ESSAYS--the length? how much does it matter?

Test Preparation
1

<p>I keep hearing on these forums that length makes a huge difference on your scores for SAT and ACT essays. I haven't taken either test yet, but I'm really curious about it. Post what you think about that.</p>

2

<p>i was wondering the same thing. i would think quality is more important than quantity. but thats just me i probably dont know what im talking about haha.</p>

3

<p>i don’t know about the ACT, but for SAT, length definitely matters. a lot.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/04education.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/education/04education.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>For both, write a lot. I read an artilce that said there’s a relationship between length and score, and for the SAT, I think it’s very hard to write a good essay without using most of the space provided. For the ACT, I remember just going on and on and on in body paragraphs (using tons of examples) and wrote 4.5ish pages. I got an 11 on that. For the SAT, i filled it up to the last line on the second page, and got a 12. Now, I feel I’m a strong writer, but my friend, who is a better writer than I am, wrote just under 3 pages on the ACT and got a 9.</p>

5

<p>Wow, very interesting article. It almost suggests to me that if your essay is long enough that they won’t even read it?!</p>

6

<p>They have very little time to read your SAT essay. They simply can’t read it carefully enough to be wowed by your deep insights; the most prominent feature will be how much you write.</p>

7

<p>all of you guys are right.</p>

<p>cb will deny it every second, but length is the main part of the score</p>

8

<p>haha good to know, good to know
so i’m definitely gonna just fill up all the space with a mediocre description of 3 examples…rather than trying to do something more well thought-out that takes up less space</p>

9

<p>I got a 12 on my essay… yeah the key is to fill up both pages, simply because readers only have about 2 min to scan each essay. The longer yours is, the better it appears to be (collegeboard will deny this, though). Also, using lots of fancy-sounding SAT words helps too =P</p>