SAT Essay Prompts: The Complete List

March 2005-January 2016. On the plus side, youll now be asked to do the same task every time:
read an argument meant to persuade a broad audience and discuss how well the author
argues his or her point. On the minus side, you have to do reading and analysis in addition to
writing a coherent and organized essay.

In this article, weve compiled a list of the 11 real SAT essay prompts that the CollegeBoard has
released (either in The Official SAT Study Guide or separately online) for the new SAT. This is
the most comprehensive set of new SAT essay prompts online today.

At the end of this article, we'll also guide you through how to get the most out of these prompts
and link to our expert resources on acing the SAT essay. Ill discuss how the SAT essay prompts
are valuable not just because they give you a chance to write a practice essay, but because of
what they reveal about the essay task itself.

Overview
SAT essay prompts have always kept to the same basic format. With the new essay, however, not
only is the prompt format consistent from test to test, but what youre actually asked to do
(discuss how an author builds an argument) also remains the same across different test
administrations.

The College Boards predictability with SAT essay helps students focus on preparing for the
actual analytical task, rather than having to think up stuff on their feet. Every time, before the
passage, youll see the following:

As you read the passage below, consider how [the author] uses

evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.

reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.

stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power
to the ideas expressed.

And after the passage, youll see this:

Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his]
audience that [whatever the author is trying to argue for]. In your essay, analyze how [the author]
uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to
strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on
the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with [the author]s claims, but rather explain
how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his] audience.

Now that you know the format, lets look at the SAT essay prompts list.

11 Official SAT Essay Prompts

The College Board has released a limited number of prompts to help students prep for the essay.
We've gathered them for you here, all in one place. Well be sure to update this article as more
prompts are released for practice and/or as more tests are released.

SPOILER ALERT: Since these are the only essay prompts that have been released so far, you
may want to be cautious about spoiling them for yourself, particularly if you are planning on
taking practice tests under real conditions. This is why Ive organized the prompts by the ones
that are in the practice tests (so you can avoid them if need be), the one that is available online as
a "sample prompt," and the ones that are in the Official SAT Study Guide (Redesigned SAT), all
online for free.

Practice Test Prompts

These eight prompts are taken from the practice tests that the College Board has released.

Practice Test 1:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Jimmy Carter builds an argument to persuade his
audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry."

Practice Test 2:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Martin Luther King Jr. builds an argument to persuade
his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust."

Practice Test 3:
"Write an essay in which you explain how Eliana Dockterman builds an argument to persuade
her audience that there are benefits to early exposure to technology."

Practice Test 4:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his
audience that natural darkness should be preserved."

Practice Test 5:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Eric Klinenberg builds an argument to persuade his
audience that Americans need to greatly reduce their reliance on air-conditioning."

Practice Test 6:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Christopher Hitchens builds an argument to persuade
his audience that the original Parthenon sculptures should be returned to Greece."

Practice Test 7:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Zadie Smith builds an argument to persuade her
audience that public libraries are important and should remain open"

Practice Test 8:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Bobby Braun builds an argument to persuade his
audience that the US government must continue to invest in NASA."

Special note: The prompt for Practice Test 4 is replicated as the first sample essay on the
College Boards site for the new SAT. If youve written a sample essay for practice test 4 and
want to see what essays of different score levels look like for that particular prompt, you can go
here and look at eight real student essays.
Free Online Practice

This prompt comes from the CollegeBoard website for the new SAT.

Write an essay in which you explain how Dana Gioia builds an argument to persuade his
audience that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society.

The Official SAT Study Guide (for March 2016 and beyond)

The Official SAT Study Guide (editions published in 2015 and later, available online for free)
contains all eight of the previously mentioned practice tests at the end of the book. In the section
about the new SAT essay, however, there are two additional sample essay prompts.

Sample Prompt 1:

Write an essay in which you explain how Peter S. Goodman builds an argument to persuade his
audience that news organizations should increase the amount of professional foreign news
coverage provided to people in the United States.

The College Board modified this article for the essay prompt passage in the book. The original
passage (1528 words, vs the 733 it is on the SAT) to which this prompt refers can also be found
online (for free) here.

Sample Prompt 2:

Write an essay in which you explain how Adam B. Summers builds an argument to persuade his
audience that plastic shopping bags should not be banned.

There are still a couple of minor differences between the article as it appears in The Official SAT
Study Guide as an essay prompt compared to its original form, but its far less changed than the
previous prompt. The original passage to which this prompt refers (764 words, vs the 743 in The
Official SAT Study Guide) can also be found online (for free) here.

How Do You Get the Most Out of These Prompts?

Now that you have all the prompts released by the College Board, its important to know the best
way to use them. Make sure you have a good balance between quality and quantity, and dont
burn through all 11 of the real prompts in a row take the time to learn from your experiences
writing the practice essays.
Step By Step Guide on How to Practice Using the Article

1. Understand how the SAT essay is graded.

2. Watch as we write a high-scoring SAT essay, step by step.

3. Pre-plan a set of features youll look for in the SAT essay readings and practice writing about
them fluidly. This doesn't just mean identifying a technique, like asking a rhetorical question, but
explaining why it is persuasive and what effect it has on the reader in the context of a particular
topic. We have more information on this step in our article about 6 SAT persuasive devices you
can use.

4. Choose a prompt at random from above, or choose a topic that you think is going to be hard
for you to detach from (because youll want to write about the topic, rather than the argument)
set timer to 50 minutes and write the essay. No extra time allowed!

5. Grade the essay, using the essay rubric to give yourself a score out of 8 in the reading,
analysis, and writing sections (article coming soon!).

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5. Choose the prompts you think will be the hardest for you so that you
can so that youre prepared for the worst when the test day comes

7. If you run out of official prompts to practice with, use the official prompts as models to find
examples of other articles you could write about. How? Start by looking for op-ed articles in
online news publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, LA Times, and so on. For
instance, the passage about the plastic bag ban in California (sample essay prompt 2, above) has
a counterpoint here - you could try analyzing and writing about that article as well.

Any additional articles you use for practice on the SAT essay must match the following criteria:

ideally 650-750 words, although itll be difficult to find an op-ed piece thats naturally
that short. Try to aim for nothing longer than 2000 words, though, or the scope of the
article is likely to be too wide for what youll encounter on the SAT.

always argumentative/persuasive. The author (or authors) is trying to get readers to

agree with a claim or idea being put forward.

always intended for a wide audience. All the information you need to deconstruct the
persuasiveness of the argument is in the passage. This means that articles with a lot of
technical jargon that's not explained in the article are not realistic passage to practice
with.