The College Panda's SAT Essay: The Battle-tested Guide for the New SAT 2016 Essay 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

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 is brief, but contains a lot of information. It gives you a good template, analysis information, and useful tips. It is a quick read. Unlike other essay books, this one is more like a study guide. The only thing I think it can be more detailed on is the analysis part. Overall I find this book helpful for the purpose of writing the SAT essay.

Note that this is a much concise book with 70 pages of material. The Appendix B has real essays (printed 4 original essay pages per book page - though I would have preferred to see a single original essay page per book page as letters are too tiny to read in current format). I think it's a bit expensive for the material offered.

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: 6/6/5And 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!

My daughter got a perfect 8/8/8 score just by using this book. In a concise manner, it tells you specific tactics of how to construct your essay. It also includes several student essays which actually got a perfect score. It is a thin book, but it contains all the information you need.

Although I liked this book, I can't say my son really utilized or followed all of his recommendations so he only got average scores on the essay portion. Overall, for the fact this book is so thin and the essay portion isn't so weighted and required by all colleges, I think the price should be less expensive.

I am a student from Greece, preparing for the SAT with no guidance from teachers. I find this book is very helpful, with great detail and at the same time easy to understand. I recommend it to anyone preparing for the SAT independently and to international students.

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

Nielson Phu, you are great. What a book! The approach is superb.

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!

the book is concise and great for a last minute read. I am writing my SAT on 5th May, will write a detailed review about the worth of the book then.

Do not miss an opportunity to learn how SAT Essay expects from students.this guide book gives great bullet points for those who are struggled.