimes

continuing for months or years — on one specific subject. A person who wants to discover a new truth

must remain absorbed by that one subject, must pay no attention to any thoughts that is unrelated to

the problem.

Adapted from Santiago Santiago Ramón y Cajal, “Advice for a Young Investigator”

Assignment: Are all important discoveries the result of focusing on one subject? 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.

No. 3

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

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.