the weirdest thing

Test Preparation
1

<p>i dont know if you guys have seen this before, but here it is. A girl at my high school got a 36 on the ACT, like perfect score all across the board, and got a 5 on the essay out of 12. SO MANY people I know have these good SAT scores (2250 above) and ACT scores (34 above) and just seem to bomb the writing essay part. One would think that if someone has the ability to get like a 2340 on the SAT, that person should have the ability to pull off at least a 10 on the essay. But no, the person got a 7 with a 2340. How the heck does that happen?</p>

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<p>Sometimes you get paniced and dont even have an idea what to write about.BTW ,is it possible to have a 2400 on the SAT but 6 on the essay ?</p>

3

<p>The weirdest thing is how you posted the exact same post in three different college subforums :)</p>

4

<p>hahahahaha</p>

5

<p>it's probably not their (or in this case, her) fault. SAT readers grade based on length, so no matter how good your essay is, it's not getting higher than a 9 if it doesn't fill up nearly the entire space.</p>

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<p>and no, that score combo isn't possible. the lower the score your essay gets, the more your overall writing score decreases.</p>

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<p>the lowest essay possible to still get an 800 is a 9.</p>

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<p>Some of the best writers do poorly on the essay because they have learned to spend time organizing their thoughts before writing, and the times allotted for writing on the SAT and ACT do not allow for that. Also, some excellent writers are slow because they spend time searching for the "best" words to use in a given sentence. These students often don't have time to complete their essays, so points are deducted for not having a conclusion, etc.</p>

<p>Even with their low essay scores, however, these students do well on the writing section overall, because they tend to be good with vocab, grammar, and the kind of things tested in the multiple choice portion of the writing section.</p>

<p>On the SAT, for example, a student can get mediocre essay grades but still get a 750 provided he/she scores an 80 on the multiple choice portion.</p>

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<p>^ I know a kid who had 80 and 6 for a total of 750.</p>

10

<p>Just FYI, it is possible to have a 36 composite on the ACT and a poor essay score. The ACT essay portion, which is optional, has impact on neither the writing nor the composite score.</p>

<p>It might be that the test taker cruised after completing the main test did not realize the significance of the ACT essay, which most selective colleges now require in addition to the main test.</p>