<p>so my ACT tutor told me to NEVER quote ANYTHING on the ACT/SAT essay but I have done it everytime I have taken it and gotten a 10/11/10.. is that what's preventing me from getting a 12? or is it possibly something different ?</p>
<p>thanks ! </p>
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<li><p>Going for a 12 is pointless; a 10 is already 99th percentile and on the SAT it would get you the curve on the Writing section (1 question) and allow a 2400</p></li>
<li><p>There are two readers; if one of them can give you a 6 (enough for an 11), two of them can. Odds are you won’t get a 12 in any case just because of all the randomness; 5’s and 6’s are the same.</p></li>
<li><p>The “no quotes” rule is just a rule of thumb that’s mostly there to help weak students who think “quote = 12” and drown out their own voice. It’s a simplified, talking-to-children way of saying, “This essay tests your own analytic skills, ability to supply evidence to substantiate well-articulated claims, and ability to form conclusions using deduction.” As long as you do those, you’ll be fine- “no quotes” is just a way of doing that by proxy.</p></li>
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<p>So basically if you’re getting 10’s, don’t worry about it (unless that’s not from official tests >_< if your prep service is grading them, check if they’re lenient- a lot of the time the graders aren’t that good- I had a guy who kept giving 7s and 8s all the time when something I wrote in 7th grade was good enough to get a 10). Quotes are not the problem as long as your entire essay isn’t some silly appeal to authority.</p>