An article in the Washington Post says that some ACT essay scores were unusually low and inconsistent with the performance of the student in other areas. Regrading (a $50 option for dissatisfied test takers) raised one student’s score from 19 to 31. An ACT spokesman said that only a tiny number of rescoring requests are received, and most don’t result in any change.
Trivial point to start the discussion, but that Rhode Island student whose score was changed did get his $50 back. Any upward revision results in a refund. Certainly an incentive not to revise.
There was a big thread on this a month or two ago. Several people had really high scores across the board and abysmally low writing scores and asked for regrading.
My son was one of the abysmal writing scores (noticeably out of whack with his other subscores), but I just assumed he reached the end of the test and was exhausted. We didn’t ask for a re-score because he took the writing section twice and basically got the same score both times. I was just hoping that schools would look at his composition dual enrollment grades.
Of course the one time he got a crazy high English sub-score - that was the time I didn’t make him take the writing (wold have pulled up his English/Writing score). Murphy’s Law.
So students who can afford to pay Michelle Hernandez thousands of dollars to manage their applications are aware that they can have their exams regraded. Somehow I doubt that the average first generation college attender from the inner city knows that this is an option. Just one more way that the deck is unfairly stacked.
Based on the WP article, I decided to ask ACT to hand-score my daughter’s essay. She had a 36 in English, a 35 in Reading and then a 24 on her essay! Actually, after the test, she noted how much she liked the prompt and what a good job she did. LOL, after her initial excitement of her composite score, she never thought to check on her essay score. But here is the weird thing: I was concerned that my request was late, because you have three months from your score report. I called ACT b/c I was sure what that date was. The rep couldn’t tell me! All she said was that “I think you should be OK, and they’ll probably hand-score her test if you send it in today.” Doesn’t that seem a little fuzzy? She couldn’t even tell me the date of her report–like, I wanted to know what date are we working off of here? Very strange to me.
Given that Michelle is publicizing it for everyone, how exactly is she benefiting only her students?
My daughter scored a perfect 36 on her first ACT essay, then a 27 the next time. We asked for a hand-correction and paid the $50. The re-score was a 33.
Same happened to my daughter. All she has ever wanted to do is be a writer, so this is really disheartening. She said the prompt was bizarre. I have requested a rescore, but don’t have high hopes based on her comment, and she won’t be retaking.
Anyone have experience with admissions in this situation, where the transcript is excellent, the composite score meets the school’s requirement or is above it, but the writing score is below par? How do they see this? Thanks. Am wondering if we have to go with test optional schools only.
@colgrlma if the rest of her ACT score is good I wouldn’t worry too much about the writing. Especially if she’s applying to schools that will have an essay from her to read.
while visiting BC this past month, they told me that they aren’t even looking at the ACT essay, and many colleges aren’t so I wouldn’t get too worried.
Should I ask for a rescore if I got a 29 essay? i got a 35 composite with a 36 in both reading and english, so the essay score seems way out of whack
I wouldn’t bother. The writing section is on a different scale and a 29 is at the 97th percentile.
The ACT essay is back to a 12-point scale now. Anything over 20 (out of 24) or 10 (out of 12) is an excellent score.
I scored a 8 out of 12 and 23 out of 36. Which is better?
8/12 = 66% 23/36=64%
My child got a 35, but her essay was ‘inexplicably low’. We are aiming for the top Ivies. We do not want her to retake the ACT because we feel that the 35 is good. Will the writing score hinder her? Is this ACT score sufficient or should she also take the SAT?
As someone who gives educational tests for a living, I am horrified by the lack of validity on the ACT. Look at this board, and compare the score variability for the ACT to the SAT. How in the world can a subtest routinely vary six points and be considered valid?
Agreed. They are harder to impress than the actual AP Test folks.