<p>makes perfect sense???</p>
<p>The essay only counts about 20 or so percent (I'm not sure of the exact number). The big weighted part is the multiple choice. What did you get on the multiple choice? If you had done badly, then the score would make perfect sense.</p>
<p>Thats bizarre. Did you skip a line somewhere along the way and fill in the wrong bubbles on the multiple choice?
Luckily a lot of colleges aren't counting the writing portion yet.</p>
<p>they are...........nd well see if i skipped a line......or me not studying had its effects!</p>
<p>Actually, I was just on the Collegeboard website. They say the essay is 30% of the grade and the multiple choice is 70% of the writing grade.</p>
<p>Still seems strange that you could write well enough to get a 9, and still end up with a 490 -- aren't the multiple choice mostly grammar/writing type questions? </p>
<p>Perhaps you should ask for a hand re-score, or whatever they call it when they double-check your score.</p>
<p>Just saw this on the Parent Site:</p>
<p>"The kids on the SAT Prep thread are all talking about how their scores on the Writing section of the Oct. test were extremely low compared to either previous tests or practice tests. There's some buzz (maybe just wishful thinking) over there about possible scoring errors. Several kids are talking about requesting hand-scoring. </p>
<p>It wouldn't surprise me if there was a scoring problem with the Oct. test. My S's scores went down in CR and W, and he was expecting at least a 40 point increase based on the improvement in his ACT score the month before."</p>
<p>SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO ASK THEM TO HAND SCORE THE TEST! It can be done on the collegeboard webpage. Another parent mentioned that it was strange score anomolies and people requesting rescores that allerted the collegeboard to last year's scoring problems.</p>
<p>My issue wasn't as drastic but I did find my writing scores a bit odd. PSATs I usually got around a 76 W.</p>
<p>May 06 SAT: 9 essay, 79 MC, 770
Oct 06 SAT: 11 essay, 70 MC, 730</p>
<p>In both cases I answered all the questions. I felt as assured of my accuracy in Oct as in May, and obviously my essay was higher. I wondered if I skipped a question and then marked wrong but I figured the curve was just harsh. Too bad I didn't get the 11 essay in May when apparently things went better for most people. </p>
<p>I did notice on the Oct W section, and this held up with what I saw on here and heard from others, that I made a lot of no error choices on the underlined sentences thing. Perhaps they were just really hidden errors.</p>
<p>One guy at my school had like a 660 on W, and he went to a 560. A lot of people at my school were seeing little or no improvement in writing.</p>