<p>^^I have no problem with the above, except to say that if you can write one type of essay, you can generally write the other kinds. And I do agree that there is a problem with the scoring of the SAT essay, it’s been shown many times that the longer you write, the higher the score, which should not be the case. But there should be some way of testing writing ability, even if the SAT hasn’t gotten it down correctly yet. The ACT is continuing the Writing section and even expanding it a bit.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 - Let’s see. Certainly someone that can write well if given time to think about it and redraft might not be a good spontaneous writer, which is what the standardized time format requires. But a person that can nail it on the first draft certainly should only get better on redrafts, at least the vast majority of the time. But even then they may have composed it in their head for a while first. So I am still not sure that the timed exam essay is really demonstrating anything beyond the learned ability to organize a paper. Which is not a bad thing to test, but it is more limited than what some people try to attribute to that portion of the SAT.</p>
<p>Overall writing ability is really hard to test. Not only is there a subjective element, but outside of the timed essay there is no way to know the person did their own work, obviously. I guess it is just a grey area that remains difficult to test in full, or even to the extent we can test other subject areas.</p>
<p>Admission officers might not care about the essay score, but don’t they compare the essay itself to the Common App’s to verify it was written by the applicant?</p>
<p>I don’t think they do that anymore. They definitely rely on Rec letters to comment on the applicants ability to write</p>
<p>I think the essay is still important, but just because of the sheer volume of tests it can’t be accurately graded. My SAT tutor is, for lack of a better term, an SAT expert. He still takes the SAT (yes, as a bald man in his mid-40s) and gets perfect scores almost every time (with the occasional 2380 or 2390), yadda yadda yadda. He wrote an essay for the SAT that he described as “towering” and got a 9 on it. He asked for re-grade (this was a while ago, when you could still do that) and got a 12. His conclusion? That if there could really be a 3 point variation on a 12 point scale, then it probably wasn’t valid. Since then, he’s written essays that he deemed “nonsensical” that get 12s, and even wrote one essay (that got a 12) in which he incorporated the sentence “And then Superman’s communicator pinged,” into every paragraph. Obviously, this is all only anecdotal, but I still think there may be something to it. It’s just hard for me to believe that when you’re taking 45 seconds - 1 minute to grade each essay and it’s your 192nd essay and you only have 8 to go until your break that your results can be consistent and reliable. </p>
<p>I think the only important type of essay-- an essay that is even worth writing-- isn’t one that can be written in 30 minutes. That’s just what I feel. </p>
<p>People with a high essay score will say it matters. People with a low one will say it doesn’t (includig myself lololol). We all like to view things in a way that favors ourselves. :P</p>
<p>Gotta agree with @butterfreesnd, though. Whether the essay’s important or not, it’s definitely not graded fairly. Some studies have shown that length, not content, is what yields a higher score.</p>
<p>To me, the far more significant metric, for writing, is what the kid got in English class, and perhaps what he got on the AP (if he took it). Sure, writing a short, timed essay is a skill that may be important in college, but that skill’s importance is dwarfed by the ability to write an actual paper–with time to think, research, and revise. Those skills simply cannot be measured, IMHO, in an SAT-type test. My kid (an excellent writer) took the SAT once, and got near-perfect scores on CR and M, but 720 in writing. He decided not to take the test again; the time spent trying to game that section of the test was not, in his opinion, worth it, not just because the score wasn’t that big a deal in the scheme of things, but because to teach himself to write according to those shallow standards was a handicap to writing well. And it’s true that many college English teachers will tell you that the first thing they have to teach their students is to stop thinking that the five-paragraph structure, with introductory, middle, and concluding statements in each paragraph, with three proofs of each idea, etc., is the desired–and only–end of a paper. The idea that content is what matters is a hard one to convey, when punching those bullet items has been the goal all through high school. This is not to say that 5-paragraph essays cannot be a starting point in organizing one’s thoughts, but they are not the culmination of good writing, and that structural relentlessness is not only not required for, but actually detracts from, the writing of a readable paper.</p>
<p>A 720 writing is probably the result of multiple choice mistakes, which, if you did not know, have to do with proper grammar and other English conventions that do happen to be important in all purposes of writing.</p>
<p>Just curious, why do you believe your son to be an excellent writer? How many parents don’t think that their children are great?</p>
<p>@foolish The essay actually brings down the total quite a bit. I had a 77/80 on multiple choice, but my 8 essay brought it down to a 730.</p>
<p>Yeah you got a 77/80. An excellent writer would get that 80/80 fosho. </p>
<p>My son got a 4 on the AP English Lang & Comp, and a 630 on CR, 660 on W. Essay was 8. What would schools would make of that? (BTW, he is going for engineering and his current top choice school <em>will</em> take a 4 to get out of his freshman writing course, and the next writing course is within his major :)</p>
<p>Anything in the 700s is great, based on my experience dealing with admissions committees. </p>
<p>@foolish: "Yeah you got a 77/80. An excellent writer would get that 80/80 fosho. "</p>
<p>LOL one whose first language is English. Not that I consider myself an “excellent writer” anyways; I know I’m not. 
Just stating how much the essay score affects the overall score. </p>
<p>@rhandco It depends on the schools he’s considering. Many will be fine with it, specially if his math score’s high. 
Colleges know AP’s and SAT’s are curved differently.</p>
<p>@rhandco Also, they don’t really convert AP scores to SAT…AP’s are only used for placement. Your son just needs to have a balanced list of safeties/matches/reaches for his SAT’s. I think most schools (except for the tippity top) are forgiving of CR/W for engineering majors. For example, I’ve looked at UC averages for engineering, and the math avg. is higher than the CR/W avgs.</p>
<p>My son received 800 math, 760 reading, and 690 writing (710 multiple choice, 8 essay). But on the AP lang/composition he had a 5. I’d have to believe that they look at the total picture, and to balance the 690, the AP 5 will be noticed.</p>
<p>On our recent visit to the top lac to which he may apply ED, an admission counselor gave us the mixed message of their looking more at the math and reading, but that it wouldn’t be crazy to retake the writing.</p>
<p>So he’s ambivalent too.</p>
<p>The 690 becomes more of an outlier, when you throw in the other APs,SAT IIs, GPA, class standing, etc.</p>
<p>Would you bother to reteke?</p>
<p>D got 620 on writing - low compared to CR/M. So ironic because she loves creative writing. She may submit a fiction supplement to colleges that accept that. She’s not retaking the SAT.</p>