yodelo

It's true. The 2nd time I took the SAT, i wrote significantly longer and got 3 more points!

Rubytuesday2

I believe its true. The readers are scanning the essays, Write a long essay and use a lot of big words.

rspence

^ That's why I'm starting to wonder what's the point of the essay. It's teaching ppl to write quick, verbose essays without much focus on quality. They do look for coherence, but that's about it...

Wood5440

I can't believe the crap some of you insist on believing. "Verbose essays without much focus on quality"? Go ahead. Write one like that and spend some time wondering why you got a 5- 7 score.

Rubytuesday2

@rspnce I think many admissions counselors agree with you. There was a college fair at my son's high school last October, most of the admissions staff manning the booths said they don't look at the writing scores because they didn't find them of much value. They used the essay in the application to judge a student's writing skills. Some elite schools request a graded sample of the applicant's work, complete with teacher's comments.

JuanitaRebel

Length of the essay is probably just as important if not more important than the actual writing. It is probably more important to write a full two pages than it is to remember to write in English

-AP Lang teacher deriding the validity of the SAT Essay

Federico14

Lol your lang teacher.. Maybe somebody should try to write the essay in spanish to test that one out..

ameliab12

I think some of you are missing a very obvious lurking variable: people who write more also tend to be writing higher quality essays. First, it means they have the time to fill both pages, so they probably weren't struggling to think of what to write. Second, they are probably aware of the fact that it looks good to write more, meaning they are the type of people who really care about their scores or have done some research. Third, it means they actually have a lot to say, which indicates that they probably used more support in their writing than their peers or at least adequately BSed to fill the space.

kitkatxoo

The first time, I had no idea what I was doing because I didn't study. I wrote a terrible essay, 1 and 1/2 pages, and shockingly got an 8 (it was really bad..). The second time I wrote a full two pages, which I thought was well thought out, and only got a 9. So.. yeah.

JuanitaRebel

@ameliab12
Although what you say is probably true, I know first hand how important the length of the essay is to your overall score. I wrote a 4 paragraph essay, that totaled 1 1/4- 1 1/3 pages long. I thought I was very articulate and I used great examples (Cultural Revolution China, and Lord of the Flies). I got an 8. My friend wrote a 5 paragraph essay using 3 personal examples. 2 pages long. 12. I am by far a better writer than he is(This is a fact, not being cocky). Our AP Lang teacher made us print out our essays from CB and he graded them. He gave mine an 11 and my friend a 7. The proof is in the pudding.

Wood5440

JuanitaRebel

Do you still have access to those essays? I'd really, really, really like to see them.

Was the AP teacher who was deriding the SAT essay in your first post above also the AP teacher who scored (graded?) the essays in your second post?

Show me the essays and we might all learn something.

Niceboat

I would also like to see the essays.

rspence

@RubyTuesday yeah, some colleges still look only at reading/math scores. The essay is pretty pointless...

And yes, there is the possibility of a lurking variable, but some people might just BS stuff and allude to a fake 19th century scientific journal article and get a 12.

risubu

I wrote 5 paragraph essays both times. I filled up the two pages and even wrote on the border. Got 11s, both times -_-