SAT Essays

Prompt:

Since the invention of television, the medium has had its ups and downs. At first, television
watching was a communal affair; the first television set owners in a neighbourhood would
proudly invite the neighbours in to view the marvellous box. In time, however, television
came to have an isolating effect on viewers; as the painter Andy Warhol once said, When I
got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships.
Assignment: What are your thoughts on the idea that television has turned out to isolate
people instead of bringing them together?

In my opinion, it is definitely irrefutable that television has placed a greater impact in
uniting people, instead of isolating the people around the world. Although one may argue
that the implementation of television has somehow cut down the moments of people
interacting with each other, in fact it is notable that people are brought together as they are
now more aware of what is happening around the world.

Due to current sophisticated technology in the space, which allows a rapid information
transmission, television has become such an instrumental tool in conveying information to
the people. The invention of television has overcome the shortage of the papers media
which is incapable of updating the readers with latest news, and hence surpassed the
industry, in terms of providing the people with higher speed and wider coverage level. With
the presence of this little marvelous black box, people become learnt of what the rest of the
world is doing, and this awareness has connected the people around the globe, as the people
are now aware of what others are experiencing, be it a heartbreaking disaster, a thrilling
football match, or simply an anecdote on a mother giving birth to twins.
One of the great instances depicting a unification of people via television would be the live
broadcasting of the horrendous disaster, Si Chuan Earthquake last year. With the aid of
black box, the constant reports of the casualties, real updates of pictures and videos in the
happening scenes and the grievances that engulf the temporary refugee are vividly
presented to the people at once. This instant notification has led to the peoples donations
and establishment of volunteer teams, which provide realistic helps to the striving victims.
Indirectly, the people are being united, are being connected as they are aware of what
happened to each other. The same scenario is applicable to other news that are being
transmitted over TV, which helps to bring people together instead of isolating them, such as
the broadcasting of the South Africa World Cup match which thrills the heart of everyone,
the National Geographic channel which widens the horizons of peoples knowledge and
also Travel and Living channel which encourages an understanding of new culture across
the boundaries.
Based on the points illustrated, it is obvious that existence of television does not distant out
the people, but rather brings them together. On a macroscopic level, it has brought the
people of the whole globe come into one, which they can know how each other is doing,
instead of being ignorant to ones well-being. Whereas on a microscopic level, it has
encouraged more interaction for the family who sits together around it, and sparks off more
topics for people to chat over dinner, which again enhances the bonding of people.

Time spent: 33 minutes
"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives
everything its value."-Thomas Paine
Assignment:
Do we value only what we struggle for? Plan your response, and then write an essay to
explain your views on this issue. Be sure to support your position with specific points and
examples. (You may use personal examples or examples from your reading, observations,
or, knowledge of subjects such as history, literature, science.)
No pain, no gain This is a clich translated and used by almost everyone around the world.
People always work hard to get what they think is valuable. It is either material goal, such
as money or fame, or it can be mental goal, such as helping out others or meditation.
However, it is not always true that people only value what they struggle for. People can find
happiness or satisfaction from trivial things they encounter in life; they sometimes are also
disappointed to find not a great value in a thing which they strived for. In my opinion,
people value things for different reasons. Some people value things that they have earned
through hard work and struggle and this is because they have truly experienced all the
adversity and hard work so they know how much work they had to put in to achieve the
end result so, they look after the end result with great value.
However small things or meagre events which were acquired accidently or effortlessly can
hold great values to people. This is true for a popular Indian actress, Nazriya Nazim , she
was first just an anchor at the age of 18 and by no means of trying or struggle she got offers
form directors to act as a heroine in their movies and she is now a famous rising star and
has acted with very popular actors. In a recent interview she said that she values her
success and fame a as an actress very greatly as its not something she got through hard
work , which if it was then as she believed who stay forever.
To put things straight, people are not always happy about only what they struggled for.
They do find a great value in things which are trivial, and sometimes, things which cost a
lot does not give enough payback to those who tried really hard for it. It is true that people
struggle for happiness, but it is not always true that those people struggle for gives back
happiness.
The novelist John Hersey wrote, Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the
beginning of education. What are your thoughts on the idea that failure is necessary for
education to take place?
An english proverb goes-learn from your mistakes. It is also said that-learn from others
mistake because you cannot possibly make all the mistakes by yourself. This delineates how
important mistakes or simply failure is in our lives. Thus, failure is a lifelong teacher and
without it, education cannot take place.

Failure is a critical pre-requisite for the ability to learn. It is strenuous for a child to learn
the alphabets initially. After that, it is even harder for him to assemble them into words and
then sentences. Obviously, the child fails in the beginning. It takes him months and even
years to learn that, and this is the vivid example of failure in the beginning of education.
Failure drives us to learn, points our mistakes and loopholes, which makes our learning
process effective.

The examples of the most successful people in the world are also the examples of the
greatest failures. Thomas Edison was a great American inventor, and without him, we
would be living in a dark. He failed more than one thousand times and ultimately came up
with a light bulb. He was really a scanty student and was told to discontinue his formal
education by his teachers. The story is exactly similar for Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac
Newton as well. Edition had said I did not fail but found ten thousand ways that did not
work. This is how successful people turned their failures into stepping-stones. Every
scientist knows that experiment is never truly a failure; it is a lesson that teaches us what
not to do and pushes us to a different approach.

A person who has failed several times has a true value of what he has learned. I have a great
experience while practicing math. When I will be able to solve a problem after several
hours of attempts I really feel good but I do not feel that way, when I solve it in my first
attempt.


In a nutshell, failure inspires us to learn and achieve highest goals. If a mistake is made, one
never tries to repeat it and this perception is the first step towards our journey to success.
Not everybody is born with all the skills required to survive. Hence, failure is inexorable no
matter what we do, But, the matter of fact is failing is not losing; it is just a wonderful
opportunity to learn.