<p>I'm a little confused about my SAT writing score. My score report shows that I got an 800, yet my essay score was a 10. I thought that you would have to get a perfect essay score (12) to get a perfect writing score. Is my score a mistake?</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p>You do not need a perfect essay score to get a perfect writing score. Just like you don't always need to get all questions correct in a a section to get an 800 (depends on the test).</p>
<p>You must have most of the MC questions right then, pixiesticker.</p>
<p>I think it works like this:
You get a multiple choice score of 20-80 which corrosponds to 200-800.
A high essay, 11 or 12 could possibly raise that MC score.
An essay of 9 or 10 will leave the MC the same.
Essays of 8 and below will lower the score by an amount that changes based on the essay. (Example: I had a 66 MC and an 8 essay. the 8 essay lowered my MC by 20 points and made it a 640. Then I had a 70 MC and a 7 essay. the 7 essay lowered the MC score 40 points to a 660).</p>
<p>So your score was definitely right.</p>