From Quora: My Answer to "What is the best way of preparing for SAT and the best essay topic for SAT?"

​https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-of-preparing-for-SAT-and-the-best-essay-topic-for-SAT/answer/John-Linneball 
Start WAY out, like a year or two, from when you’ll need the SAT results. Work hard in your classes - they will teach you basic math, reading, and grammar skills measured by the SAT. Read lots of books, news articles, editorials, and online posts. There’s a great list of books to read in the Barron’s SAT review book.

Buy an SAT review book like Barron’s SAT. They’re pretty cheap; they’re even cheaper used; and you can often get them for free from people who’ve taken the SAT. Old editions work as well as newer ones, as long as they were published after 2016, when the “new SAT” came out. If you can’t afford that, take a review book out of the public library or your school library (don’t write in it).
Consider hiring an SAT tutor like me. Tutoring by John Linneball . It’s helpful to work with someone on these problems.

The “best essay topic” is always the same; you will be asked to read a persuasive essay (usually a newspaper editorial or something similar). You will be asked to analyze how the author makes his or her argument using facts, rhetoric, and logic (ethos, pathos, logos), and NOT to present your opinion on the topic of the essay. So the topic should be “The author uses facts (ethos) in the form of [survey statistics, historical references, references to classical literature], rhetoric (pathos) in the form of [powerful word choice, emotional appeals, and humor], and logic(logos) in the form of [deductive or inductive logic] to make his or her point that [the point explicitly named in the instruction box at the end of the essay].”

Name the author, title, and genre (kind of writing it is) in the beginning, and you’ve got an opening paragraph. That would look something like:

In the High School News editorial “Why Don’t They Serve Tater Tots in the School Cafeteria More Often?,” Sam Student uses facts (ethos) in the form of a survey of local high school students regarding their favorite cafeteria lunch foods, rhetoric (pathos) in the form of powerful word choice (“Tasty tater tots…”, emotional appeals, and humor, and logic(logos) in the form of deductive logic (that students who eat more tater tots are happier and more likely to learn in class) to make his or her point that school cafeterias should always serve tater tots.
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Hope this helps!

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