<p>I have no idea what I am doing wrong! I keep receiving a score of 7 on my SAT essays. In my AP Lit and Lang classes, I mostly score 9's and the occasional 8. I am a good writer, so I am completely baffled. I have included counter arguments and quotes, but those have not improved my score. My only guess is that my essays are too short (1 and 1/4 pages long) My essay score is pulling my writing score down significantly. Any advice on how to improve my score would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>Like you acknowledged: write longer essays. You need to fill up the entire 2 pages to really have a shot at anything higher than an 8 or a 9. If your writing is good, just make sure that you’re providing more content, and then I think you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I bet style wise you may be a great writer with mellfluous structures and adequate wording. Then your problem would probably be content, as mentioned above, and the adequacy of examples. I find that length, therefore content, plays a decisive role in writing. But I believe filling the whole two pages is not really a must. I managed to get 11 on mine while having written 1 and 3/4. Anyways, although it may depend on the writer, writing more content will definitely help you.</p>
<p>One thing you should keep in mind is that the SAT essay is DIFFERENT. I bet you are a stellar writer, but I must say, the renowned William Strunk, Jr. will have bombed the test too. So here are the most important things about the SAT essay:
1/ Yes. Length does matter.
2/ The SAT essay graders don’t care much about your composition’s subtleties, no matter how excellent they are.
That said, here’s a guide to the SAT essay which I personally find very helpful: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html</a></p>
<p>Good luck!
p/s: In case the link above gets removed, search the forum for AcademicHacker. He’s the best.</p>
<p>Sadly, the SAT treasures quantity>quality.</p>
<p>My recommendations?
You’ve got 25 minutes, don’t waste it over selecting the phrase that sounds better. Select that phrase that gets your argument through so you can fill up another line towards the goal of two pages.
Include intelligent and pretentious words whenever it is necessary. Turn on maximum impression.
ALWAYS make sure the essay flows smoothly and is decently legible. The test-grade assigners are paid by how many tests they can work through per hour, and this is merely a earn-as-much-as-I-can objective for them. They will give you a 6 if your essay can be understood and read through faster.
ALWAYS include at least one historical and literary example. The Loch Ness Monster + Harry Potter? NO. Must be classical and respectable examples. Use something like Scarlet Letter (very common) and the Industrial Revolution. Heck, even toss in a scientific milestone like the Apollo mission. Make sure to IMPRESS these graders. Also, in the event that you run out of time: write like crazy to a) main option, obtain a short conclusion (1 sentence usually), b) fill up the remaining white space while still holding some form of logical argument with plausible grammar.</p>
<p>And yes, grammar does count! </p>
<p>I know how it feels, lol. I’ve already taken the SAT but I remember I had a heck of a time getting it to be above a 7 as well (ended up with a 9 on the actual thing and I was pretty stoked)</p>
<p>Like others have suggested above, I’d try to fill up both pages. Have a solid intro and thesis statement, two good body paragraphs, and a conclusion that ties it all together. For your literary/historical examples, try to be a little unique! A ton of people use core books and people like MLK or Gandhi in their examples, and I’m sure your reader will thank you if you come up with something refreshing and new. Or you could always embellish some personal event and tweak it to fit the prompt. </p>
<p>Also, if I’m not mistaken, you can still pull off an 800 with a perfect MC and a 10 essay score, so fortunately I think essays don’t count for as much as you may think!</p>
<p>Best of luck 
</p>