Looking for more essay prompts? Check out our new assignment library.
You can use the official prompts below with Guided Drafts or Quick Writes to help students prepare for the essays they'll write on standardized tests.
SAT® Essay prompts and texts
Click below to view a list of official SAT® Essay prompts. Then, click the title of each prompt to view the page or download a PDF of the text.
💡Some prompts below include links to an external resource. To include this link as your essay prompt when creating a writing assignment in NoRedInk, be sure to copy and paste the website’s full URL address (ex.https://resource.pdf). This will appear as a clickable URL for students as they work on the assignment.
Official SAT® Prompts
- SAT Sample Prompt and Responses 1. “Let There Be Dark” by Paul Bogard
- SAT Sample Prompt and Responses 2. “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia
- SAT Essay Practice Test 1. Former US President Jimmy Carter's Foreword to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, A Photographic Journey by Subhankar Banerjee
- SAT Essay Practice Test 3. “The Digital Parent Trap” by Eliana Dockterman
- SAT Essay Practice Test 5. “Viewpoint: Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us” by Eric Klinenberg
- SAT Essay Practice Test 6. “The Lovely Stones” by Christopher Hitchens
- SAT Essay Practice Test 7. “The North West London Blues” by Zadie Smith
- SAT Essay Practice Test 8. “Space Technology: A Critical Investment for Our Nation’s Future” by Bobby Braun
- SAT Essay Practice Test 9. “Why We Should Work Less” by Richard Schiffman
- SAT Essay Practice Test 10. “Government Must Preserve National Parks” by Todd Davidson
AP® English Language and Composition prompts and texts
Click each header to view a list of official AP® English Language and Composition essay prompts.
💡Some prompts below include links to an external resource. To include this link as your essay prompt when creating a writing assignment in NoRedInk, be sure to copy and paste the website’s full URL address (ex.https://resource.pdf). This will appear as a clickable URL for students as they work on the assignment.
All Prompts and Sample Responses
All prompts and sample student responses
Click “Free-Response Questions” under any year to view the synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument prompts for that year. Click “Sample Responses” for any question to view a high, middle, and low-scoring student response to that prompt.
AP® Rhetorical Analysis Prompts
Our Rhetorical Analysis Guided Draft gives students perfect preparation for AP Lang rhetorical analysis prompts! To assign a Rhetorical Analysis Guided Draft, click here.
- 2018 - Commencement address at Mount Holyoke College by Madeleine Albright, 1997
- 2017 - Speech at the Women’s National Press Club by Clare Boothe Luce, 1997
- 2016 - Eulogy for Ronald Reagan by Margaret Thatcher, 2004
- 2015 - Article on nonviolent resistance by Cesar Chavez, 1978
- 2014 - Letter to John Quincy Adams by Abigail Adams, 1780
- 2013 - Excerpt from Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, 2008
- 2012 - Remarks on the raising of steel prices by John F. Kennedy, 1962
- 2011 - Speech to the National Women Suffrage Association by Florence Kelley, 1905
- 2011 Form B - Letter by Samuel Johnson, 1762
- 2010 - Letter to Thomas Jefferson by Benjamin Banneker, 1791
- 2010 Form B - Excerpt from The Horizontal World by Debra Marquart, 2006
- 2009 - Excerpts from The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, 2002
- 2009 Form B - Excerpt from “The Indispensable Opposition” by Walter Lippmann, 1939
- 2008 - Excerpt from The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, 2004
- 2008 Form B - Excerpt from “America Needs Its Nerds” by Leonid Fridman, 1990
- 2007 - Excerpt from Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World by Scott Russell Sanders, 1993
- 2007 Form B - Speech on Toussaint-Louverture by Wendell Phillips, 1861
- 2006 - Excerpt from “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” by Jennifer Price, 1999
- 2006- Excerpt from “On the Want of Money” by William Hazlitt, 1837
- 2006 Form B - Excerpt from the play Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw
- 2005 - Satirical article from The Onion, 1999
- 2005 Form B - Lecture by Maria W. Stewart, 1832
- 2005 Form B - Excerpt from The Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry, 1997
- 2004 - Letter from Lord Chesterfield to his son, 1746
- 2004 - Excerpt from Days of Obligation by Richard Rodriguez, 1992
- 2004 Form B - Excerpt from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, 1962
- 2003 - Speech encouraging African Americans to join the Union army by Alfred M. Green, 1861
- 2003 - Comparison of passages by John James Audobon and Annie Dillard
- 2003 Form B - Letter from John Downe to his wife, 1830
- 2002 - Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln, 1865
- 2002 - Memoir excerpt by Virginia Woolf
- 2002 Form B - Excerpt from Down the River by Edward Abbey, 1982
- 2001 - Letter from Marian Evans Lewes to Melusina Fay Peirce, 1866
- 2001 - Excerpt from “Owls” by Mary Oliver, 1995
- 2000 - Excerpt from One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty, 1983
- 1999 - Comparison of two passages about Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp
AP® Synthesis Prompts
Each AP synthesis prompt includes an assignment followed by 6-8 source texts.
If students need help structuring their synthesis essays, try using our Argumentative Guided Draft with any of the prompts and sources below. To assign an Argumentative Guided Draft, click here.
- 2018 - Eminent domain
- 2017 - Public libraries
- 2016 - Monolingual English speakers
- 2015 - School honor codes
- 2014 - Is college worth the cost?
- 2013 - Memorials and monuments
- 2012 - US Postal Service
- 2011 - Eating local
- 2011 Form B - Should government require citizens to be environmentally responsible?
- 2010 - Technology in classrooms
- 2010 Form B - Daylight saving time
- 2009 - Space exploration
- 2009 Form B - Individuality vs. conformity in schools
- 2008 - Should the penny coin be eliminated?
- 2008 Form B - Required texts in high school English classes
- 2007 - Effects of advertising
- 2007 Form B - Procuring works for museums
AP® Argument Prompts
- 2018 - Exploring the unknown
- 2017 - The importance of artifice
- 2016 - The value of disobedience
- 2015 - The value of polite speech
- 2014 - Teaching creativity in school
- 2013 - Ownership and sense of self
- 2012 - The relationship between certainty and doubt
- 2011 - Thomas Paine's 1791 characterization of the US
- 2011 Form B - Freedom versus safety
- 2010 - The role of humorists
- 2010 Form B - Buy Nothing Day
- 2009 - The role of adversity in developing character
- 2009 Form B - The unreality of television
- 2008 - Corporate sponsorship in schools
- 2008 Form B - Dissent versus disagreement
- 2007 - Incentives for charity
- 2007 Form B - The value of "muckrakers"
- 2006 - The value of "public statements of opinion"
- 2006 Form B - Compulsory voting
- 2006 Form B - Reading versus thinking
- 2005 - Where power exists in the US
- 2005 - The Singer Solution to World Poverty
- 2005 Form B - The importance of mistakes
- 2004 - Discuss a controversy and propose a solution
- 2004 Form B - The relationship between unspoken rules and belonging
- 2003 - Entertainment ruining society
- 2003 Form B - the relationship between the individual and society
- 2003 Form B - Declining integrity
- 2002 - The importance of separating public and private life
- 2002 Form B - The value of technology
- 2001 - The problem with photography
- 2000 - The relationship between wealth and justice
- 1999 - "The only crime is pride"
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