<p>I got an 8 on my essay, that translates to about a 67. I received a 20 for english (combined 21), so I wasn't surprised by the awful score.</p>
<p>When I received my score report via mail, it told me 16% scored better than me. I think that is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Looking at these forms, I've seen people with 30+ composites get 8's as well. I was sick the day I took the test, but I certainly wouldn't have gotten a 34 composite like others.</p>
<p>What receives 10+?</p>
<p>My essay was over individual and group teaching. I wrote 3 1/2 pages, used real life examples, told multiple benefits and multiple drawbacks of each side of the issue, considered the middle ground, and got a 10. I feel that was correctly graded. I’m the only person I know to have taken the ACT w/ essay, so I’m not qualified to speak on their fairness in general.</p>
<p>Don’t think of an 8 on the essay as a 67%, think of it as a 24/36.</p>
<p>An 8 is not bad at all. I got a 35 comp, 35 English and only got a 9 on my essay. IMO, my essay was pretty darn good, so you must have to have pretty great writing skills to get a 10+. I’m a good writer, it’s just really hard in such a short amount of time; most of my developments are through revisions of my work.</p>
<p>I did not think my essay was that great, but I got a 12. I wrote 3 1/2 pages. Examples included current events and how suppressing our freedom of speech could potentially lead to uprisings like those in Libya and Russia. Included lot of “philosophical” thought. In my opinion, current events have a greater emphasis so be sure to include them (important for AP English Essays as well)!</p>
<p>Yeah, what gives with their grading? I only got a 12.</p>
<p>@SeekingUni: My first draft is usually very close to my finished version, so I think that helped me.</p>
<p>@bio1995: You’re probably right. My real life examples were based on my school, and nothing the graders could relate to.</p>
<p>@apn00b: They should have at least given you a 70 so you’d pass. :P</p>
<p>I got a 31, with an 8 in writing as well- it was my first time taking the writing section though. I really, really hated it because it’s so hard to write a well-thought-essay in such a short period of time, haha. I’m a pretty good writer otherwise. I don’t plan on retaking it though.</p>
<p>I got a 10 on my essay. I was actually expecting my essay score to be far lower, because it wasn’t very good in my opinion. </p>
<p>I doubt there’s actually much of a difference between an 8 and a 10 or even an 8 and a 12. It might even just depend on the reader who grades it.</p>
<p>I got perfect 36s in English and Reading, but I could only manage a 7 on my essay the first time. Granted, I improved that to a 9, but still, I think the grading is ****ed up. Maybe if I had scrambled to churn out four pages of mediocre writing instead of two pages of good writing, I would have gotten a 10+.</p>
<p>When I took the ACT freshman year, I got a 10 on my essay. IMO it wasn’t even a great essay. I just included a counterexample and lots of personal examples. If you do that, you’re fine.</p>
<p>I think they were pretty harsh on some people.
In my essay I used current event examples of both sides, took my stance, said why it would hurt students if teachers did always say what side they were on and I even checked over it for spelling errors, comma errors and I felt it was pretty good. I got a 7. But there were kids who just took a stance with no examples who got 9’s and 10’s. My English was a 28 (almost 29) and my critical reading was a 27 (If I had actually finished I feel it would have been higher. I ran out of time due to being sick.)
I’m going to re-take the writing portion in September. I’m doing the ACT in June without writing, if my composite is higher in June than September will they accept the September writing score?</p>
<p>I got 11 on writing on April test. I dont know why i got “odd” number. Anyway, I think ACT grader is rather generous compared to SAT. ACT writing topic is pretty easy. </p>
<p>I wrote 4 pages (3 and a half) and referred history, personal experience, and article on nytimes. </p>
<p>I just dont think about examples, but write first. As I write intro, I can get examples in my head.</p>
<p>I often use this sentence:</p>
<p>These days, blah blah is arguable.
While some people believe-, I believe… or it is important something…</p>
<p>I dont really use high-level vocab. (i’m international student)
My essay structure is same.
I got 10 last time, but wrote more on April test…got 11.</p>
<p>Write More, and Make your story and refer any literature, news, or history.</p>
<p>I referred Great Depression, Women’s right, my class experience, made up story, and news article I saw recently.</p>
<p>I got a 10 on my essay, and I got a 29 on my english section.</p>
<p>What they look for I think is the organization of the ideas rather than the ideas in the writing itself. In the comments for the essay, that’s what they commended the most, so I’d say work on that.</p>
<p>Make sure there are logical relationships between your ideas/paragraphs. Don’t let it be too choppy, make sure it flows.</p>
<p>I think the grading is really easy, I got 27 composite 30 R/E and a 10W they grade pretty leniently, I think.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to see that in several cases, the students with the lower English scores are getting higher essay scores.</p>
<p>On what grounds are the essay graded?
BTW, 33 English/10 essay.</p>
<p>Son’s score:</p>
<p>Composite = 34
English = 33
Math = 34
Reading = 34
Science = 36
Essay = 6</p>
<p>That’s right, a friggin’ 6. From an AP English student who never got a grade lower than an “A” in a very competitive high school. ***? No wonder the adcoms don’t know what to do with these ACT writing subscores. I sure hope this ridiculous 6 doesn’t cause any real harm.</p>
<p>[Thanks for listening. Venting completed.]</p>
<p>I only took it once and got an 11 on the essay, meaning one grader gave me a 6 and the other a 5. The most important factor is length (for ACT, having at least 3 full pages greatly increases chances of 10+), and scattering randomly difficult vocabulary (1 minimum, 3 maximum per page).</p>
<p>I wrote about 3 and a third pages, used overly dramatic language, 3 body paragraphs with with about 2 stupidly hard words per paragraph, and made sure to use a specific word or two from the prompt on each page. My prompt was about whether teachers should be able to express their political views to students, and I felt like my examples were getting too off topic at times so I’d put in a quick statement bringing it back to the thesis so the bored old retired English teacher grading my essay doesn’t dock points for that.</p>
<p>I guess the most important thing to keep in mind to score 10+ is to completely forget what your AP Lit teacher would consider a good essay, and keep in mind that you need to write down a mass-produced series of sentences, with a few key things to include (mentioned above) with filler, sometimes bordering nonsense (I’m not saying put nonsense, but some parts of my essay certainly were, and I got an 11), keeping in mind that the graders will spend about 2 minutes on your essay.</p>
<p>Maybe if I were to approach 4 pages instead of 3 and a third, I could have gotten a 12.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at the ACT writing prompts and it seems like it will be hard to refer to examples from history and literature when writing these essays. I know that is a critical part of the SAT essays, but does it also apply to the ACT essays? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I got an 8/8/ and 10. I felt all essays were equal. Anyway, I’ve seen kids with 19 composites get 10s… makes no sense to me.</p>