the essay is graded purely formulaic and has very little correlation with actual writing skill;
case in point: i got a 8/12 on my essay when I took in jan of 2010 as a 7th grader.
I got a 9/12 this june, meaning that 1 grader didn’t think I had improved at all over 4.5 years and another grader thought I improved only 1 point.
Don’t stress it son.