I just got my ACT essay scores back and had an ‘oh crap’ moment. Standardized essays from the ACT and SAT were never my strong suit despite studying and practicing and despite success in other essays and writing pieces, and for my ACT I got a composite essay score of 7 (7/7/7/8). My SAT isn’t incredible either, with a 6/5/6. But, my composite score for the ACT was 36 and my SAT was a 1560. Should I retake the tests for the essay section alone, or is it not as heavily weighed in the admissions process/would it reflect badly on me to take it again? It would be my second time taking the ACT and my third SAT (I didn’t take the essay the first time). I’m normally a good writer and I don’t want a standardized essay to wreck my chances.
In my opinion, once you’ve achieved a perfect ACT composite score, any further testing (except for Subject Tests) is silly. Princeton knows that it knows how to teach freshmen to write, so I’d assume they would prefer you move on to more important things than wasting another Saturday morning filling bubbles and writing a formulaic essay.