The Infamous Eleven...essay

Test Preparation
1

<p>Has anyone here gotten an ll (eleven) on the SAT essay. If so what do you think prevented you from getting a l2? I'm just curious because it's clear from the CB graph on distribution of essay grades that a l2 essay is rare indeed. </p>

<p>(Please...lol.... don't come on and say I got a l2 and so did my best friend and his girlfriends's ex.. I am more interested in the ll people....or even tens I guess....)</p>

2

<p>Is there something wrong with your 1 key? Why are you using ‘l’?</p>

3

<p>I got an 11 on my essay. Honestly, I think the reason was because of a stupid mistake. At length I will explain…</p>

<p>I’m not sure of the exact wording of the question but the main idea of the topic was whether or not there is value in avoiding the use of technology.</p>

<p>The reason I think I got an 11 was 3 things…

  1. My first example was a bit wordy. My intro and first reason paragraph took up more than the first page. As a result the 2nd and 3rd reasons got shortchanged a little as far as explanations go
  2. I accidentally messed up the title of a book I referred to in my second example. I am truly an idiot because it is a famous book and it is the first time I have ever made that mistake. As I was driving home that day it suddenly occurred to me and i kicked myself for it. Apparently that doesn’t count but if I was a reader I would think a kid was stupid for messing up a famous title
  3. And I don’t know if this matters but when they called time I was mid-sentence in my conclusion and left it completely hanging, without a period or anything. Therefore my conclusion is only 1.5 sentences long.</p>

<p>Looking back on it I don’t think it’s a wonderful essay but I did only have 25 minutes? I don’t even remember. I didn’t take prep classes or anything but I did hear some place that you should fill the whole thing. Even if I had had time to finish my conclusion it could only have been 2 sentences anyways because I took it to the bottom of the page minus one line. My handwriting is small but I can write neatly very quickly</p>

<p>So that’s why I got the 11 on the essay. Where did you find stats about essay scores? I would be curious to know because I’ve never shared my sat scores with people I know but I’m secretly pretty arrogant about them. At least I can admit it.</p>

4

<p>I got an 11… I think its just because I didn’t use as much vocab as I could have.</p>

5

<p>I got a 11 once. I think it was because my handwriting was atrocious and probably illegible.</p>

6

<p>^ same…</p>

7

<p>My S got an 11 on his first SAT (7th grade) and didn’t do as well on the essay either of the two other times he took it (he got a 7 the next year, and a 10 on his final SAT, which he took this past December). I don’t know that anything “prevented” him from getting a 12; I was astonished that he’d gotten an 11!</p>

<p>The atrocious handwriting theory would work for me except that his handwriting was likely as atrocious each time. So the essay score is totally baffling to me.</p>

<p>I imagine that readers generally don’t give out many 6s; a 5 is a good score, too. You’d have to have two readers, neither of which is likely to be handing out 6s often, concur that yes, this essay deserves that top, hard-to-hand-out top score of 6 to snare the elusive 12. So … some of it probably comes down to odds!</p>

8

<p>thanks kindly folks --keep 'em coming…</p>

<p>BGAPPLICANT:
check out…</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/666430-what-test-takers-get-twelve-essay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/666430-what-test-takers-get-twelve-essay.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>yes Tim, my number one/exclamation point key is not working.</p>

9

<p>I got a 12, once. The other times I got an 8 and 10. I used the Luftwaffe in my 12 essay.</p>

<p>But see, it doesn’t matter at all. Since colleges don’t care about your writing score. And my friend got a 760 W by getting an 8 on the essay.</p>

10

<p>I got an 11 on mine. No idea what I was missing</p>

<p>I have HORRIBLE handwriting</p>

11

<p>I think its important to remember that an 11 doesn’t necessarily mean you’re “missing” anything compared to someone with a 12. An 11 means one grader assigned a 5 and one assigned a 6–with a different pair of graders it could have been a 12.</p>

<p>Really, the difference in many cases is just the luck of the draw.</p>

12

<p>I got an 11 when I took the test in 8th grade, so that probably stopped me from getting a 12. It could have just been I had 13 year old handwriting and it was a pretty good essay so they gave me a good score.</p>

13

<p>Truth of fact means nothing in these essays. In fact, it is my understanding that you don’t even have to have correct quotes or logically supporting facts. It’s all about grammar, sentence structure and format.</p>

14

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<p>Yes, a 12 isn’t necessary to get a good score on the writing. FWIW, S’s W scores, earliest to most recent, were 680, 700, 800, with 11, 7, and 10 on the essay, respectively.</p>

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<p>Yup; totally agree.</p>

15

<p>first SAT I got a 9, 2nd a 10, 3rd an 11. I think I just was not excited about what I was writing lol</p>