How Parents Can Use ChatGPT for SAT ACT Essay Help & AP Exam Feedback
How Parents Can Use ChatGPT to Give Expert Essay Feedback for SAT, ACT & AP Exams
You want to help your child with their SAT essay, AP free response, or ACT writing — but you don’t know the scoring rubric, and you can’t tell them what is missing if you don’t know what the scorer is looking for. ChatGPT does. Here is how to use it to give your child the kind of feedback a $75/hour writing tutor would give — for free, tonight.
The hardest part of helping your child improve their SAT or AP essays is not motivation or effort.
It is that the feedback has to be aligned to how College Board and AP scorers actually evaluate responses. A parent who reads an essay and says “this is good” or “this needs more examples” is giving generic feedback. A scorer reading the same essay is asking: does this demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the argument? Does the evidence actually support the claim made? Is the line of reasoning coherent and specific enough to score at the highest level?
Those are not the same questions. And unless you know the rubric, you cannot give the feedback that moves the needle.
ChatGPT knows the rubric. Given the right brief, it evaluates a draft response against the actual scoring criteria and gives specific, actionable feedback — the same kind a writing tutor would give, aligned to the test your child is sitting.
- Craft and Structure (28%)
- Information and Ideas (26%)
- Standard English Conventions (26%)
- Expression of Ideas (20%)
- Ideas and Analysis
- Development and Support
- Organization
- Language Use and Conventions
- Thesis (1 pt)
- Evidence & commentary (up to 4 pts)
- Complexity / sophistication (1 pt)
- Contextualization (1 pt)
One Rule Before You Start
Every prompt below is structured so that ChatGPT gives feedback — it does not write the essay. This is the same boundary as having a teacher or tutor review a draft: it is support, not ghostwriting. Your child writes the response. ChatGPT coaches them toward a better version of it.
If used to have ChatGPT write essays that are submitted as the student’s own work, that is academic dishonesty. These prompts are for practice, feedback, and learning — not for submission.
The Essay Feedback Prompts
Prompt 1: ACT Writing Essay Feedback
You are an expert ACT Writing scorer and tutor. Evaluate this student's practice ACT Writing essay response against the official ACT Writing rubric. The prompt my child was given: [paste the ACT writing prompt or describe the issue/perspectives given] Their response (do not rewrite it — give feedback only): [PASTE ESSAY HERE] Please score and give feedback in this format: 1. Score estimate for each domain (1–6): Ideas and Analysis / Development and Support / Organization / Language Use and Conventions 2. What is currently working in this essay — reference specific sentences or sections 3. The single biggest reason this essay is not scoring higher 4. Three specific changes the student should make themselves to improve the score (do not make them) 5. One additional perspective, counterargument, or real-world example that would strengthen the Ideas and Analysis score if incorporated 6. What a 5–6 scoring response to this specific prompt would demonstrate that this one currently doesn't
Prompt 2: AP Essay or Free Response Feedback (Any Subject)
You are an experienced AP exam scorer and [SUBJECT] tutor. Give structured feedback on this student's AP free response or essay. AP Subject: [e.g. AP US History / AP English Language / AP Biology / AP World History / AP US Government] Question type: [e.g. Long Essay Question (LEQ) / Document Based Question (DBQ) / Short Answer Question (SAQ) / AP English argumentative essay / AP Biology free response] The prompt: [paste the question] The student's response: [PASTE RESPONSE HERE] Evaluate against the official AP scoring rubric for this question type and give: 1. Point-by-point rubric assessment — which points would be awarded and which would not, and exactly why 2. For any missed points: what specifically is needed to earn them 3. The line of reasoning — is it clear, specific, and historically defensible? What would strengthen it? 4. Evidence quality — is the evidence accurate, specific, and does the student explain HOW it supports the thesis (not just that it does)? 5. If applicable: does the response demonstrate complexity/sophistication (the hardest point to earn)? What would it take to demonstrate it? 6. Overall: what band does this currently fall into, and what would push it into the next band? Do not rewrite the response. Give feedback only.
Prompt 3: General College Application or Scholarship Essay Feedback
You are an experienced college admissions essay coach who has reviewed thousands of college application essays. Give expert feedback on this student's essay. The prompt or question they are responding to: [paste the essay prompt] Word limit: [e.g. 650 words / 250 words] Their current draft: [PASTE ESSAY HERE] Please give feedback on: 1. Opening — does the first sentence make an admissions reader want to continue? What would make it stronger? 2. Voice and specificity — does this sound like a real, specific person or could it have been written by anyone? Where does it feel generic? 3. Story structure — is there a clear arc or insight? Where does it lose momentum? 4. The central insight or "so what" — what is the reader left understanding about this student that they wouldn't know from the rest of the application? 5. Three specific changes the student should make themselves 6. One question to ask themselves: "What is the most interesting or surprising thing about me that this essay could reveal, and does it?" Do not rewrite the essay. Give coaching feedback only. Maintain the student's voice — do not suggest they sound more like a different type of person.
Your Next Step
Your child has written a practice essay. Or they have one due. Or they are about to start and you want them to know exactly what the scorer will be looking for before they begin.
Open ChatGPT at chat.openai.com. Choose the prompt that matches the test. Fill in the prompt, the question, and the student’s draft. Read the feedback together. Let them decide what to revise.
The revision they do after reading specific, rubric-aligned feedback is worth more than any number of untargeted practice essays.
For the complete CRAFT Method — the framework that makes every AI prompt more useful, for essay feedback, business writing, and everything else — see our full guide here.