What do you think this SAT essay would actually receive?

Not bad - I don't know how exactly these are scored, but I can give you some general feedback. My main concern with your essay is regarding structure. As I learned it, essays should be written as follows: P1: Introduction -Hook -Thesis P2: First support paragraph -Topic sentence -Support point -Evidence (maybe another support point/evidence pair of sentences, if needed) P3: Second support paragraph -Transition and topic sentence -Support point -Evidence (Optional repeat) P4: Another support paragraph P5: Conclusion -Briefly summarize points -Restate thesis I think you did a fairly good job of creating body paragraphs and a strong conclusion, but I felt like your essay lacked a clear introduction with thesis. It was a bit disorienting, as a reader, to jump right into the argument like that. If you just take two quick minutes to structure your essay before you start writing, it's hard to go wrong. There's one other structure I've seen for argumentative essays that can be trickier to pull off in a pinch, but is usually pretty effective. You can try: P1: Introduction -Hook -Thesis P2: Argument AGAINST your thesis -Topic sentence that conveys the point "It is valid to think that structure is more important than style." -Supporting point/evidence paired sentences to sympathize with structure > style argument P3: Argument FOR your thesis (this can be broken into 2 paragraphs if needed) - Top sentence along the lines of "While structure is indeed important, it is style that ultimately guides our interpretation of information" -Supporting point/evidence paired sentences to support your thesis P4: Conclusion - Summary of argument for and against ("So while structure is important for ___ and __, ___ is not possible without impeccable style" or similar) - Restate thesis Just some thoughts! I found that having a solid idea of my preferred essay structure (and practice writing essays in that structure) made it easy to write an essay quickly on the SATs. I hope this helps!