<p>Now I come to think of it, is that why CR+M is viewed with more important? Because colleges want to do well in the ranking (so they can attract better applicant next year and lower acceptance rate etc.), and the way to do that is by having high CR+M scores, but not W score.</p>
<p>The writing portion of the SAT was implemented later than the reading and math section. In fact, it was implemented pretty recently (2005 I think?). Paradigmatic and methodological shifts tend to take a while. People tend to not be very receptive to change.</p>
<p>Writing is heavily influenced by the essay. My guess is that no self-respecting English department is going to place any weight on a 25 minute essay test.</p>
<p>The W section is all about grammar, sentence structure, etc. My guess is that it correlates less with IQ that CR & M…colleges don’t want to admit it but the SAT is used as an IQ test by admissions. [SAT</a> and IQ scores correlate](<a href=“http://www.sq.4mg.com/IQ-SAT.htm]SAT”>http://www.sq.4mg.com/IQ-SAT.htm)</p>
<p>It would mean that Math only counts as 33% of the score. CR and W often correlate with each other, so adding W wouldn’t add too much. If W were added, MIT and Caltech would be confined to the 7/8 spots for the next few years, something that I don’t think relates to reality that well. Keep it how it is.</p>
<p>I think the writing section is still important…My school uses it for placement in English courses. </p>
<p>“My guess is that no self-respecting English department is going to place any weight on a 25 minute essay test.”</p>
<p>Timed writing is extremely important in college, and especially in college English courses. Being able to organize, analyze and persuade in a timed, high-pressure environment is not at all easy to do. Students tend to do worst on the writing section and best on the math section. Not to mention, other standardized tests, such as the AP Literature exam, require timed writing sections, in which students have to plan and write essays in <40 minutes. </p>
<p>Of course, I might just be saying this because I happened to do well in writing. :P</p>
<p>Many college English courses do not even have a final timed essay - there’s a final take-home paper. Nobody is going to write anything brilliant or particularly original in that short of a time - great works of writing are written over long periods of time and require lots of revision. Timed writing does not test anything other than, quite frankly, your ability to BS quickly.</p>
<p>For the AP Lit exam, you have 55 minutes per essay, which is a HUGE difference over 25 minutes.
All the SAT essay determines is your ability to spend a week pre-preparing essay outlines for the broad themes that typically show up on the SAT, and you ability to make up facts. Heck - if you try to plan out your essay for 5 minutes, you’ve wasted 1/5 of the time allotted. At least the AP Lit exam let’s you take 10 minutes to plan out everything, and then you have 45 minutes to write it out.</p>
<p>A lot of higher-ranked colleges completely disregard the writing section. It has been considered controversial since it came out. (I believe the Chronicle of Higher Education has covered this.) Then there was the notorious reality TV essay prompt from last March. My son came back really annoyed after the test as he is not a reality TV watcher and thought the question was really dumb. Apparently he was not alone:</p>
<p>I think it’s important to be able to bs quickly. What about during a debate or during a speech where something happens and you need to improvise on the spot. Besides grammar is definitely more important than vocab</p>
<p>Writing was added in 2005. It was considered experimental for a few years until more colleges started accepting that section. However, some colleges are still ignoring this section since they don’t believe it is adding any more gravitas than just CR+M.</p>
<p>The presidential scholar nominations do not include writing either when each state selects their scholars.</p>
<p>Wasn’t it a replacement of the old English Language SAT Subject / SAT II / Achievement Test and the miniature form called the Test of Standard Written English that used to be taken with the SAT Reasoning / SAT I? Those tests had multiple choice English grammar questions on them.</p>
<p>One issue about the W is (was?) that the grading followed formulas, not the strength of the content or the argument made. The joke was, open with complex sentences, throw in semi-colons, be sure to include 3 relevant references- and you could pretty much write gobbledygook. Or, at least, a few years ago. If it’s changed, great.</p>
<p>“Wasn’t it a replacement of the old English Language SAT Subject / SAT II /”</p>
<p>I heard one of the english SAT II tests got wiped out when writing was added. I just was not too familiar with SAT IIs back then but heard a lot of griping about being guinea pigs for this new section from some nephews. Some had to retake SAT because no one was sure which schools would need them vs not.</p>
<p>Who lot of new fun is coming in for 2016 college graduates in the form of new MCAT.</p>
<p>1) Writing was introduced in 2005, so there’s not as much data. It is also quite poor as a predictor of college success.</p>
<p>2) Grammar is cool (although in real college life, you can use grammar checkers and have people proofread your papers), but the essay bears zero resemblance to any academic writing ever. Never, ever will you be asked to write a 25-minute essay on a vague philosophical topic with no preparation. It’s unrealistic, it can be gamed very easily, and even students with terrible English can get 10-12 if they learn the right methods. The essay is broken by design and it’s only a matter of time before the CB does something about it.</p>
<p>I got a pretty unpleasant overall grade on my SAT, but my CR+M is good. If schools really don’t care about the writing, (i’m talking about top 10 schools though) then should I just not retake the test? I can boost up my overall by around 100, but there would be no much difference on CR+M (could possibly be lower; i’d never know)</p>
<p>I don’t believe there are any schools in top 10 that don’t need writing. Some have SAT II as not required, some have ACT + writing replacing two SAT II requirements but none have only CR+M being considered.</p>
<p>In top 20, Notre Dame may be the only school not considering writing that I am aware of.</p>
<p>If your W was so bad it dragged down a “good” CR/M, you need to carefully consider retaking. On the other hand, plenty of kids on CC bemon low scores that aren’t low at all.</p>