The SAT Essay Questions are a relatively new part of the SATs, so some people are still a little frightened about them. The easiest way to become more at ease with SAT Essay Questions is to practice writing essays on practice tests. You can time yourself to make sure you aren’t going over the time limit. If this is too hard at first, you can practice writing effectively in shorter and shorter amounts of time. Read the essay topic carefully, and then make sure your essay remains on topic. Keep practicing until the writing process becomes almost like second nature.
It would also be very beneficial for you to become aware of and familiar with the scoring system used to grade SAT Essay Questions. The scoring guidelines, also known as a rubric, are easy to find and are provided in some SAT review books. Review the scoring rubric and be familiar with the guidelines you must meet to get a score of 4, 5, or 6 on the essay. See what it takes to get a high score, and then strive for that in your essays. Also make note of the conditions what will result in a score of 0, 1, 2, or 3 and take special care to avoid the mistakes made in lower-scoring essays.
Finally, take the time to view sample essays that have already been scored. With the SAT Essay Questions in mind, read essays that have scored a 5 or 6 to see what they are like. Compare them with essays that scored a 3 or less and note the difference. You will begin to notice which types of essays get the better scores. You can even compare an essay scored 6 to an essay scored 5 to note the small things that really make a difference in writing style. It may also be helpful to read essays without knowing their scores, then guessing their score and seeing how close you come to their actual score. In this way, you will get a better feel for the essay grading system.