Good English score, terrible essay score

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

Hello everyone. I recently took the September ACT, and I feel like I aced the English section but bombed the essay. My essay was basically just philosophical rambling without any structure. I ran out of time, and didn’t provide a single personal/historical example. I’m literally expecting a 35+ on English, but a 18/36 on writing.

How do you think colleges would interpret such a discrepancy? On a related note, do I have the option of submitting only e/m/r/s scores to schools that don’t require the writing section? Thanks

2

ahh nice! great to know somebody else just like me :slight_smile: i would suggest retaking it again, like im doing

3

You need to retake the test. I think there is a new score that combines writing, english, and reading. Thus, if you took writing and bombed it, I strongly recommend you to take another one.

4

@cucuru I don’t think your essay score has anything to do with your composite score. It is still like that essay score from previous years (<12 points). I’ve read from somewhere that the essay score doesn’t matter as much as long as you get an 8 or above… I don’t know how that translates to the new essay rubric

5

Thanks for the input. I’ll definitely retake it, because there’s no way I got even an 8/12

6

The optional Writing Test does NOT count towards your composite score. So you are OK for schools that do not require writing

ACT will generate an ELA score (English Language Arts) that is the average of your Reading, English and Writing scaled scores for you.

Again, only the schools who are interested in your writing score will be care about this number.

You are in the first group to take the new writing, so wait and see what your actual score is. It may be better than you think!