Hi, I just wanted to ask how important the ssat essays are. Because I took my ssat today and I did really awful on the essay because I wasn’t prepared at all. I ran out of time and my essay ending halfway through a sentence in the middle of typing a word. I’m normally pretty decent at writing but I’m not great given such a short amount of time. I wanted to ask if AOs read or really care about ssat essays and I couldn’t find a thread from recently about it.
Hello! I’m applying this year, and I don’t have much insight. I know that most AO’s do read it, but I’m not sure if they care about it. If the schools you are applying to have a graded essay, it might not matter as much. If they don’t, they will most likely use it in place of that.
-----This is just my assumption. I really have no idea. I wouldn’t worry about it much there are many other parts of your application.
My kid said he didn’t do his best on that either, but from his results it’s obvious it didn’t hurt him at all.
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It is my understanding that the essay part of the SSAT may be used if the student’s application essays are in question regarding authorship. Otherwise I am pretty sure it is either ignored or doesn’t hold a lot of weight.
I have heard this from several school admissions officers in past information sessions. It came across more as a warning - as in “parents if you tinker with your student’s application essays, we will figure it out”.
I would not overly worry - as sounds like you provided a good sample of your writing even if you ran out of time.
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My understanding is that it is used more as a cross check on who wrote the application. They know it’s done under time pressure and don’t care so much about the score.
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Just a quick note—the SSAT essay is not scored; it is merely sent to each school.
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Thanks for that, @confusedaboutFA .
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