TOEFL® sample essay: Judgments by first impressions are generally correct

[Muddy_Lang]

A good judgement for a person’s character is always something very subtle and quite intricate. In the world, there are people who are able to mislead almost anyone around you. Others people are very honest and naïve and unfortunately suffer from these in basically principal good qualities.

In general, there are two types of people. The first type are the people who believe that their first impression is the right one. To be honest I like this attitude very much and fully agree with it. I believe that a true and objective judgement can be made only when you don’t know somebody, when you see him for the first time. In such a situation, people are more likely to be themselves than in any other. If you already know the person, you just couldn’t be impartial. Whether you like it or not, deep in your heart you already have a conviction about the person’s character. It’s just that sometimes, without any specific reason, we don’t like a person. But when we see him for the first time we have the opportunity to watch him talk to other people, see how he reacts, in order to get an impact of his real juice.

The second type of people believe that the first impression is always wrong. According to their ideas, the more you get to know somebody, the best you can evaluate his personality. But that couldn’t be true. When you have already spent time with a given person, you already have some prejudices against him. Also, people often try to pretend to be someone they’re not and will never be, in order to impress somebody. In my opinion that is the risk of getting to know somebody and than evaluating his character.

To be more concrete, I’d like to give an example. Suppose you are on a ball or some other kind of party let`s say. If we assume that you are a famous or a rich person, everybody would be interested in talking to you. But when they don`t know about you, they’ll act more naturally and you can see the real people. As soon as they understand who you are, they’ll immediately change their attitude, they’ll try to be someone else. That’s just human nature, it’s inevitable. So my point is that only the first impression is the real one.

[Kitosdad]

The first type are the people who believe that their first impression is the right one. To be honest I like this attitude very much and fully agree with it.

In such a situation, people are more likely to be themselves than in any other.

Sorry to disagree with you, but I feel that first impressions can be very misleading.
How often have you later changed your first impression of someone ?.

It is very easy to pretend to be a charming and unassuming person, but it is very difficult to continue in this manner if it is not your real self.

Most people are very likely to fall for a first impression. This is why we have so many con-men and rogues. Con-men thrive in this environment, feeding on your willingness to accept people and things at face-value.

Many people fall in love based on first appearances, only to find bitter reality a short while later.
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Keep it simple. Keep it interesting.

[Dengqinbo]

good point, Kitosdad.but I don't know what con-men is. I guess this group of people are like "rogues", since you put the two together. Could you explain a bit more? THANKS

[Kitosdad]

Good morning Dengqinbo,

Con-men = Confidence tricksters,both male and female.

People who, having gained your confidence and trust by their charm or attention, then proceed to rob or disappoint you.
_________________
Keep it simple. Keep it interesting.

[Songthanh]

In my opinion, first impression can not tell us anything else about this person until you try to find out who they are. We are just normal people, we are not Gods to know or understand somebody at the first time we meet. And I have some reasons for that.

At first, especially for girls, who are easily cheated by their partner’s appearance, usually falls in love that guy at the first look. And then after a few weeks or months later, she realizes that it is not real, it is not a right person she thought before like a person at the first time she met. Time will answer all questions. Unless she lives with that guy, she could have known what kind of person he “actually” is. And then, she made a mistake to judge by first impression.

Secondly, to understand someone, I have to spend more time to get more information about that person, about their characteristics, their interests; have to do or work something together to know the way they live, the way they do. One of my friends says that “Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold — but so does a hard-boiled egg.”, that is my favorite quote. Your action would tell who you are, not your appearance.

However, I cannot deny that first impression sometimes gives me the good and right judgments about someone. These affected my thought very much but I still refer to have time to find out who they are. I used to make some mistakes from the first impressions, and they’re bad memories.

Finally, it depends on everyone’s thought, the way they judge someone else. For me, the first impression can not cover one’s characteristics with one’s appearance. To know the real value of something, you must go inside and figure out yourself.

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please check my essay. I have test on this Sat, Mar 28th, 09.

[Saule]

I agree on the statement that first impression is not always right. When we see someone the first time, we definitely want to show our best side. We try to be nicer than usually we are, we pretend to be smarter than we actually are, or we want to show how much compassion we posses and so on. The need to express yourselves in the better way confuses other people in making decision about us. Therefore, I believe that judgment by first impression is generally incorrect.
In my opinion, there is no a better way to know someone as communication. Through the communication we can express ourselves and explain many things in more comprehensive way. If we are not understood by others, it is not difficult to add more details, facts, or thoughts in order to be perceived. Long term friendship gives us such a powerful possibility to look at a person from many different aspects such as thinking, living habits, and interaction with other people. Knowing better all these aspects we can draw a much more accurate picture of someone. We lost this opportunity when we are in some place for the first time because people don't tend to listen to a long conversation of someone who they are seeing the first time. Therefore, making the first impression we all try to do our best in a very short period of time, and that is obvious as we don't want to be seen as an annoying person and destroy our reputation.
In additionion, we all tend to judge other people differently. It just depends on our own personality, experience, and even our education. Some people are very quick about making any decision, so they will be the same fast making decision of someone by first impression. Some people might be very prejudiced and unreasonably dislike people because of their race, religious, or some kind of appearance. Thus, when meeting someone who fits in their spectrum of prejudice, they ignore this new person without any attempt to know him better.
In summary, I want to say that I strongly disagree that first impression is often right. In fact, I think that nobody has a right to judge other people at all. However, if someone does that, it shouldn't be based on the first impression. Instead of trying to draw a picture of someone who is seen the first time, we should put more efforts to get in touch with that person. This is possible only if we put away all our prejudice and desire to judge others by first impression.

[Preeti Anandpara]

There is this saying which states that "First impression is the last impression". A person is judged by his qualities i.e his attitude, behavior, nature, gestures and so on. Many times we find that a person we met for the first time cliques your mind and you feel like meeting him/her more often. We hear people say, "Oh! he/she is my type". It happens suddenly and it gives a lot of joy within.

But, in certain countries where the marriages are arranged by parents, both the boy and the girl in their first meeting try to understand each other and then decide whether to go in for further meetings. Here again a person is judged by his/her qualities. If the match clique one another, they agree to meet again to know each other better. The impression created in the first meeting is analyzed and after going to gether for around 6 months to one year, the marriage is fixed. Evidences states that such marriages lasts longer.

What do you call this? first impression judgement being positive or negative? Well the answer depends on each person's personal experiences.

[Saule]

Marriages arranged by parents - that could be a new interesting topic to talk about. I met my husband in a disco club like many people do. So, nothing interesting, nothing exciting. Be honest, my first impression of my husband was really bad. However, we have been living together for 10 years, have three wonderful suns, and we are happy. We all have plenty of examples such as mine. Of course, sometimes first impression can be right, but I wouldn't rely just on it. Talking about marriages arranged by parents, I think that it works only in those countries which are used to this kind of meeting their sole-mates. I believe that people from those countries look a bit differently at marriage. Probably more mature and responsible. They understand marriage as a long term partnership and put more efforts to develop it and to save it compare to the western countries.