Unlike the rest of SAT II Writing, the first twenty minutes of the test involve actual writing. In these twenty minutes, you will be presented with a rather general question and told to plan and write an essay. This essay portion of the exam is meant to test your ability to develop an idea over the course of a few paragraphs, using grammatical, clear prose.

The rest of this chapter will teach you how to write a good SAT II Writing essay. Note that we said “a good SAT II Writing Test essay” and not just “a good essay.” The two are not quite the same thing. Good essays are as variable as snowflakes. But good SAT II Writing Test essays are all very similar: the people who will read and grade your essay will be looking for precise and standard things. We will explain what those things are and show you how to give the graders exactly what they want.