All You Need To Know About SAT: Part 21

Written by: Helen Donohoe

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***Helen Donohoe, M.S.Ed., is a teacher of English and French in the Hamilton/Burlington area. She holds practice SAT sessions on Saturdays on an informal, drop-in basis at Cedar Springs Racquet Club where she is a member, long-time tennis hacker and aficionado.

In this section of the website we will be publishing short paragraphs on various aspects of SAT. Please leave your questions/comments here, and Helen will be happy to respond to any specific concerns from students/parents***

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Strategies for the essay section on the SAT

Last week, I outlined strategies for you to use in the essay that involve your own experiences and observations, mainly on the tennis court. This week, let’s look at themes from literature that you can incorporate into your essay.The best way to get started is to make a list of everything you can remember reading, at school or at home. Divide the titles into two main sections: novels/short stories and drama. You can also add poetry. This will help you classify the titles. A typical list for a grade 11 or 12 student might look like this:

There are of course, many other titles. This is just a sample.

Next step – identify the main theme(s) in each of the works on your list. For instance, in The Scarlet Letter, hypocrisy is one of the main themes. In the Great Gatsby, you encounter shallowness and betrayal, in Macbeth, greed. Once you have identified these main themes, choose three that you feel you know best and start to develop them. That will be more than enough to apply to almost any of the essay questions. Next week we’ll look at ways to apply the themes in literature to some of the essay topics from actual SAT’s. Hold your breath!

May 4, 2012

College Tennis Alumni at the 2021 Australian Open – Part 1: Men’s Singles by Michal Kokta

February 23, 2021

With the first Grand Slam of the year winding down, I wanted to do a little introduction to the main draw players, who competed on the collegiate level before turning pro. This will be a short series of four parts: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, and women’s doubles.

Week at Wilson – Interview with Pierre Lamarche

February 11, 2021

Interview by Blair Rickers, Wilson Sports This week we interview Pierre Lamarche whose career in tennis spans close to 70 years. Canadian Junior and National

A deeper dive into second serve statistics

December 13, 2020

The two most widely reported second serve statistics in professional tennis are the number of double faults a player hit, and their second serve winning percentage. If we’re trying to understand the effectiveness of a particular player’s second serve, relying only on those statistics has significant drawbacks. Article by Michal Kokta.

Yves Boulais: No Excuses… Get Working

March 21, 2020

Yves was proud to work with players including Greg Rudsedski, Patricia Hy, Oliver Marach, Eugenie Bouchard and Rebecca Marino, who achieved excellent results on the world stage. He was an Olympic Coach in Barcelona 1992 & Atlanta 1996, and Captain of the Canadian FedCup Team 1998 – 2000.

Week at Wilson – Interview with Pierre Lamarche

February 11, 2021

Interview by Blair Rickers, Wilson Sports This week we interview Pierre Lamarche whose career in tennis spans close to 70 years. Canadian Junior and National

Update on UK Tennis Situation with Master Louis Cayer

March 25, 2020

I would like to share a mindset I instil in all the players I coach, one I believe has greatly influenced all of the player’s performances; “whatever happens, I can handle it.” This mindset is achieved through a systematic, tactical development process, so that whoever the opponent, whatever the surface, regardless of the environment, or scoring, the players can, and will rise to the challenge as it is presented.