<p>I got a 8 on my SAT II writing test. Is this good enough for college in my freshmen year?</p>
<p>P.S. I'm not going to an Ivy School.</p>
<p>8 as in on the essay?</p>
<p>What is an 8? I thought the ETS graded tests by the hundreds for the SAT II's.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. My D got A's/5's in AP English and an 11/790 on the SAT II Writing and <em>still</em> had to crank it up a couple of notches for college...but she's at a Top 15 LAC. For a UC, she would have been fine.</p>
<p>SAT II writing is crap, they grade your essay in like 2 minutes.</p>
<p>Some of the AP kids have told me that they have had an "adjustment period" in terms of writing during the first semester.</p>
<p>Myself, coming from IB, where writing is stressed heavily in ALL classes, not just English, have not noticed a difference, at least not a significant one.</p>
<p>This is a tangent to soccerguy but I agree with you that the SAT II Writing is crap. Or I would agree except that so many students have problems with even this weak a filter of abilities.</p>
<p>But let's not carried away with the superiority of IB. Approach to writing depends on the high school and even the individual teacher. If I were a teacher, one of the dumbest questions you could ask me in a science or history class would be, "Does spelling count?"</p>
<p>The SAT II writing test is absurd. I did pretty poorly on it (not bad, but certainly not great), and I have done very well on papers in college. I think the SAT verbal is a better indicator. (Not that this has any basis in fact, just my opinion!)</p>
<p>I agree- essay scores on SAT II Writing are ridiculous. Don't let them worry you.</p>
<p>sorry, theDad, I did not mean to come across as IB is always better, and I agree it definitely matters a lot about individual teachers. Writing is just heavily emphasized in all the classes, from math (10-15 pg papers) to english to chemistry to history to foreign languages. IB considers its foundation to be writing, and it is heavily emphasized. I believe that IB is more standardized than AP, and therefore students coming from IB will be very competent writers, while those coming from AP seem to have a wider range of abilities (on both the higher and lower side), due to lack of standardization.</p>
<p>So, writing is very important in college, and it is apparent b/c many colleges have required classes that freshman have to take that emphasize writing, and these classes are often not able to be "tested out of" with AP and IB. Being able to write at the college level is important, whether you come in at that level, or you get there in the first year.</p>
<p>Okay, I can live with that. </p>
<p>My D's school has only one required course: a first-year writing class that you can't test or otherwise place out of. They've got about 40 different options, so that you can find <em>something</em> you like.</p>
<p>Don't worry about trying to crank up your writing so you'd be perfect. There is ALWAYS something... I go to the same school as TheDad's D. Writing just never ends! College will always find something for you to work on :) For now, just work on whatever you have. SAT II Writing is crap.</p>