Colleges may not use the Writing segment of New SAT

<p>do colleges actually see your essay? Also I ended in the middle of a sentece even though other kids quickly added a word or two after the proctor called time. Is it true you can't get a 6 if you end in the middle of a senctence?</p>

<p>I think that was the whole point-that colleges could see an essay by you--not your english teacher or anything ;)
Most of the schools I'm looking at think that THEIR essays give them a good enough idea of how you write and don't put much stock into the writing section.</p>

<p>"This is a big part of the reason I support this change...of course you aren't going to do your best writing in a 25-minute stress test, but a good writer is also not going to forget grammar rules just because she's writing quickly. A perfectly polished personal statement plus run-ons and comma splices in the SAT essay equals inappropriate help on the application."</p>

<p>Not necessarily true, I tend to write things as they come to me so I don't lose the idea then, proof-read/edit it several times to get to the eassy/paper to where I want it. But then again this is because I tend to be forgetful and lose many good ideas if I can't put them down.</p>

<p>I would like to take a middle approach and say that both of your arguments are valid to some extent. Colleges realize that you spend significant time to edit and fix your paper for apps, but having their hands on raw writing is definately useful for them. I think they look at it more in terms of depth of critical thinking in 25 minutes more than perfect puncuation etc.</p>

<p>The graders look for length and struct for thier grades though. The length issue has been proven to be true, sadly. There was an 80% correlation between length and score, additionally you can make things up for examples and the graders will not take off, ie. you could say that Shakesphere died in 1992 and no points would be taken off (this is just an example of course).</p>

<p>ME:I think they look at it more in terms of depth of critical thinking in 25 minutes more than perfect puncuation etc.</p>

<p>I was talking about college admissions people, not the graders KeldoniaSkylar. Of course length is the primary factor of getting a good score from the grader, but if the admissions officers actually look at the essays, they would be looking for critical analysis and trying to see how your brain functions under pressure.</p>

<p>just use bugmenot if you don't want to register. Mods, can I post this? I am not affiliated with them in anyway; it's just really helpful.</p>

<p>Yes which is why the grade assigned by the Writing section of the SAT I will be largely inconsequentual but what you wrote will be.</p>

<p>I'm living proof that the essay is not about grammar: perfect (80) on MC but 8 on essay.</p>

<p>i cant see the article..can somebody just copy/paste and PM me it or somethinng?</p>

<p>I think it would be a shame if colleges used the application essay EXCLUSIVELY as a measure of how well one writes. When an applicant spends hours and hours writing and perfecting an application essay, personality and passions can come through which do not in an SAT Writing essay.</p>

<p>I see nothing wrong with checking the style, errors, etc., of the SAT Writing essay against those of the application essay. In this context, the SAT Writing may be a useful tool. However, the very fact that the SAT essay involves such strict time constraints effectively prevents the applicant's passions, drive, and goals for college from coming through. Exclusively using the SAT Writing essay not only restricts the university's ability to wisely judge its applicants; it also sends a message that the university is only concerned about academic ability, and not about personality, character, etc.</p>

<p>And, in case no one has noticed, there <em>ARE</em> honest college applicants around. Sure, the dishonest applicants hurt the chances of the honest applicants, but I (being an honest applicant) say that ceasing consideration of the application essay hurts the honest applicants even more.</p>

<p>I still think Harvard and Stanford will use the scores...</p>

<p>Hi, I scored pretty high in my CR and Math... Let's just say it's in the 700s.. but awfully low in writing (510, yikes!)... does that mean I'm sentenced to death in the academic field?!</p>

<p>i'm in the same boat as Mcdz so someone please respond!!! thanks.</p>

<p>You can always re-take. However, statistically speaking I'd say no one can tell exactly how important the writing section is at this point. Even if it was known exactly how the old SAT II Writing test affected admissions decisions, the scores between the old subject test and the new writing test cannot be compared.</p>

<p>Haha, so.... that's a no....? Hrmm.. The problem with that is that I'm scared that I won't keep a consistent score for CR on my next test... Is it true that colleges only look at the highest section score of EVERY SAT taken?</p>

<p>It varies from university to university. You can look up their policies on their respective web sites. If the university says that they use a particular policy in admissions decisions... I don't see any reason not to believe them.</p>

<p>Many selective universities take the highest score from each individual section. (so, your high CR score is permanent unless you score higher on that particular section) However, there are also some universities that take the highest composite (one sitting). That information is available from the university web sites.</p>

<p>
[quote]
However, there are also some universities that take the highest composite (one sitting).

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</p>

<p>Composite is from different sittings.</p>

<p>Sorry, that should be total score from one sitting.</p>