No. 2 pencil blues

Education | The new SAT launches a new breed of high-school essayists | John Dawson

Jim Lindsay has a message for the six Highland Park High School juniors staying after school to prepare for the new written portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test: "You will be getting fives and sixes when I'm done with you." Today, with 35 weeks to go before the premiere of the new SAT, his students are test-driving techniques he says can increase their essay score. The six-point essay, a 25-minute timed writing exercise, has high-schoolers the country over sweating bullets as its first testing date arrives this month.

The class at the Dallas-area school starts by reading sample essays. Then, the six juniors turn to an empty page in their large purple SAT prep book and begin writing. Today's Rorschach-like essay topic: "There is always a 'however.'" The room grows silent for nearly a half hour. What follows are hand cramps, pencil-smudged fingers, and—they hope—a better understanding of what the real test will be like. The stakes are high for the students. One or two points higher on the essay could mean acceptance into the college of their choice in fall 2006.