<p>OK, so my April ACT scores were good (35 Composite), but I just got my essay score back today...it was a 7, which brought my combined English/Writing down to a 30. I never did a lot of test prep for the ACT, so I'm worried if I retake that my other scores will go down. How much do top colleges care about the essay score? My SATs are good (2360), so should I not even bother submitting ACT now?</p>
<p>Just a note, I am a pretty good writer in general, and my Junior year English teacher will be writing me a rec. I just suck at really short timed essays (although I did better on the SAT essay).</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t understand the writing section either. I have a 33 ACT and both times I’ve taken it I got a 7 on the writing portion… I’ve tried writing my own essays and using stock essays (like the organization that PR recommends).</p>
<p>I get mostly 7s, 8s, and 9s on my AP Lang essays, which gives you a gauge of my writing skills as well; I’m a pretty good writer (although there is much room for improvement).</p>
<p>So yeah, my point is, the writing section of the ACT is really strange and kind of hard to understand. I’m pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that colleges don’t take it into consideration unless it is either really low or really high.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wouldn’t worry much about it and send in the 35. </p>
<p>I would have to agree with how “strange” the ACT writing is graded. I’m in AP English Language as well, and while I’m not saying I’m the best writer, I will say that I am better than the score ACT gave me. I write 7’s and 8’s out of 9 in AP and I got a 8/12 on the ACT. I was really surprised. The ironic thing was that I had all positive comments. And, it wasn’t just me - I think the highest writing score in my AP class was a 9, coming from our future valedictorian. I just don’t get it. But it’s insignificant enough where I personally just laughed it off.</p>
<p>interesting…wonder if there were any 10-12’s this test? we don’t know anyone who got over an 8…</p>
<p>I just found out my score today… got an 11. I’m happy, no doubt, but it’s annoying to see that one person thought I was worth a 6, but the other didn’t XD So close to a 12…</p>
<p>^^ just curious, did you argue pro/con or create your own idea?</p>
<p>I argued pro, which I completely 100% disagreed with, but believed to be the easier side to argue.</p>
<p>i got a very high score as well. I remember reading that the key to getting a good score was to write a lot, so I wrote as much as I could. I think that helped!</p>
<p>My D got a 9 with a 32 composite. But it is very stressful waiting for the essay results. She did the essay on-line just to see how she would do and got an 8. So we googled “how to ace the ACT essay” and got some hints on counterarguments, which obviously helped, at least for one scorer.
I think it is tugh to write a cohesive essay at the end of an almost 3 hour test. That is my only complaint about the ACT. Otherwise I think it is great. This is my second daughter who will take the ACT only, and no SAT’s.</p>