I scored a 33 composite on my ACT, but got a 22 on writing. Is it that big of a deal?

Hello!
To begin with, I’m applying to extremely competitive schools (such as ivy leagues) and am very thankful for my score. I scored a 33 with a 35 in English, 34 in reading, and 32 in math and science. I was 1 question away from a 34! Anyway, I got my writing score today and got a 22. I’m feeling horrible about it. I thought I did really well on the essay but apparently I didn’t. On my last test (November), I scored a 30 composite with a 29 writing. Does anyone know of anything that I can do? Should I even worry about it? I’m extremely concerned.

I received a 34 composite and a 25 in writing, and I got in. Based on this admittedly anecdotal evidence, I think you would be fine if you manage to write a good essay.
I think colleges understand that writing about a random topic in less than an hour is not representative of the student’s writing ability. Please correct me if I am wrong.

You have good scores on the subsections that mean the most. You’ll have a lot of other data to submit. The writing portion is minor.

@Soheils Ive been told that my essays are written really well, but I’m just worried about the score in general. Hopefully it doesn’t matter much.

omg, I just posted on this same issue.

@luthierman did you get any helpful responses?

Honestly, you may very well be another victim of ACT’s disreputable hiring practices. They recently hired a new slew of boozers (I actually know two people that scores for them and are also alcoholics) and have been rushing so fast to get all the December 12th scores posted in time for the college application cutoff, that they’ve completely mixed up a huge chunk of their clients’ answer key.

If you have doubts, I would encourage you to call the support center and request a copy of the rubrics used to grade your writing booklet, as well as a confirmation of its link to the actual booklet YOU filled out.

@niflheim000 I’ll try that, but what good will that do?

You’ll be able to see whether or not the mistake was due to a technical error or a mixup with another person’s score, or whether the people who graded your writing booklet accurately extended that score. In the case of the latter, you’ll be able to see exactly where you went wrong and prep for a retake. BUT, two different people fill out grading rubrics that are averaged together to determine your writing score, which makes the process more complicated and the window of error MUCH wider. That means it’s very likely that your scores have been falsely reported after all, as many other test takers have been coming forward this month claiming mistakes have been made by ACT.

Good luck, maybe I should ask for a re-score…

The same exact thing happened to me. 33 composite with 22 writing. I am a senior so I am really hoping ACT somehow investigates this.

I got a 35 Composite and a 22 Writing. 36 English, 36 Reading too!

Something isn’t right, I feel like I got screwed over.

@saadzmirza Are you going to have them regrade?