SAT practice essay reflection

Last class we reflected on the 25 minute essay that we wrote the class before, and now we have to reflect on the reflection...you know, I like to reflect on some stuff but I hate reflecting on reflections...maybe I can impute that standing to my beliefs (See "What do I believe in?") since reflecting once tells me "ok, lets learn from this." while reflecting on reflections just screams at me "hey, you've gone over this already. Stop being obsessive!". But I'm not going to be contumacious about it...Now back on topic...

What do I think of the SAT essay? Well, I don't really like the whole "25 minutes to answer a philosophical question" system. With my writing style it is difficult for me to write a quality essay in 25 minutes. I do try to put lots of effort into those 25 minutes of writing, but to me quality = effort x time (XD math and English). Fortunately the topic was one that I know at least something about (I've been forced to improvise on some previous practice SAT essays).

I think that the most effective strategy is to plan it out in your head before you start writing. Know the basic outline of what you are going to say so you don't have to worry about the "now what?" that often may come up if you just jump into it from the outset. You only have 25 minutes and its really only enough for one shot at writing it. I could compare the SAT essay section to a music audition or performance: You only get one chance to play it, you have to do it right the first time. Before you start playing you focus on how you want your music to sound, just like you should focus on how you want your essay to "sound" before you start writing. And just like with music: if you practice intelligently beforehand, you will get better.

Of course you shouldn't spend too much time before you start writing, after all you only have 25 minutes and we don't want to try fitting 10 pounds of treasure in a 5 pound bag now do we?

You only have a limited time to plan and thus you need to be ready beforehand. I think a good way to do this is to have a list of possible "example examples" going through your head and what values they represent. Another important thing is to read! Books have many helpful examples, and sometimes its easier for you to pull an example out of a book then from personal experience.

I feel sorry for those teachers who have to sit in a conference room and read hours upon hours of the same essay...

SAT practice essay

This was done in 25 minutes in english class:

Question: Does the media determine the most important values in most people?

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Does the media determine the most important values in most people? Yes. Observation is an essential part of learning, and so what people see in the media influences what they learn.

As children, people learn by observation: watching their parents and taking their values after them. At school you have teachers who (presumably) know more than you and teach you by letting you listen and observe their knowledge. Influence through observation is also present in what we call "role models". These could be anyone from a famous person, to your neighbor down the block. The media is considered one of these role models. The media shares the aspect of learning from a more experienced individual (or individuals) with that of a teacher or parent. And just as a bad teacher or parent can be a bad influence on a person, the media can also be a bad influence.

This whole structure of influence works both ways with the media, which is often in contrast with other types of role models. The media is part of society and thus changes to conform to society's new "patterns", which may often have been brought on by the media itself. The idea of "I'll tell you what you wish to hear: is at work here. This pattern of information feeding has the effect of enforcing one's beliefs, making them more favorable to one side ("I totally agree") or the other ("These guys don't know what they are talking about"). Either way, the media strengthens the beliefs of a person by giving them what they, or whoever their audience is, what they wish to hear.

Putting it all together: Observation is an essential component of learning and enforcing values, and through acting as a role model and by catering to one point of view over to strengthen beliefs, the media becomes similar to a role model and thus does influence the important values in people.

What do I believe in? Podcast

I suggest turning off or turning down the clocktower music on the sidebar before listening to the podcast so you can actually hear it!

Click here to get your own player.

Words from: http://awatanabe09clocked.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-do-i-believe-in.html

Reflecting on this blog so far...

......How should I start? There is so much yet so little I can say. I really don't know where to begin. Perhaps with the essential questions!

1. What kind of world is this?

2. How should we live in it?

Ok, I personally prefer these blogs over the standard "written papers" in English class. I get to actually share my ideas in a way other than verbal discussion (which I'm not good at).

So far the main things I've written about involve "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" and "This I Believe". Both of them had something to do with the essential questions. "Singer Solution" was an essay on how we ought to live, while the "This I Believe" podcasts were audio recordings of people giving their own view on how the world is and how they chose to live in it.
I haven't directly mentioned the essential questions in all of my posts because, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to visit a blog that includes the same phrases, listed out word for word like I did up there with the essential questions, in Every. Single. Post. So that's why I have them at the top of the page on the sidebar!
Though I haven't always mentioned them, I think that my posts do contain effort to answering the essential questions. Sometimes it was not intentional (Like with "Relativity") but it is really interesting to see how many ideas have possible relations to the essential questions.

