Can someone please score my SAT essay?

Question

topic: Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit?

“Knowledge is something that can be gained but never lost.” It is widely debatable as to whether knowledge is beneficial to mankind. While some people think that knowledge can improve the human society, others believe that knowledge is simply a burden. It is clearly evident that knowledge is a great benefit through my readings of the novel The Dead Poet Society, my study of Galileo’s discovery, and my observations of Mendeleev’s organization of the periodic table.

Answer 1

doubt that you wrote this in the 25 minute time requirment. but if you did i would give it a 5. so if i were 2 people, you would get a 10.

Answer 2

Your essay is good--it has strong supports to it, and an overall good idea.

On the scale of 6 I'd probably give it a 5. Don't forget to refer to the prompt with every example.

:)

Answer 3

I'd give you a 2. So if I were two people, you'd get only a 4. Out of 12.

Why?

One: BECAUSE YOU DID NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION.

Have you in the essay explicitly refuted the point that knowledge is a burden ANYWHERE? "It is clearly evident that knowledge is a great benefit through..." DOES NOT constitute ANY sort of a decent thesis statement at all. All you did was to state your points - and they aren't even good points at that. By presenting a flawed view of ONE SIDE of the argument, you have already condemned yourself to less than half the maximum grade.

Two: BECAUSE YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T KNOW YOUR ENGLISH. Or even have your facts right.

It's 'Dead Poets Society' for the record. If you say something, MAKE SURE IT'S RIGHT. And Galileo Galilei, a REPUTED scholar, REFUTED the Church's teachings. For goodness' sake DON'T mix up words at your age.

Three: You don't seem to know how to support a point of view with good evidence.

It's all well and good that some fictional English teacher got his students to think, and that some random guy decided to overturn the Church's views, and that some Russian managed to predict the existence of unknown elements. Fine. BUT HAVE YOU PROVED THAT THE KNOWLEDGE THEY CREATED IS A BENEFIT? Or addressed the 'burden' part of the question?

A really EXCELLENT point you SHOULD have raised was that of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is the basis of nuclear energy, which provides for 70% of France's electrical needs. Yet it is also the basis for the some forty thousand thermonuclear warheads that your country and the Sovetskiy Soyuz pointed at each other for three decades. Sure, fission brought prosperity and comfort to France and other countries, but it also placed many countries in the world under the spectre of nuclear annihilation. Such a point would address both views, but you would be able to argue that electricity is worth the threat of becoming nuclear dust. So your conclusion would go like 'Yes, knowledge can be a burden. But the benefits are worth the burden.' Now THAT'S something any high schooler SHOULD and MUST be able to write.

I think I have said enough. You know what to do to get started on ensuring you don't get a ridiculous grade on the SAT. If you're going to use the information I have provided you to your own benefit, get cracking. And don't thank me.