ACT Writing Scorers Are Making MAJOR ERRORS

Test Preparation
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Just a warning to all of those who may be doubting the legitimacy of their ACT writing scores: errors ARE being made by ACT.

Maybe it’s the stress of churning out hundreds of thousands of scores in time for the January 1st cutoff deadline for college applications, but ACT writing scorers are making severe errors.

If you doubt your writing score is accurate, CALL ACT. Email them. Talk to the support team and solve the issue.

I literally just got my Dec 12th test back, and my composite is a whopping 35, but my writing score is 09. This is extremely peculiar, because the last two times I took the test, my writing scores were 34 and 35, respectively, and if anything, I only IMPROVED during my most recent attempt. Clearly my writing booklet has been mixed up with someone else’s, because this is not only an inaccurate measure of my abilities, but a clear CLERICAL error.

I will be pursuing this matter fully, starting with a request for the rubrics used to grade my writing report and a copy of the answer document linked to my name. Once I prove that my five full pages of flawless prose studded with advanced vocabulary words deserve a perfect 36 after all, I’ll feel the need to get in touch with my contact at the Los Angeles Times to spread the news about ACT’s boozed-up writing scorers. Sorry that you’re all so stressed over scoring writing tests in the nifty little LUXURY office building you tweet pictures of day and night, but SOME OF US HAVE COLLEGE FUTURES ON THE LINE, and this is an incredibly despicable representation of your efforts to maintain your reputation as a testing agency on par with the likes of College Board.

Frankly, I don’t care if ACT mixed up my writing booklet with another person who shares my same name, or just made a printing error on my score report. Either way, let’s not forget that ACT is a PROFESSIONAL SERVICE to which students collectively pay tremendous amounts of money each year to fulfill a simple task.

If my grade isn’t changed in time for the January 1st deadline, I will not only be FURIOUS, but I will tell my guidance counselor, get in touch with Board of Trustees for my town’s school district, and notify the media about ACT’s ‘little mistakes’ that may be costing some kids their entire futures. Luckily, I recognize that this score is NOT mine, but there may be other students who are stuck with discrepancies of 3-5 points that do NOT accurately reflect their abilities. This is extremely unfair, unprofessional, and frankly, jeopardizes the dependability of the entire system of standardized testing.

When I tried to call the help center earlier, it was closed on account of “severe weather.” Well, while you guys are painting your fingernails, the days are dwindling and I’m finding that more and more intelligent people have received suspicious, single-digit writing scores this month.

Two words: unacceptable negligence.

–Furious victim of ACT’s questionable new hiring practices.

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I got a 33 composite and scored a 22 writing. Usually I score way higher. This sucks.

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Tell me about it. We’re all paying the price (literally) for a potential scoring scandal that has impacted at least three dozen people thus far. Don’t worry, @Yomo710, I’m not going to stop until this matter is resolved.

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@niflheim000 well make sure to post updates!

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yes please post updates. Something does not compute here. Its hard to believe with all that work and a longer essay conformed to the rubric I got the same score.

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I promise to post updates @luthierman ! I will contact the support center first thing in the morning and let you guys know what the representative says. December 12th tests are eligible for release for an extra fee, but if there have been widespread scoring errors to the degree I expect, everyone that is impacted will be eligible to have their test fees reimbursed in addition to receiving updated writing score reports that reflect their accurate marks.

I’ll keep you updated!

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If your writing booklet did indeed get switched up with someone else, there is a kid somewhere wondering how he scored a 20 Composite and received a 35 Writing score. LOL I know you’re mad, but it is just funny thinking about it. Also, I took the October test and my writing score seemed awfully low to be mine. I just hoped that my college essays would make up for it (and they did).

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@AcceptableName If 1), you prepared and could guarantee without a shred of doubt that your writing score was inaccurate, 2) you took the test in the middle of a hiring craze at the organization during which new scorers were introduced late in the game, and potentially without adequate training, and 3) your test was completed during the December 12th test date, which is largely considered to be the most stressful time of year for standardized testing distributors whose employees are under pressure to release scores as fast as possible, despite potential errors, you would be fully entitled to contact any news outlet you chose. This indicates a larger issue of employee negligence, and as ACT operates as a nonprofit organization, they are under the obligation to serve the test-taking community of students to the best of their ability–and receive government benefits for doing so.

