guess my essay score too

Test Preparation
1

<p>Everyone else is doing it, I might as well follow the crowd.</p>

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<p>A strong commitment to technological progress will not of necessity cause a society to neglect other values. Historical analysis coupled with that of current societal trends bear witness to this fact.</p>

<p>During the 18th and 19th centuries Great Britain drastically increased its commitment to technology. The development of such inventions as the cotton gin and the power loom, together with the widespread use of factories and division of labor, resulted in a far more modernistic, technologically-oriented society than that which had existed prior to the Industrial Revolution. Yet as the working class came to acquire wealth, it also began to make demands for political reform conducive to its success – among them voting rights, education, and labor laws. These reforms clearly reflect values other than that of technological progress – the suffrage laws reflect democracy, labor laws reflect quality of life, and education reflects a fusion of the previous two values. The fact that those reforms existed in such a technologically-oriented society indicates that a commitment to progress does not necessarily result in the neglect of other sorts of progress.</p>

<p>Today America is undergoing a similar increase in technological commitment. With the advent of computers, iPods, and nuclear weapons, America can be said to be more committed to technology than ever before. Yet this, as in Britain, has not led us to neglect other values. The 1973 Clean Air Act demonstrates our level of commitment to the environment, and No Child Left Behind to education. Often it is because of technology that our society has begun to lean towards other values. Many civil liberties groups have expressed fears that the government may be using technology to encroach on our First Amendment rights, and environmentalist groups worry that products of technological progress may be polluting the environment. In this way technological commitment has not only not led our society to neglect other values, but has actually led it to pursue them further.</p>

<p>From these examples it is evident that a strong commitment to technological progress does not cause society to abandon other values, and may even result in greater concern for them.</p>

2

<p>I would give this essay a 10.</p>

3

<p>10 at a minimum, possibly better. I think 10s, 11s, and 12s are all fairly similar in quality.</p>

<p>I’ll guess 11.</p>

4

<p>An 8 or 9: your intro and conclusion could be better developed.</p>

5

<p>i would say 10… for an 11 or 12 you need a better intro / conclusion</p>

6

<p>how do you know this is exactly what you wrote?</p>

7

<p>^^Collegeboard puts everyone’s essay images online.</p>

8

<p>I looked at my essay online and couldn’t read squat. Is that the version the graders get? I really hope they get higher quality versions than the one CB gives us… Otherwise that might explain my low essay grades.</p>

9

<p>you would receive an 8.</p>

10

<p>9–good essay but I think for the SATs, the intro and conclusion are considered very important and yours aren’t that well-developed. For a general essay (not for the SATs), I like it.</p>

11

<p>Wow, you guys were actually pretty close, I got a 9.</p>

<p>(9.5-9)/9 = 5.56% error</p>

<p>Though at the time I attributed it to my AWFUL, nearly unreadable handwriting.</p>

12

<p>Oh, if you have bad handwriting, that hurts.</p>

13

<p>Yaguarre - how much does it hurt?</p>

14

<p>Well, obviously there’s no way of “proving” that or anything, but there’s a lot of evidence to show that the essays are graded in part on how they look, not what’s in them. There was a study by an MIT professor that showed the length of an essay was directly proportional to the grade, so much so that he could guess the essay grade 80% of the time without even looking at the actual words. From my own experience, I have one best friend with absolutely terrible handwriting, and one with extremely good handwriting. Both tend to get very good English grades. The one with terrible handwriting got a 7, the one with great handwriting got a 12. I have kind of bad handwriting, and I got a 10.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t be at all surprised if handwriting is unintentionally a factor in the grading process. I couldn’t say how much of a factor it is, and it probably depends on how bad your handwriting is.</p>

15

<p>Well not even I could read my essay on the online score report… I have no idea how the graders could have. Last time I filled up the two pages almost completely (whereas my 8 and 9 essays were filled up to a page and a third), but I can’t say I improved my penmanship… Hopefully length will give me a boost for a nice 10.</p>

<p>I can see why handwriting would factor in - graders aren’t supposed to spend more than 3 minutes on each essay… and if they can’t read the essay because its messy… well.</p>