The College Panda's SAT Essay: The Battle-tested Guide for the New SAT 2016 Essay

The Idea that the College Panda SAT Essay Guide is the best guide that you can buy has its roots in proven results, but the underlying reasons are often overlooked. In the College Panda SAT Guide, Nielson Phu brilliantly creates an SAT essay guide that is crucial for you to get a perfect score. In doing so, he employs a variety of excellent strategies to enable the readers to get the best score possible, by showing us the statistics, the different types of persuasive elements, and a template that has been proven to be successful. Phu’s dexterous use of statistics begins with his insights on how the SAT essay is graded. He points out that “graders don’t spend any longer than two minutes reading your paper”. In showing us that graders don’t spend a long time looking for any flashes of literary brilliance, Phu can show the reader that it is convenient to give the graders what they want. They aren’t looking for the next Shakespeare: they are simply looking for something that sounds smart. This encourages a reader to relax, but, most importantly, it gives the reader the necessary information to work intelligently and to use their preparation time wisely. Moreover, Phu tells us that “students who are applying to top 20 schools” should aim for a good grade on the test. In showing the readers that the best schools require this test, Phu can evoke a sense of urgency and importance to this test—thus, intriguing the reader to absorb the information provided by the College Panda SAT Essay Guide. I mean the more selective your school is, the better your classmates are going to be, and if you want to be in an environment of excellence, you should highly consider getting into one of the best schools. As a result of the fact that this test is so important, the reader will become motivated to learn every tip possible that Phu gives. Even though Phu’s use of statistics can come off as overly dramatic, he wouldn’t have been allowed to show why his SAT Guide is the best guide you can buy by giving us the necessary information you need to get a perfect score. Just as incite full as his use of statistics is Phu’s teachings on the different types of persuasive elements. He establishes the fact that all authors use a variety of persuasive elements to build his or her argument. For example, one author might deftly use words to “associate positive or negative connotations with somethings”. In doing so, Phu can show us not only what persuasive element is being used but what effect it has on the reader. At the end of the day, who doesn’t appreciate a guidebook that thoroughly educates you on both the causes and effects. Phu also notes that all of the persuasive elements come down to three things: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. By showing us that these “greek terms are the over-arching terms of persuasion rather than ground level techniques”, he can show the extent of his knowledge on the art of persuasion. Without the teachings of the different types of persuasive elements, Phu’s book would lose the amount of respect he gains by showing us his knowledge that qualifies him to guide us on writing the SAT essay. Lastly, Phu proves that the College Panda SAT Guide is the best book you can buy by providing us with a template. He provides us with a template that allows us to solely focus on our analysis on how the author persuades the reader, thus allowing us to not only write a bulky essay but to deeply analyze it and cogently show how the author is persuasive. By doing so, He reduces the stress that the students get when they are going to take the test because they no longer have to worry about being too creative and losing time as a result. He also shows us that the template implements “transitions and complex sentences… to ensure that your essay is built on a solid foundation”. He allows us to give the graders what they want: giving a deep analysis on the persuasive elements of the author and using complex sentences and transitions words that show your writing ability. What more could you expect from an essay guide? This is truly one of a kind. In summary, Phu—showing us statistics, different types of persuasive elements, and a template that has been proven successful—effectively makes the case that the College Panda Essay Guide is the best essay guide you can purchase. It is his insightful tips and strategies that not only give the students the confidence they need to be relaxed at the test but also give them a valid shot at getting a perfect score.

Great resource that tackles the SAT essay in a methodical and organized way to help the student compose a all encompassing essay in a short time. My son studied the book in a few days (it takes a few hours to ready through) and then did a few practice essays using the book. He then memorized a few sentences and started practicing writing the essays without the book. This gave him great confidence to tackle the SAT essay on exam day. His results should be out soon and I hope he gets a good score. Update: He got an essay score of: 6/6/5 And he's the type that doesn't like writing at all.

I used this product to help my daughters to study for the SAT essay. I really like the layout of the information, the helpful hints on how to approach the essay, and the suggestions of which things to memorize before entering the test. Having read Nielson Phu's comments and practiced the writing, we all felt more peace when entering the testing knowing that we had done our due diligence. I have now purchased his 'ACT essay' expecting great results. Thank you Mr Phu!

I'm a Harvard grad, SAT perfect scorer and full-time private tutor since 2002. I've also achieved perfect scores on multiple SAT essays. This book receives my solid recommendation for anyone struggling with the constraints of the new SAT essay "rhetorical analysis" format. The writer covers all of the main facets of the new SAT Essay, including the scoring, structure and key elements of a rhetorical analysis, combined with more strategic advice regarding such topics as paragraph structure, transitions, vocabulary usage, length, writing speed, quotations, examples, and the elements of persuasion. Mr. Phu himself admits that he is not a naturally gifted writer, and in fact, in the sample essay he provides, he only received a 7/7/7 score out of an 8/8/8 scale. But the information within is solid, organized and no-nonsense, if brief (the book is 70 pages long). Someday I will get around to writing a new SAT essay guide of my own. Until then, I can say with confidence that this is the best one I've seen. For my personal SAT prep recommendations, google "SAT Action Plan."

This book contains a lot of helpful information, useful tips, and a good template. The book looks direct and concise, and it is very well organized. It helped me to improve my SAT essay score. This book gives a lot of sample essays, but I wish there were essay topics in to book to practice writing essays.

read this book on the drive to my second SAT, ended up boosting my essay score 8 points. Passed it down to my friends in the year below before heading off to my dream school! Great buy, makes the essay easy even for stem major idiots like myself!

The "College Panda SAT Essay" book gave me great insight into what was needed to get a very high score for the new SAT. I read the book in under a couple of hours, but will be looking over it and practicing several times to make sure I take full advantage of what the book provides. The book has content not found online or in other books. I have not taken the new SAT yet, but with this book and many other books from Nielson Phu I feel confident that I will be scoring high on the new SAT.

I bought this before finding out the SAT I'm taking doesn't have an essay section, so although it is good, you don't really need it unless you are taking the SAT essay version.

I was struggling a lot when it came to the SAT Essay prep. As an international applicant, there was little opportunity to actually delve right into the structure of essay task and most of times guides were inaccurate, vague... not helpful at all. I decided to take a risk and buy "The College Panda's Essay", pretty hopeless having in mind those other books. And I gotta tell you, that's the best decision I've made lately. Clear explanation, helpful tips and, what's most important, real-life examples from students actually taking SAT and scoring perfectly. As I mentioned in title, I believe it's most helpful for international students since it's affordable and reliable source among the mess containing "best ever prep courses" (which won't teach you much). With the book (and some practice, of course) you can reach your dream 8/8/8!

A well organized and easily followed guide tot he new Essay.

This is the Best SAT Essay book for the New SAT. I have gone through all the other materials, but this one is the Best

Très succinct mais terriblement efficace ! Testé par une personne qui a très bien réussi l'examen sans trop d'efforts. En complément du gros pavé SAT.

This book is an absolute must-have for anyone taking the new SAT with the essay. It makes scoring on the essay a lot easier with a simple template that works for every essay because all the essays with discuss a position on a subject and ask us to analyse it. I boosted my score on the essay from 7 to 11 after only two days working with the strategies presented in the book