Growing importance of the SAT Writing section?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
1

<p>Is UVA giving a bit more "weight" to the SAT writing section than it did in the past? I was researching this topic and stumbled upon this "blog" from the Examiner that provided insight into why that section was growing in importance.</p>

<p>Would love to hear from Dean J and others in the "know" regarding UVA's view of this 3rd and often under-discussed section of the SAT.</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>How</a> much do colleges care about the SAT 'writing' score? - Washington DC College admissions | Examiner.com</p>

2

<p>oh, and I realize (by reading the Peabody blog and elsewhere) that UVA looks at all 3 sections and doesn’t “per se” assign weights given their holistic approach to admissions. That said, I’m interested in understanding if UVA is seeing increased predictive value of this section in terms of future success of the 1st years.</p>

<p>Here’s a relevant exerpt from the Blog that got my interest…</p>

<p>“In 2008, the College Board released a study analyzing data submitted by 110 colleges and universities and found that writing is “the most predictive section of the SAT” for forecasting first-year college performance. Both the College Board and the University of California (in a separate study) determined that the writing section is slightly more predictive than either math or critical reading”</p>

3

<p>It’s an interesting question. I am even more curious to know if schools, and not UVA in particular but all schools, place more weight on the actual score of the essay as opposed to the overall writing score.</p>

<p>If a person aces the multiple choice and gets a really average essay score, they are still going to have gaudy writing score, but it might not help a student if colleges are paying more attention to the actual essay score than the writing score as a whole.</p>

4

<p>The only problem with the essay portion in my opinion is the time limit. 25 minutes is an awfully short amount of time. I think they could get much better value out of it if they made it 45 minutes.</p>

5

<p>SAT I is already too long. Adding more time to the writing section wouldn’t be a good idea. Since everybody gets the same amount of time, that’s not an issue.</p>

6

<p>Well there are multiple studies that suggest that the length of the essay is the biggest indicator of the score regardless of the content of the essay. Some kids just write faster. I don’t think it is necessarily valuable quality, but it is for that test.</p>

7

<p>I heard that the essay only accounts for less than 1/3 of the overall Writing score–so it’s not too important. I’ve further heard that many Admission readers don’t even bother reading it. </p>

<p>Back to my original post, the SAT writing section (according to the previously referenced College Board study of 2006 entering college freshman) is the 2nd best predictor or First Year college GPA.</p>

<pre><code> Correlation Coefficient (bigger is better, with 1 being perfect)
</code></pre>

<p>High School GPA 0.36
SAT Writing 0.33
SAT Reading 0.29
SAT Math 0.33</p>

8

<p>oops, the Math should have been 0.26. was typing too fast :)</p>

<p>Correlation Coefficient (bigger is better, with 1 being perfect)
High School GPA 0.36
SAT Writing 0.33
SAT Reading 0.29
SAT Math 0.26</p>

9

<p>It does only count 1/3rd of the writing section, but the essay score is also displayed seperately, so college can decide for themselves how much weight to put on the actual essay.</p>

10

<p>This is a really interesting article on the writing section that came out the first year it was being used in the New York Times:</p>

<p><a href=“SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors - The New York Times”>SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors - The New York Times;

11

<p>Yes, very interesting article, and it confirms that one should just write lots of words!!</p>

<p>Here’s a link to some tips for scoring a 12, one of which is verbosity.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>I heard the most important factor in the SAT essay score was to organize your thoughts before you write it - intro paragraph, support, conclusion, etc.</p>

13

<p>Just want to chime in here for a second. When admissions speak of a weak essay they are at/most times referring to the essay(s) associated with the common application. FWIW. Not the SAT writing section.</p>

14

<p>There was a time when the writing exam was an SAT II. Back then, UVa required the SAT I + the SAT II Writing for all applicants. Many selective schools did the same.</p>

<p>Due to pressure from some major schools, College Board moved the writing exam into the SAT I and tweated it a bit. We removed our SAT II requirement at that point.</p>

<p>After six years of seeing the test as part of the SAT I and having required it when it was part of the SAT II, we’re comfortable with using the three digit score when we are reviewing applications. </p>

<p>College Board has made seeing the actual essay quite cumbersome, so we aren’t looking at the scans.</p>

15

<p>Thanks so much Dean J! </p>

<p>It’s good to know that UVA has used (and continues to use) the 3 digit numerical score of the writing section for admission purposes. Otherwise, there’s a lot of students wasting their time on that section!</p>