I am prepping my son right now for the ACT so have spent considerable time understanding how the essay (new as of Sep 2015) is scored. Here is the simplest, clearest explanation I can come up with. First of all, the essay scoring is now completely independent of the multiple-choice English test, and is reported separately. Two readers read each essay. Each reader grades the essay based on four categories (Ideas & Analysis, Development & Support, Organization, Language Use). For each of these four categories, each reader grades the essay from 1 to 6, with 1 the worst and 6 the best. Then the grades of the two readers are added togther. Because the lowest grade is a 1 (not zero), the lowest grade any essay can receive is an 8 (if both readers give it a 1 in all four categories). Similarly, the highest grade any essay can receive is a 48 (two readers each giving it a 6 in all four categories). Thus, the raw score scale of the essay is 8-48. Then, the ACT waves its magic wand, applies its statistical algorithms and converts the score to 1-36 scale. However, while the essay is ultimately reported on a scale of 36 like the other portions of the exam, it is reported separately and not included in the ACT composite score, which remains (English + Math + Reading + Science)/4. I hope that make sense.