Importance of SAT II: Writing

The writing subject test seems to be a fairly important at the top colleges as most which require SAT II’s require it as one of the subjects. However, it seems that on this board there are a number of people who have otherwise exceptional stats for their other SAT and SAT II tests(exceeding 700 in each subject) yet did not do nearly as well on the writing(650 or less…580 in my case). I’m probably going to retake it and do some preparing before taking it but I’m not sure I’ll be able to improve above 650 because the 20 minute essay disagrees with my writing style(I have trouble putting anything decent together in that short of a time).

My question is if all other statistics such as grades in English, essays, and English teacher recommendations indicate high levels of ability with the English language, would colleges still get very hung up on a poor writing score? Does the major a perosn lists on the application affect the importance of the writing score(I’m going for chemistry, and the colleges I’m thinking about are highly selective but not quite HYPS but more around the Cornell or Carnegie Mellon level).

<p>I think this test is dumb becuase I have known students who have:
5 on AP Eng
5 on AP Lit Comp
4 and 5 on US Hist.
800 on SATI Eng</p>

<p>and have a 560-600 on Eng SatII
all becuase of their essay!!
These students are really good writers to get those AP scores but on the dumb grading system of SATII Writing it in a very wrong way. Note:I have known several students who have these grades.</p>

<p>The SAT II: Writing will be the most important number in your entire application: more important than your SAT I, more important than your class rank, more important than your GPA, more important than your AP scores! If you don't have 750+ you won't get into any schools, even your community college. You are a failure, plain and simple.</p>

<p>Don't think this way: it's not healthy.</p>

<p>It's key to remember that any score is just one part of your application. In the case of an SAT II, it's just one-third of one part of your application. Sure, it may hurt a wee little bit, but what is more indicative of capability in humanities and social sciences: a one hour test or four years of success in those classes? (I'll leave that one for you to figure out...) Retake it if you want to retake it, which I'm guessing you will because you posted that message. But always remember you are a person with many aspects and many strengths that are not dictated by certain scores.</p>

<p>Good luck with whatever you choose to do.</p>

<p>Yes, the SAT writing essay is extremely formulaic; i've been told imagery, symbol, etc do not get bonus points; the graders want to see structure, detail, which means creativity is excluded imo</p>