$1.2 million dollars in fees are paid by students annually to ACT, and their Board of Directors take a paycheck of $520,000 directly from that sum–which, by the way, is more than half of the total income of the organization. Frankly, this might indicate low wages and poor working conditions for employees that are allocated much lower sums of money in the budget than their credentials parallel–or vice versa. The thought of disgruntled ACT employees ruining the lives of college-bound seniors across the globe isn’t all that amusing to me. Frankly, I don’t find anything about it funny. If it was an isolated incident and I fully deserved the low score I received, it would be an entirely different story. Unfortunately, their negligence is more likely to extend to a much larger group of people than the two involved in my situation. Students paying hundreds of dollars for the services of ACT shouldn’t be negatively impacted in the process. If the hypothetical student you described with a 20 composite was accepted into a school that I deserve to attend based on the writing score they received under false pretenses, it would be an absolutely disgraceful example of the unreliability of standardized testing agencies. Even worse, there may very well be hundreds of students involved in this potential scoring scandal whose problems are being swept under the rug in an attempt by ACT to save face and preserve reputation.

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Okay my composite was a 30 and my writing was a 16. I didn’t study at all and this was my first time so does this seem like it would be accurate??

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Didn’t writing scores usually take about six weeks to grade? Why the sudden rush to get the writing portion graded as quickly as the multiple choice?

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Because of the Jan 1 college deadlines

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@nyuhopeful44 It depends on how much you wrote. If you didn’t study the example essays posted on ACT’s website, your grade may be accurate. However, if you feel like you wrote throughout the entire writing booklet and had a well-organized essay, there might be something to it. I would recommend that anyone who has doubts call the support center.

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@golfcashoahu @nyuhopeful44 @KaffeineKitty @Yomo710 @luthierman @AcceptableName

Okay, guys. I just called, and after the customer service representative spelled my name wrong 4-times–despite its simplicity and my continued prompting–he told me about a free program extended to high schools that proctor the ACT. This program is called Essay Viewer, and it allows participating schools to view students’ essays and the rubrics used to score them. Ask your guidance counselors about this, everyone! It’s free for schools, and while individuals can’t access the system, school officials can on a student’s behalf.

They also extend a service for $50 which allows for the writing test to be scored over again. Here’s the clincher: they require you to request this IN WRITING, and they have 3 months to respond.

The following has been pasted directly from their website at http://www.actstudent.org/scores/correcting.html.

"Hand-scoring service
You can ask ACT to hand-score your multiple-choice responses and/or rescore your writing test essay. Requests for hand-scoring must be made in writing within three months of receiving your scores. Submit your request in writing to:

ACT Student Services
P.O. Box 414
Iowa City, IA 52243-0414
USA
Include your name as given at the time of testing, address and date of birth, plus ACT ID, test date (month and year), and test location from your score report. Enclose a check payable to ACT Student Services for the applicable fee:

$50.00 multiple-choice tests
$50.00 writing test essay
$100.00 both the multiple-choice tests and writing test essay
ACT will inform you by letter of the results of the hand-scoring about three to five weeks after receiving your request. The letter will inform you whether the scores originally reported have been confirmed or not. If a scoring error is discovered, your scores will be changed and corrected reports will be released to you and all previous score recipients at no charge. In addition, your hand-scoring fee will be refunded.

You may also request to be present for a hand-scoring of your multiple-choice responses—without access to the test questions—at an ACT-designated location. Additional fees will apply."

So after waiting 3 months and paying another large chunk of money to our good old pals this “nonprofit organization,” we MAY or MAY NOT receive an updated and correct writing score. But if the system is flawed, what makes us certain that things will go differently the second time around? Furthermore, why don’t they offer students contesting their writing score the opportunity to be present at the grading location?

