<p>Collegeboard does say this is a first draft of an essay... and I think the grader's considerations are somewhat different from those of, say, an English teacher in school.</p>
<p>8parks11, you obviously know well about essays (I believe you scored 2390?) so I have a question for you. What do you think are general things that graders look for in your essay? I got 9/12 on Jan. SAT and I thought I did well enough to get 10-11 (that's what CB auto-scorer used to give me). Any good tip?</p>
<p>P.S. I do agree with you about some essays. Some are just totally ridiculous and I don't see any "keen insights" on them and they got 6.</p>
<p>That's what I hate about writing. Recently, I've gained the abilty to write fudge, delicious, good-sounding fudge, that is only slightly relevant to the topic, but my mastery of English and manipulation makes my English teacher give me good scores, even though I know my paper sucks butt.</p>
<p>I hate the collegeboard scoring system, but if you gotta conform to their standards, then you gotta conform. I think they prefer personal experiences, which is a hard thing to get used to because I've always been told that historical/literary examples were stronger. Also, they don't seem to like really complex sentences.</p>
<p>yes.. your sentence structures need to be concise.. less passive sentences would help. and grayfalcon, there is a rubric for the graders. I think it's on collegeboard. check it out.</p>
<p>Official SAT graders actually value VARIED sentence structure (check the official rubric), which means that neither simple, short sentences nor long, complex sentences alone will guarantee a great score -- you must have BOTH. You should also know that essays containing personal examples generally score slightly LOWER than ones containing more academic examples (this is a statistic straight from College Board). Stick to scholarly examples (literary or historical) if you can.</p>
<p>Godot - could you please explain why hte Writing MC scaled score is a two-digit number? wouldn't it make more sense to have 800, 770, 750... instead of 80, 77, 75...
and why in the SAT Prep booklet MC a raw score is used in the composite score conversion table - not a scaled score.</p>
<p>My S got a 6, then got serious and researched the test; next two sittings, got a l0 and a 12.
And what I recall he said about that is they want an opening thesis (short), 3 supporting examples, and very succinct conclusion.
But the most important thing is the logical development and flow from one example to the next, so that it builds up a proof of the thesis.
That's how some people can get great scores even if they don't finish; the conclusion isn't as important as the body of the article.
And if they see you had a strong thesis and were going somewhere with your examples, you can get a very high score even if you can't finish writing.
He did practice, however, and learned to write all he wanted to within 25 minutes. He used a few prompts at home from the old SAT-II Writing prompts (as these became the SAT-I Writing section as you now know and love it.)
He timed himself, and got confident he could do it in the 25 minutes.
Half the time, the prompts seemed to touch on this theme: the individual versus the community.
For the essay that earned him a 12, he had to write about proving that an individual contribution can change the course of history, so he chose two examples from history (Henry Ford's assembly line, and his grandfather's participation as a weather forecaster on D-Day). Neithe story was sad, but both were from history. He didn't go all soft on his grandfather, either, just kept it about the history.</p>
<p>His sentences demonstrated variety; no passive voice; and there were about 5 places where he chose just the right word for the situation.
It's not about convoluted or fancy words; sometimes it's just a focussed, excellent word choice that shows you have a feeling for the language.
There's a phrase for that in French: "le mot juste." Choose just "the right word." Go back into your essay and find someplace where you can really make it powerful, and tweak THAT word. Doesn't have to be unpronouncable (or French). Just -- nail it. Espec at a turning point or key moment in the essay.</p>
<p>He took a side (as in a debate), that the individual CAN change the course of history. That was the opening thesis.
Then he chose examples from the histories and Henry Ford and his grandfather's service as a young army weatherman, that proved the point that the individual can change history.
As he told the story of each man, he made some observatioins and logical connections between their biographies. That's what I mean by logical development or build-up within the essay, as it moves along.
Comparing, contrasting...as he went along, between the two guys, but it all built up to prove that these individuals did change history.
The conclusion was just a sentence, almost anti-climactic. He had already made all the points by then.</p>
<p>G-U-NOt, well, a 7 on your first try is okay...but you should try to improve it a lot.
Each scorer (there are 2) can grade from 1-6.
So, if you got a total 7, that means one person gave you a 3 (out of 6) while a second person gave you a 4 (out of 6). Or, conceivably, a 2 and a 5, but usually I imagine the 2 scores are closer together!</p>
<p>So, the perfect score is a 12, because that's two 6'es.</p>
<p>Note that my son started with a 6, but rose to a 10, then a 12 after studying up on the test strategies (see the College Board Site, and old SAT books, including those on the old SAT-II WRiting which is the SAME THING as the new SAT-II.)</p>
<p>Writing is his strong suit, however (don't ask me about his maths!!!!!!!!!!)</p>
<p>Still, I'd think anything from a 9 and up is a source of pride.</p>
<p>I got a 12 on the January SAT, and frankly, I was very surprised, since my essay was far from being perfect. I think the best thing to do is just use a lot of detail in your example. I only used one example on my essay, but I went into great depth in it, with dates and all that jazz. And the conclusion never has to be that good, either - just summarize if you're tight on time (which is usually the case).</p>
<p>paying3tuitions - thanks for sharing!
when your son was churning out practice essays, how could he tell he was good, not just because he'd finish in 25 min?
did someone help to grade?</p>
<p>XCotter - dates and all that jazz are my problem. i never remember the dates.
i can come up with a couple of good arguments but have to really press myself hard to milk out the extra stuff.</p>