<p>Lots of schools only consider SAT CR and M. Is that because W isn't considered a serious measure, because W scores are often out of whack with the other two? Searching the forums here and under SAT/ACT, I can see people reporting it going both ways--really low W relative to the rest (pretty common) or, less often, higher W scores.</p>
<p>My son has fine ballpark scores for the schools he's applying to: 650 CR and M 710, but his 760 W is really good. But some schools don't use it. Anyone have any idea whether it could help anyway?</p>
<p>For the record, he's done with testing, even though the math should have been higher. He got a 35 on the ACT math but worse scores on the other parts--reading fast is a problem--so we're not reporting the ACT composite of 29 since that is lower in the concordance charts than a 1360 (or 2120) SAT . . . unless someone suggests otherwise (but the reading score was not good, a 25).</p>
<p>For a bit more context: his GPA is 3.925 weighted, about 3.6 uw, I'm guessing. (Class rank isn't impressive because he's at a magnet school with super high achievers, so I'm not too worried about it.)</p>
<p>At an information session at a very selective LAC, one which uses writing, they mentioned that even though they require it, its weighted less than the other two because it’s more “teachable”.</p>
<p>Also, colleges compute what is known as an Academic Index, that spits out a number representing your academic quality in one number. This rank only takes CR and M.
Not to say writing is not important, just not as important as CR and M.</p>
<p>haha not as useful</p>
<p>read: scared of change/trying to cover for the fact that the whole test is an idiot drill</p>
<p>congrats on the score. some schools rely on it just as heavily as they do on other sections, other’s do not.</p>
<p>i believe princeton said in their info session that that they consider the three sections equally.</p>
<p>The writing sections of both the SAT and ACT are relatively new. As such, most schools are still considering their reliability as a factor in admissions. The SAT writing, however, contains more than just an essay. As such, it is generally considered in admissions in a similar manner to the other sections of the SAT.</p>
<p>The ACT writing, however, is not considered at all (or considered very minimally) by most schools. Most schools are simply collecting data on it at this point. It is my opinion that the ACT writing will soon demonstrate itself to be the useless measure of ability to write a college paper that it is.</p>
<p>The ACT writing tests writing more akin to a 5th-grade essay than the type of writing that will be expected in college. Further, some studies suggest the score is related more to the length of the essay than anything else.</p>
<p>I have seen plenty of people with a 36 composite and an 8 on the writing. I am one of them. No, it’s not that I test well but write poorly. It’s that the test is a terrible measure of writing ability.</p>