DS20 just received his Feb school-based ACT score.
He did very well overall on the exam with a composite of 35. However, they did not tell the students that they would be doing the Writing section. When they got to the last section and were told it was a Writing section, and then were assigned a topic he had no interest (sports/PE), he was done. He said he had no idea Writing was even an ACT section before that moment, so he wasn’t prepared at all, and thinks he only wrote a paragraph or two, scoring a 3! Good gravy. I thought I had read his school can request his essay because I really want to see what he wrote to garner a 3. LOL.
Overall, his composite is 35, but it would certainly raise red flags for me if someone only had a 3 on a section. He scored a 1480 SAT and now a 35 ACT and says he is done. His scores are great (much better than his grades), so I am fine with that. If he could just do the writing section, he’d be willing to retake that, but he doesn’t want to take the chance that his overall scores would go down. And truthfully, he doesn’t want to do it again, and I don’t want to spend the money if not needed.
Here is the breakdown.
Composite 35
math 33
science 36
stem 35
english 34
reading 35
writing 3
ela 24
Will schools even look closely at the subcategories, or should I just not worry about it? We are chasing merit, but with a 3.5 GPA, the test scores make him a little more noticeable, but now it might be in a WTH way!
My ACT 34 kid got a 7 on the writing. After an 8 the previous year. And after getting a solid A in honors comp 2 at the college level fall senior year and an excellent reference from that teacher. He does have garbage hand writing.
I think those sections are ridiculous. I wouldn’t sweat it at all. Have him show writing through his essays. An english teacher reference might not hurt and decent grades in those classes. More schools are ignoring that score and even at elites the average score on the writing sections is very near the average.
Few schools look at the writing section bc the grading is so arbitrary. Just write a good essay. My son got a 35 ACT and a 5 on writing and did not seem to affect his admits or scholarships.
That sounds really similar to our experience with the State ACT in February. We didn’t know it would include writing until the week before, so D20 spent a week trying to figure out what he needed to do. I agree with the other advice, above. Everything I have read indicates that the writing section isn’t strongly considered. If there is ‘corroborative’ data that he can write (entrance essays, AP scores, class grades), then the ACT writing score will most likely be seen as an outlier.
I’ve heard that you should never retake the SAT/ACT just for the writing section since most colleges don’t care about it anyway as long as you’re able to prove that you can write. Congrats to your son on the 35! It is a great score and I wouldn’t worry about the 3.
Back in the day, my D who had a 5 in AP Comp, 800s in all comp/writing tests beside the essay–PSAT, SAT, won numerous writing awards, yadda yadda, got a 6 on the SAT 2 Writing essay. Never did understand why. We requested a copy, and it was a perfectly grammaticallly correct five paragraph, just like the like them, essay. It didn’t seem to hurt her, but honestly will never understand what happened. her brother, at least as good a writer, got an 8. Still low for his ability.
Truly wonder if it was handwriting plus leaving a few lines at the end blank because tiny handwriting.
My older son took a few of the practice tests from Kaplan because the school was offering it at a huge discount and he dislikes writing - especially that come up with a response with no prep sort of writing. The Kaplan guys gave him 1s and 2s on every essay, so I was a bit worried. In the end he got whatever was a middling score at the time. His slightly better essay got paired with a slightly worse multiple choice. In the meantime he had an 800 on the critical reading, an 800 on PSAT writing, 5’s on APs that had essays, and an A in his English elective senior year. He has terrible handwriting, so that may well have contributed. At the time the writing section was new enough, colleges said they weren’t looking at it yet, so we didn’t worry that his score was 100 points below everything else, but it was annoying to someone who likes to dot all their i’s and cross all their t’s. I think many colleges are still giving the writing section the side-eye.
If he’s done, he’s done, so you can’t worry about it. Personally, I would only suggest he not apply to schools that require the writing section. The schools that do require it tend to be tippy tops, and a 3 would be noticeable. However, that is a small number of schools. Otherwise, I wouldn’t worry.
For anyone reading, encourage your child to at least have a look at a classic five paragraph essay template, which is super basic. If faced with that unexpected situation, it’s handy to at least be able to recall what matters in a classic essay: the thesis sentence and the supporting paragraphs, especially the topic sentence of each paragraph. On the ACT essay, the other way kids lose points is by not addressing all aspects of the prompt. They have to clearly state their own perspective, AND clearly address at least one of the perspectives given. Many kids forget that part and don’t do well.
You can not detach the writing score when sending an official ACT score to a college. However, many schools allow self reporting of the scores now, by reporting scores in the common app. In that case, I would not put the writing score in the common (or other) app.
Daughter took a prep course when she was preparing for SAT when writing was required by many school. Tutor remarked that the essays was a 12, but would be scored a 3 because the examiner would stop after the first paragraph because of her handwriting/ printing…too many curly letters!
Agree with others, this will probably be ignored. However, I sure can see how it would be troubling for a parent. He didn’t plan ahead, so a 3 is the best he can do? Or, he wasn’t interested in trying his best? Neither of those scenarios builds confidence in a kid or a parent hoping to go off to college, particularly one that wants merit benefits.
My son had a 36 on the reading and I think on the English too (or maybe 35…anyway, it was up there). His writing score also was weirdly low (6?). I was kind of concerned about it, too, but figured it couldn’t matter too much, and that there was too much other evidence that he is a really good writer. And he got into a fine college and gets As on his papers, which is probably what will happen for your son as well.
