SAT考试写作部分满分为800分，考试时间60分钟。写作试题由两部分组成，一部分为语法及英语惯用法的选择题型，这部分考试时间为35分钟，其分数约占SAT写作800满分的70%；另一部分为作文写作测试，考试时间为25分钟，其分数约占写作800满分的30%。国内备考SAT学生，通过有效的指导、大量的练习、在英语语法及惯用法的选择题型考试部分，一般可获取较高的分数甚至满分。

　　SAT作文的满分为12分，考生要在25分钟时间内，依据试题要求，写出一篇完整的议论文。作文的字数没有硬性规定，但作文的篇幅约有一张半 A4纸的大小。考生要用铅笔写作，写满作文规定的篇幅，一般要用500至700个英语单词。每一篇考生的作文由两个判卷老师打分，每个老师给的分数为1至 6分，两个判卷老师所给的分数之和，即为考生作文的分数。

　　SAT作文6分的判分标准为，完整掌握、见解深刻、技巧娴熟；5分的判分标准为，有说服力、文章组织较好、语言使用有变化且准确；4分的判分标准为，会写作文、内容足够、表达充分。从这里可以看出，国内考生通过有效的辅导与训练，获取作文8分的成绩不难，英语基础好的考生，取得作文9至10分的成绩很有可能。

　　一篇好的SAT作文要满足如下几个要求，即好的内容、好的论点与论据、清晰且恰当的举例说明、段与段之间有好的逻辑关系、观点鲜明与清晰及较好的英语写作掌控力、有变化的句型与词汇。考生要尽力避免观点模糊不清、在议论文当中一会儿说对一会儿又说错、语言表达单一、不以理服人、自以为是给人强加自己的观点、字迹不清及文章太短。

下面是六分范文

Assignment: Can success be disastrous? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Sample Essay - Score of 6

The power of success can be disastrous when placed in the wrong hands. Naturally, there are those who will always choose to manipulate conditions to succeed in their own endeavors, not taking into consideration the lives of those around them. On the other hand, there may be those who do not necessarily pursue selfish ends, but simply do not know where to take success once it has been achieved, thus resulting in their own self-sabotage.

Throughout history, we have seen success used wrongfully in the hands of the unworthy. Powerful leaders of nations, kingdoms, and empires, having succeeded in gaining leadership, have then used their influence wrongfully in achieving their own selfish (and sometimes twisted) goals. Nero, the Roman emperor who beat his pregnant wife to death and has been suspected of instigating the great fire of Rome in an attempt to boost his own political influence. Henry VIII of England, for whom women were beheaded for not bearing him a son, and who is rumored to have eaten eight chickens a night while English peasants starved. The notorious Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who carried out the Spanish Inquisition. The list is endless. Even in literature, we see the corruption and downfall of society and mankind as a whole as a result of the abuse of success in the possession of those who do not deserve it, as seen in William Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear. In the story, societal order is replaced with chaos when there is a power shift from Lear to his evil daughters, Regan and Goneril. This order only returns to a slight degree when virtue (in the form of Lear’s good daughter, Cordelia) returns to England. Success is hazardous when awarded to the unvirtuous.

However, there may be those who are not necessarily evil of greedy in their pursuits, but merely do not know how to handle success. This proves to be just more disastrous to the individual than to anyone else, since it is the individual who will then sabotage his own success to return to his former comfort zone. Success is meant to be grown upon, not exploited or feared.
Success, when achieved by the unworthy or inexperienced, is a most disastrous element. Success is not about being happy at the expense of those about you –it is about using one’s newly gained happiness to improve the lives of others. If one reflects on the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one will never go astray: “To know that one person has breathed easier because you have lived -this is to have succeeded.”