According to comprehensive reports from Worldway Immigration: The college entrance examination bells have just finished ringing, and the Chinese essay prompts from various regions have been released one after another, attracting enthusiastic attention from netizens. Coincidentally, the SAT Asian test center also held its exam on the same day. This year's SAT essay prompt was: "Are people who stay in the same community happier than those who move from one place to another?" This type of writing prompt does not seem to have appeared in the Chinese college entrance examination. The migration mentioned in the prompt seems to have an inextricable connection with the growing wave of immigration. Worldway immigration experts have summarized the writing prompts from recent SAT exams to help you better understand the types of questions in American examinations.
"American College Entrance Exam" essays, fostering critical thinking in the classroom
On June 7, the first day of the Chinese college entrance examination, the SAT Asian test center also held its exam. This year's SAT essay prompt was: "Are people who stay in the same community happier than those who move from one place to another?"
Unlike the Chinese language test in the domestic college entrance examination, the SAT, known as the "American college entrance exam," begins with an essay. Students are required to analyze the prompt and write an essay in just 25 minutes, which is a high demand for students. Since the essay accounts for one-third of the total score of the exam, alongside reading and mathematics, each worth 800 points, no candidate dares to underestimate it. Judging from the topics, SAT essay prompts always manage to attract the "attention" of the American education community.
Looking at the exam questions, "dialectical relationships" run through them, such as the dialectical relationship between spirit and matter, the dialectical relationship between technological progress and the development of human civilization, and an individual's ability to break through inherent culture or thinking. American educational commentators believe that SAT essay prompts are highly critical, advocating heuristic education. For example, one year's essay prompt initiated a discussion on "whether one should dig for innovative factors when doing things, or follow the rules."
Worldway experts point out that such prompts have no standard answers, but due to the "baton" effect, they can inject critical thinking into high school classrooms. In order to "prepare for the exam," American high school students have been making long reading plans for themselves since middle school. Novels and biographies involving the women's movement, slave literature, and the history of the Civil War are their "must-reads" because essay prompts are often excerpted from these works.
☞Worldway's thematic compilation of recent SAT writing prompts
Theme 1: Individual breakthroughs in inherent culture or thinking
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
The significance of learning and doing things lies in themselves; no additional rewards are needed. However, once there are additional rewards—whether it is attention and praise from parents or rewards from teachers—these rewards have a practical impact. Children will read to win rewards rather than to gain knowledge from books. Children will do things for rewards, but the quality of their activities and the joy within them will be very different.
Prompt : Is it inappropriate or even harmful to motivate people to learn or strive for things by providing rewards? (2012)
Theme 2: Problems encountered in technological progress and the development of human civilization
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
Technological progress has greatly increased the speed of our communication and information sharing. Some people are critical of this, claiming that the high-speed communication brought about by technology prevents people from concentrating on one thing for a long time, shortens their attention span, and prevents them from truly understanding the world and the people around them. Thanks to modern technology, information exchange is so fast and easy, what is the problem with this?
Prompt : Have modern methods of information communication reduced understanding between people? (2010)
Theme 3: Focusing on success and gains/losses
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
Most people underestimate their abilities. They remember their failures more clearly than their successes. Therefore, they have unrealistically low expectations of what they can do. Those who achieve great success are usually no more gifted than ordinary people; they just set higher benchmarks for themselves, so they have higher expectations of what they can do.
Prompt : Is it mainly because some people have higher expectations of themselves that they achieve higher accomplishments than others? (2009)
Theme 4: Observing social trends and cultural phenomena
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
We are obsessed with novelty. Novel things interest us more than anything that has been proven to be true and feasible. We abandon old things to catch up with the latest patterns, the latest versions, and the latest and most perfect formulas. We often replace practical things just because they are no longer new. Whether it is material products or value culture, we prefer all the latest trends.
Prompt : Should people always prefer new things, ideas, and values over old ones? (2008)
Theme 5: Focusing on the relationship between the individual and society
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
We are often told that compromise is the best way to deal with differences. After people compromise, both sides suffer minimal losses and reach a satisfactory consensus, allowing both sides to continue to get along harmoniously. However, compromise only works when the current matter is not that important. When there are fundamental differences in the principles and views that both sides strongly adhere to, compromise cannot solve the problem.
Prompt : Is compromise always the best way to resolve conflict? (2008)
Theme 6: The dialectical relationship between spirit and matter, discussing life, happiness, and truth
Carefully consider the following excerpt and prompt:
Until I was twelve or thirteen, I spent some time on the farm every year. The life I lived there and the memories I left behind were full of charm. I can remember the fragrance of wildflowers, the glistening leaves after the rain, the rustling sound of rain when the wind shook the woods, and the sound of woodpeckers tapping on wood. I can remember the vast prairie—and its loneliness and peace.—Excerpted from Mark Twain's "Autobiography of Mark Twain"
Editor: Worldway
