<p>My son's SAT writing score is showing up as 780 on the website from the Oct. test. It shows that he got 80 out of 80 on the multiple choice and 8 out of 12 on the essay. I don't understand how his overall score could be that high if his essay score is really that low. I called College Board and the person on the phone assured me that the score is correct without even looking into it. I read that the essay accounts for roughly 30% of the total score, so I don't understand how his score report could be correct. Does anyone have any insight? Does College Board factor in the scores for the other 2 SAT sections when determining the writing score?</p>
<p>I don't know - but on my son's first SAT he got a 12 on the essay and only a 680 on the writing.</p>
<p>The College Board does not share in detail how the convert raw scores into final scaled scores. Eight of twelve might have been a really high score. Anecdotal reports of higher scores may, in fact, be statistical outliers. </p>
<p>(If I suspected that the CB had made an error in my son's favor, I would keep quiet about it. I know this makes me a bad person, but ...)</p>
<p>logos -- when my older son took the SAT II Writing, his scores were the same as your son's. He aced the objective portion, but I think he had an 8 on the essay. (He doesn't enjoy writing :eek:)</p>
<p>Relax and enjoy the mystery curve. </p>
<p>
[quote]
The multiple-choice writing section subscore contributes approximately 70% and the essay contributes approximately 30% toward your total raw score, which is used to calculate your 200–800 total scaled writing score.
[/quote]
In December, DS got a 75 on multiple choice (that's 47 correct out of 49 questions), 10 on essay for a 770.</p>
<p>My son got 79 on multiple choice, 10 on essay for total of 790. That easily seemed to make sense mathematically. These others sound screwy. But I'm not a math person...(I'd use a smily face here, but my son says adults using emoticons now would be like if my parents had tried to dress like "The Monkees" back in my day, an amusing thought). But why should I care what he thinks?</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I guess the scoring for the writing section is more complex than I'd thought. I'll be interested in seeing his essay when it's available on the 11th. He's not a fantastic writer, but an 8 really surprised me.</p>
<p>logos, I would classify my older son as a concise writer -- after all, we each only have so many words to put on paper, and he wouldn't want to waste any on an SAT test! ;)</p>
<p>From what I've read, the essay is scored higher for kids who just plain write MORE. I'm sure DS wrote the minimum he needed to convey his thoughts, but that's not what earns a high score for a student.</p>
<p>That sounds like my son too, sjmom. Energy conservation all the way!</p>
<p>My older son wrote a straightforward shortish five paragraph essay with three examples and no major grammar mistakes and got a 9. My younger son wrote a stylish introductory paragraph with no examples and got a 7. Each had a score of a "4" from one of the readers. I can't imagine how that could possibly be. I wish there was some way I could send out my older son's PSAT score which was an 800 in writing!</p>
<p>S got the exam same scores and got a 750. It seems more in line to me with his recorded performance than would a 780 (but I thought the 8 on his writing was a bit low).</p>
<p>To compare against the 75 + 10 Essay which equalled 770, S got a 73 MC (boy he hates multiple choice tests) and a 12 Essay for a 770. But this was last April, so maybe different curve?</p>
<p>Mathmom, I have posted several times about the importance of the five-paragraph essay with three examples (one from experience, one from lit, one from history) to the writing score. It's what the graders are taught to score. Anything else and they become inconsistent and unsure.</p>
<p>dmd, the point is that my son who only wrote one paragraph with no examples got the same score from one of the graders as the son who did what is given as the standard advice. I didn't think the older son's score was that far off - maybe a 10 rather than a 9. But there was no way anyone should have given my 8th grader such a high score.</p>
<p>Mathmom, what I was trying to say is that if an essay falls outside the standard essay, the graders aren't sufficiently trained; consequently, they become inconsistent. It is possible that the grader who liked your son's essay liked its grammar or sentence structure, or something else; it's possible that s/he would have scored your other son's essay higher. We can't know. That's the whole point of training.</p>
<p>When my D took the old SAT writing test (scored identically and using the same graders as the new writing section, as far as I can tell), she scored an 8 on her non-standard essay (far better written) and a 12 on her 5-paragraph essay.</p>
<p>Several months ago, there was a thread about exemplary essays that had been released by the CB. Several were riddled with grammatical and spelling mistakes, and contained vacuous platitudes. But they probably had the requisite five paragrahs with examples.
The CB values consistency and rule-following over other qualities such as creativity and imagination.</p>
<p>Okay got it, dmd. :)</p>
<p>I find the whole business frustrating. And it's not that I want to sell my son as a great writer - he writes servicable prose. I just wish I felt like the process was reliable. I feel like his essay scores on the APs are a much better indication of what his first draft under time pressure writing is like. They don't practice this kind (SAT kind) of personal essay at all in school and it was like pulling teeth to get him to practice it at home.</p>
<p>DS got a 750 Writing - with a 9 essay. He didn't get a chance to finish his essay. How much you write in 25 minutes is a measure of fine motor control and fluidity. Left-handers and people who write slowly or have poor motor control are at a serious disadvantage!!!</p>
<p>I'm just curious - why would you say left handers have a disadvantage?</p>
<p>Simple... the desks are all right-handed.</p>
<p>It definitely takes a lefty longer using a right-handed desk than a righty using a right-handed desk.</p>