SAT coaches don't necessarily have the same conscience issues as some teachers. "What we recommend is that you memorize the basic essay formula and a couple of facts about a topic you're interested in, so that you pretty much know what you're going to write before you take the test," says Yale sophomore-to-be Janet Xu, guest editor of the latest edition of the SAT guide "Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to The SAT." "This works because the SAT questions are usually very broad."
Indeed. An SAT coach based in Rochester, N.Y., who works for one of the major test-prep outfits and didn't want to be named, recently took the new test himself to see what he was up against. "I was like, OK, I know all about 'The Scarlet Letter,' I know all about Florence Nightingale, I know all about the tsunami," he says. "The essay question was something like, Does work give life meaning? So, Florence Nightingale, her work was to heal people -- that gives life meaning. The tsunami, the rescue efforts showed the meaning of volunteer work. 'The Scarlet Letter' -- I'm sure there was some work in there somewhere ... OK, the work of retribution gave Hester Prynne's life meaning. If you have examples of anything, you can write any essay," he says. "And you can always use Florence Nightingale, no matter what."
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