Some notes on this blog's design

I said it earlier, but I called this blog "The Clocktower" because it is used to keep track of the various English related thoughts in my head, like a clock is used to keep track of time. I wanted to find a tileable image of a stone wall to use for the background, but what you see here was the best I can find, and it doesn't tile correctly (you can see where the image ends). Maybe I'll find a better image later.
The music is a remix of "Clocktower", a piece from the video game Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. It has a somewhat depressing feel at the beginning, but it ends on an uplifting note. The rhythm of the piece does remind me of a clocktower. As for the non-remixed version, it is much faster and in my opinion isn't as good. The music that I really wanted to put on my blog was "The Gears Go Awry", another clocktower themed piece, which has a really nice organ intro (Yes, that's where the phrase that I used to have in the blog header came from). But I couldn't find it anywhere so I settled for "Clocktower".

Reflection on posts coming soon...

A Scene's View

Sheets of dull grey clouds, blanketed densely across the late morning sky, shroud the glow of the sun. Though amorphous, they could seem to depict an inversion of the earth far below as they hover aloft, casting shade, rather than the light that they obscure, over everything beneath them. Metallic green and overlapping shingles trail down the rooftops, unmoving as their pattern continues to flow to the edge of the roof and the start of the wall. As the pointed leaves shoot from the tree’s branches like fountains of green, they block much of this wall's white stone from our view. The branches wind in and out of visibility, being concealed and then exposed by others of their kind, as they converge on the trunk of a single tree from which they originated. The tree itself has risen from the ground as the leader amongst the cluster of countless low lying plants; the diverse colors of the plants match with the surroundings. On either side, dark walkways pass behind the wall of the building's two floors. The ground is encompassed in a field of grass which slopes down and then up again as it crosses the area between the plants and cement pathway with rows of dirt-red bricks running horizontally forming intermittent stripes. The pathway is where we are standing.

What do I believe in?

Hmm...to answer that question in the title, I believe in many things. As a violinist, many of my beliefs are originated in my experiences in music.

First and foremost and if you don't already know, I accept that I am not what some may call a normal 16 year old student. And now I'll be giving you the generic "everyone is different" statement. There! That wasn't too hard was it? It is true though, if everyone behaved the same, wouldn't life be boring?
ANYWAYS, so we have our differences, my main difference has to do with music. While many teenagers have their quote and quote "popular" music, I am interested in none of that. Again, I'm a violinist and my genre of music is classical. Like Eric W. was saying in one of his posts, "most teens can't stand to even think about classical music". Well, I'm not "most".


I've been playing violin since I was 4. Starting to learn, just like with anything, was a slow process, but it was not without its excitements. Moving on to a new piece (Little rant: They are not called songs!) was always one of these excitements, as was learning the new techniques that came with it. I started in the Suzuki program so there was a set path of pieces, and with the Suzuki CD that I would listen to in the car, I would get to listen to not only my current piece, but also the pieces I would eventually be able to play. Practicing was hard work, and when I was younger it was not really much fun. However, listening to future pieces gave me motivation. And I knew that if I wanted to improve, I had to be committed. I kept practicing, and I did improve. And actually as I improved, practicing eventually became less of a chore and more of a recreation. So that is how I have my first belief: commitment.


It has been 12 years since I started the violin, and since then it has become a central part of my life. There used to be a CD I could listen to, as a mentioned above. The music on the CD would give me something, a piece, to look forward to playing. I would strive to improve to be able to play that piece, whatever it was. Setting set goals, along with my belief in commitment helped me through the Suzuki books, but that was 5 years ago and those were just the basics. After finishing the last book...well 8th book since I didn't do 9 and 10...I was introduced to the expanse that is classical music. There was no more set path, of course, and while my belief in commitment stayed, my "stepping stone" belief changed into my second belief: excellence.

"Is someone testing me every day I live? Well, the best in me is all I have to give."

I believe that excellence is not the same as "success". Success is about "being the best". Excellence on the other hand isn't that way, though many people now think of it as so. It isn't about competition. It does not involve comparing yourself to anyone else...but yourself. It is a personal goal that is constantly pursued. Excellence is improvement! It is the quality of doing one's best, one's best which constantly raises through improvement brought by the pursuit of that excellence. Failure is such a harsh word, and focusing on success can lead to focusing on potential failures which in turn lead to self-debasement and brooding over the past. Success/Failure is something that is not often under one's complete control. While "my best" is something that I can control. I know when I have accomplished my goal and I know what I am capable of. I believe that the best I have is the most I have and that can be made better through the pursuit of excellence. It is not only in violin that I work to always be be better than I have been previously but I try to apply the belief in excellence to other areas of my life as well.

I think this quote sums up the differences between success and excellence. I'm not much into sports but still:
http://eteamz.active.com/americasoccer/files/SuccessvsExcellence.doc

So that was my second belief: the pursuit of excellence.


I am just beginning to find my belief in this aspect of music: Life is very stressful, and the violin is my way to escape. With music I am immersed in a world where the strains of life become merely secondary. I feel a freedom to express that which would be impossible for me to express with words. Music is a universal language after all. The better I get, the more I can say. I can harness my frustration, my happiness, my anger into this expression. And what's more, I find it enjoyable. My third belief: I believe in music as its own, powerful, language.