I do not know what happened on the last ACT I took. I usually do really well on the writing
section of standardized tests. I got an 11 on
the SAT essay (the first and only time I took
it), a 10 on the essay on the first ACT I took,
and an 11 on the essay on the second ACT I
took. I also got a 5 on the APUSH exam
(if that is relevant). However, I got a 28 on the September essay portion. My composite
score was a 33. (34 E, 30 M, 33 R, 33 S).
How badly will this hurt my chances for
colleges?
Usually, colleges only care about the composite. More and more colleges are stating that they don’t consider ACT writing when admitting students. I wouldn’t worry about your writing score. a 33 composite is already pretty strong for any UC and a 28 writing isn’t even that bad. don’t worry about it
This September’s ACT Writing scores were all very low. I usually do really well on writing as well so I was surprised when I got a 29, but I later found out that that was on the higher end. A 28 is good compared to others who also scored above 30 (most ended up in the lower 20’s). I think (and hope) colleges will understand the new ACT writing grading and judge it accordingly.
Also, what were your subscores? b/c I got 11, 9, 10, 11 and the result was a 29. If colleges see the subscores in the report that should be fine…
@cable007 My subscores were 10,10,10,9.
so on the old grading version that would’ve been like a 10. I don’t think that’d look bad at all. I just went ahead and sent my score report for the September test. Best of luck!