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SAT Essay Prompts - December 2012




Materials on this page relate to the SAT before March 2016.

For updated SAT materials, please see:

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We have a collection of the new SAT Essay Prompts, ordered according to years, from March 2005 till the most recent test released by College Board.

The following are the SAT essay prompts given for December 2012.

December 2012

If you took the December 2012 SAT, you would have been given one of the essay prompts below:

Prompt 1

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Many people admire leaders who have effectively achieved their goals. But too many leaders are dedicated to achieving their goals at the expense of caring for the people who follow and support them. Leaders should be judged on how well they treat people, not on the achievement of their goals.

Assignment:

Should leaders be judged according to how well they treat people? 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.

Prompt 2

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

There is something good to be said for holding firm opinions, whether in politics, art, business, or daily life. A person who is deeply committed to a certain position on a film, a political candidate, or an idea may have thought long and hard before reaching that position. But too often such opinions are not based on careful thought and may be so rigidly held that those who express them do not consider other viewpoints or positions.

Assignment:

Are firmly held opinions reasonable? 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.






Prompt 3

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

It seems that we are always ready to justify our own actions and overlook our own errors. Why, then, are we so unwilling to judge others in the same way? We tend to hold others to very high, even unrealistic standards, expecting them to be always right, always honest, or always conscientious. All of us have personal flaws and shortcomings that we are quite willing to excuse. Surely we should be more willing to excuse such shortcomings in others.

Assignment:

Should people be more willing to excuse the errors and shortcomings of others? 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.

Prompt 4

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Some people believe that very few of today's "inventions" are really new. Inventions today seem to consist primarily of improvements to things that have already been invented. Medicines, it is said, may be better, and vehicles may be faster, but they are really not new or different. In reality, we have not even begun to exhaust the supply of original ideas or new inventions. There is much more for us to invent and discover.

Assignment:

Is there really much more for people to invent and discover in the world today? 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.



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