<p>I'm not sure but it seems to me that the essay grading was far harsher for the May SAT than on the March one, perhaps to compensate for the public criticism of the grading procedure?</p>
<p>For instance, friends of mine that got 12's on March got 10's on Mary and friends that had 10's on March had 8's on May.</p>
<p>Myself, I though I had written a perfect essay--it was a full five paragraphs and filled the entire 2 pages, and I got a 10 (I didn't take the March so I'm not sure how I would have faired comparatively but I was pretty sure I had written a 12 essay on the basis of the publically provided CB essays).</p>
<p>That's interesting. I filled the whole 2 pages like you and I thought I'd written a relatively strong essay (not THAT good, but still ;)) and I got a 10 as well. I also think that my essay should have been a 12 based on what the Collegeboard books gave as samples. But I didn't take the March SAT either, lol.</p>
<p>Yeah so this post really does nothing but back up practically verbatim what you said. But I'm certainly interested in what people who took both SATs have to say...</p>
<p>I think they were better about content over quality, since they didnt want to give those who say the length is considered more than anything else more evidence. You cant really just say "I had 2 pages and five paragraphs and therefore I shouldve gotten a 12." If an essay was relatively strong but not THAT good, then a 10 is fitting. Were your EXAMPLES good?</p>
<p>I am just addicted to this board, haha. Just to clarify Bog, I'm totally fine with my score. I'm definitely not going to challenge anything -- if the Collegeboard kids say that I deserve a 10, then that's fine. But I felt that compared to what Collegeboard gave as sample essays, my essay matched up competently to what they identified as 12 essays. I just don't think that a 25-minute essay section can truly judge anyone's real writing ability.. but what can we do!</p>
<p>I am not saying my essay was perfect as in a perfect piece of writing, rather, as m_c has said, that it matched, and even surpassed the essays shown by CB to be 12 essays. I'll be sure to post it when I get it later this week and maybe someone can explain to me why I lost the two points, but I'll live without the two additional points, I'm sure ;)</p>
<p>Btw, my examples (for the essay on work) were: Bill Gates continuing to go to work on a daily basis regardless of his status as the world's richest man as it gives his life purpose and progression; my losing my mind over spring break as, although I was away from the daily displeasure of going to school, I was without the daily allowance of almost "forced" social existence in the school environment; finally, I spoke of my cousin who took a year off after college to relax before going off into the world of work, and found themselves lost without purpose, without reason, and surprisngly enough, without pleasure.</p>
<p>I agree... I thought my essay at least warranted a 10 (I filled up entirely the two pages, 3 examples that were relevant, etc) and compared to the collegeboard examples, it seemed worthy of at least a 10. but I got my score back and I got a 9. Now I wish that stupid article had never been published.</p>
<p>the May test was my first test for the new sat's, and I scored an 11 on the essay. What i think the Collegeboard graders are doing is judging the quality of the writing, and the clarity with which the information is presented, more-so than whether it is 2 pages, 5 paragraphs, thesis and 3 examples, etc etc. The reason i say this is because my essay wasn't 2 pages, wasn't 5 paragraphs, was written in only an idealogical sense, and spoke nothing of real-world application with the exception of a random Emerson/Thearou reference. After the test i was really angry cause i basically provided no reasoning behind my original thesis beside my typical superflous, overly wordy writing, and some big words like "arduous" and "defenestrate"(ok i didnt actually use defenastrate in my essay but i love that word)</p>
<p>also, my friend scored a 12 on her essay in march and she wasn't able to write a conclusion and stopped writing in the middle of a sentance.</p>
<p>I wrote 2 full pages with 3 examples in march and got an 8, and in may I wrote a little over a page with 2 examples and got a 10. I literally wrote the whole essay in about 9 minutes too, i wasted too much of my time, and my conclusion was 3 sentences max.</p>
<p>I think some graders are much harder than others!! My friend had just one support example and got a 10 while I with only two good supports and a very rushed conclusion got an 8!</p>