When I asked the man to double-check that the score I received was linked to my writing booklet, he could not verify that. Apparently, he didn’t have access to my scores…so I guess I provided my name, birthdate, home address, and other information requested so that he could scribble it down and tattle on me for daring to complain about the process?

Here’s a quote taken directly from their website:

“Please note: Customer Service cannot provide your scores by phone, email, chat, or fax.”

Now, to clarify, the writing test has changed SIGNIFICANTLY (the new version started September 2015), and the scoring process is also different. It used to be graded on a scale of 1-12, and now they use the 1-36 scale. The prompts are also different–they used to cover controversial topics related to education; now they focus on social and political issues that extend to local and federal jurisdictions.

Just who are the “two trained readers” that score these tests? I want to know which English degrees they have earned and from where during which year, what kind of compensation they receive from working at ACT, and what kind of oversight goes on during the appeal process to ensure the writing booklet is not being scored by the same people for the second time.

For all we know, the writing scorers could be disgruntled volunteers for whom English is not a first language. For all we know, a tiny, select number of writing scores are graded by hand and the rest are done electronically. There may even be grading perimeters that allow for automatic scoring based on certain key words used and number of paragraphs reached. Until we know more about this process, it’s completely unknown how much ACT could potentially be getting away with in a bid to cut legitimate expenses so they can line their own pockets.

A 3-month wait after paying a $50 is unacceptable and frankly deplorable considering the fact that college admissions are two days away. I need to go ahead and send my scores to schools before the deadline, but you know what? I think I’ll work on getting ACT’s status as a nonprofit revoked and contact some local, statewide, and national media outlets to help me investigate their potential malpractice.

If it really does come out that ACT has unethical and unreliable grading practices, or that they are falsely representing the skill level of the people responsible for “trained reading,” I can see this turning into a class action lawsuit that will require ACT (an organization that pays its board members more than 98% of other nonprofits) to pay compensatory damages to all students whose admissions decisions were negatively impacted by ACT’s blatant negligence and deflection of responsibility.

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I scored a very high score on my writing test so I have nothing to complain about here, but I just wanted to comment that this post is VERY well-written and completely unlike one that could’ve been written by a person who scored a 9 on the writing portion. I encourage you to keep pursuing this matter and keep us posted of what’s happening. The world needs more people like you who are daring enough to challenge authority and question what’s known.

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“If my grade isn’t changed in time for the January 1st deadline, I will not only be FURIOUS, but I will tell my guidance counselor, get in touch with Board of Trustees for my town’s school district, and notify the media…”

I suggest you engage in some soul searching to assess the possibility that it’s your own fault, rather than the act’s, that you find yourself in this position.

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“I suggest you engage in some soul searching to assess the possibility that it’s your own fault, rather than the act’s, that you find yourself in this position.”

"I literally just got my Dec 12th test back, and my composite is a whopping 35, but my writing score is 09. This is extremely peculiar because the last two times I took the test, my writing scores were 34 and 35, "

from a 34 and 35 to a 9 - not much “soul searching” needed unless he passed out during the test.

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@luthierman I’m sure the score is in error and the fault lies with the act organization. you really can’t think of what @niflheim000 might have done differently?

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Not sure, but I don’t think he would expend this much energy in posting, and for a Dec score if he wasn’t pretty sure.

I mean the odds are that they won’t fix anything before admissions decisions are made anyway.

Maybe I just bombed the test again, but I’m going to pay for a writing rescore as something doesn’t make sense. I didn’t even come close to finishing my first one in September and got the SAME score as my Dec test which was much better, longer and complete. Plus the Dec subscores were higher.

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Might you have just misread the directions? I believe they said you had to discuss all three viewpoints no matter your opinion, so perhaps OP just picked one viewpoint? I’m not sure though… just giving alternative suggestions to why his writing score is so low. I haven’t even gotten my MC scores back, so I can’t help much in saying whether my writing scores are lower than expected.

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Just read an email from Michelle Hernandez- Furious about new ACT- Saying most of her clients scored very low with Writing…