<p>My daughter's overall SAT score is fantastic, but I am completely baffled by her essay score. Although she scored a 770 on the writing component, she only got 8 out of 12 on her essay. We really don't understand what they were looking for. She is an excellent writer--she hasn't received anything below an A on her papers since, oh, 3rd grade, and she has been in all honors and AP courses since she started high school. I don't think her relatively poor essay score will hurt her, because she will be able to demonstrate her ability on the application essays, but I am wondering what on earth the College Board thinks is a good essay? Short, journalistic sentences at the 8th grade level?</p>
<p>Post the essay?</p>
<p>Although writing quality is important, so are the examples. Someone who wrote about their pet cat, for example, would probably get a lower score than someone who wrote about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Maybe the marker didn’t like her examples? It can be a little subjective. </p>
<p>Why worry though? If her score is great it doesn’t matter and a lot of universities don’t even take writing scores into account.</p>
<p>For privacy reasons, I don’t post essays, although that would probably be helpful.</p>
<p>The SAT essay is graded a very specific way that is antithetical to actual good writing.</p>
<p>Points are awarded for writing as much as possible and for using lots and lots of poly-syllabic words, even if those aren’t the right words for the situation.</p>
<p>There is a specific structure expected. </p>
<p>If the student hasn’t prepared specifically for this type of writing, it is tough to score well.</p>
<p>I truly don’t think anyone cares what the essay score is. They are going to read the essays that are on her applications and what her teachers say about her (and her writing).</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t think this will hurt her, but it is baffling. And she says her examples demonstrated a good breadth of knowledge. The only thing we can think of us is that her sentences were too long.</p>
<p>Go cry me a river, please.</p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using CC</p>
<p>My first writing 800 was with an 8 essay- I didn’t miss any on the multiple choice. don’t worry, 770 is great! the subscores don’t matter. the essay is graded in a formulaic way and does not lend itself to better college essays necessarily, nor do admissions officers look at the score in the admissions process (other than rarely, checking it against a suspiciously written essay)</p>
<p>Not sure why you’re so annoyed. As I stated clearly in my OP, I’m not concerned about her overall score, only wondering why the essay was so low and what the scorers are really looking for.</p>
<p>How much space did she use up? On my first essay I got an 8 with about half a page left, but when I retook it I got a 10. I just made sure I used every line, and my examples were just two fabricated ‘historical events’ lol.</p>
<p>In general I don’t endorse the methods of these guys but I think this part is pretty spot on… </p>
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<p>It’s from “The Test Prep Authority” website.</p>
<p>I’m not sure they are 100% correct on how the essay is graded but I think their broad message is correct. The readers are flying through these essays at 100 mph and the rubric they use to grade them is not the same rubric used in an AP English class.</p>
<p>My D’s writing score breakdown was almost exactly the as OP’s daughter’s. I suspect she didn’t know the magic formula as discussed above, but I also think she wasn’t used to writing under such a tight time constraint. Normal class essay test are a different animal, because a lot of the process is just elegantly regurgitating the material you’ve studied, but writing on a “surprise” topic under the gun can be difficult for someone who is used to thinking over a topic, writing an outline, revising several times, even tossing out a false start and beginning over. And of course the latter process is pretty much the normal writing process for everyone, so I don’t think the SAT essay measures any meaningful writing skills other than the abliity to throw together some baloney quickly. For that reason, and because of the subjective nature of the grading, I suspect that even schools that do count the writing section of the SAT (and many don’t) may give short shrift to the essay score.</p>
I got a 530 on the writing but a 10 on the essay. So it’s not not like you have to be a genius to get a decent essay score. You have to approach an essay in a clear way. Throw in a few good words without sounding pretentious or superfluous, and develop a good brainstorming outline before starting. Make sure everything written serves a purpose and supports the thesis. Remember that an essay is basically a written version of geometric proof. And try, if possible, to write about something distinctive and interesting. If the subject matter is common, the score is likely to be common too. Any advice on me getting a better reading and writing score? Just kidding, I’m too old to retake it.
MIT Professor Perelman thinks the essay is pretty bogus. Here are his thoughts and tips:
Professor Perelman’s SAT Essay Tips
No matter the topic, always pick a side. Never go gray.
Ignore the extra reading material that is supposed to help you understand the topic. Just read the question and pick a side.
Always use a five paragraph structure: Introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, one concluding paragraph. Never vary from that structure.
Finish your first paragraph with a strong declarative sentence that states your position.
Come up with three examples to support your position. Ideally one is historical, one is literary and one is personal.
Don’t worry about getting facts right. Just write as if you are always correct. Even in your historical example.
Memorize a few big words that can easily substitute for commonly used smaller words. For example, never use the word bad. Always choose something like “egregious.” Instead of many, choose “plethora” or “myriad.” You will increase your score by picking two to three and popping them into your essay somewhere. You can even do this when you are finished; go back over your essay and find the word “many” and switch it.
End with a quotation. It doesn’t even have to be correct. Just quote somebody. It’s best to memorize two or three famous quotes and just use one to end the concluding paragraph, even if it doesn’t make sense. Even if you can’t really remember the quote exactly, still quote the person with whatever you can remember.
Finally, fill up all the blank lines provided to you for writing.
As you can imagine, the College Board, creator and administrator of the SAT, disagrees with Perelman’s analysis.
Link to the teenager in NY who found that just sheer volume is what matters with this score, just write more:
I agree with those that say that the essay portion on the SAT rarely reflects actual good writing. You’re given a very short amount of time (25 minutes I believe) that oftentimes gives precedent to completion (aka using a majority of the space given) and more complex vocabulary. True writing requires editing and revising. It also doesn’t take into account accuracy of facts used in support of an argument as long as the reasoning is clear and sound. For anyone in the future worrying about the writing subscore, don’t. English grades, essays, and recommendations will be much more important to determine actual writing ability
Well, I got a 12 on the SAT essay and I didn’t use a formulaic cookie cutter approach nor did I use any historical or literary examples. Instead, I made up a statistic, used personal experience, and got a little philosophical. My essay was nowhere near perfect. I think what really got me a 12 though was the length - I filled up the entire space available. If anyone wants to see the essay I posted it on this page: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1662584-based-off-the-sat-1-12-what-would-you-give-this-essay-p1.html
For reference, when I first took the SAT last March I tried the cookie cutter approach and used two literary examples. On that test I got a 6.
I wouldn’t worry about if the essay score will have any meaningful impact on college admissions. Its not uncommon at all- I got a 780 with a 9 essay.
Glad this thread was resurrected. I hope it will be helpful to others who are concerned about their SAT writing score. FWIW, more than two years after my post, my D is a sophomore at Wellesley, and won a prize for writing her first year.
“Remember that an essay is basically a written version of geometric proof.”
That.
Take a stand. Give evidence. Conclude.
It just has to be valid; that is if your premises are true, your conclusion must necessarily follow.
Ex: All flowers are mammals. All mammals slay eggs. A tulip is a flower. Therefore, tulips lay eggs.
Utter nonsense, but perfectly cogent.
Sorry, did anyone even see my post? You don’t have to write a “written version of geometric proof.”