My son just got his scores from the March SAT. He was shooting for 2250, got 740CR, 720M, but got only 580 on the writing. His PSAT and practice tests predicted 700-750, and he got good marks from his honors English in the SAT writing practice exercise they did in class. He is an excellent writer. His AP US Hist paper was chosen for the National History Day competition, for example. However, he has terrible handwriting and his spelling can be problematic. Is the score heavily influenced by handwriting and “writing mechanics”? What can he do? How hard is it to get an accommodation for the handwriting? He has been practicing quite diligently and plans to retake the SAT in June, but we’d like to focus his efforts! Thanks for any advice!
What was his essay score? Without that information, it’s hard to say what he should do.
Erika Meltzer’s Guide to SAT Writing got me from 560 psat to 790 sat (and only not an 800 because I got an 8 on my essay).
There are so many explanation; it is hard to say. From bubbling errors to just a bad day. All the times that my kid took the SAT and the PSAT the only score that made sense was his critical reading. The math was somehow explainable but his English was totally weird. He go high 60s in sophomore year, low 50’s in junior year and 700 in the SAT of junior year (just a month between those 2 last scores). He never prepped for the grammar and he never liked it either.
A lot of schools they look at CR+Math anyway.
Of course he could take it again and look for a good day.
Good luck!