Should I Study The Writing Section?

Test Preparation
1

<p>I’m taking the SAT in March, and I believe I can get my math score in the 700 range, and my critical reading in the upper 600’s if I focus on those two, and make sure I understand all the questions.</p>

<p>However the PSAT predicted the writing section to be my worst score, somewhere in the 500’s.</p>

<p>Well I plan on applying to UMiami, UCSB, CU-Boulder, SDSU, LMU, and Indiana…(maybe pepperdine, asu, and psu).</p>

<p>But only UCSB takes the writing section, so should I solely focus on the Math and Critical Reading section…or should I sacrifice the other portions just a little bit, to improve my Writing score??</p>

<p>Also what are the odds that my schools will start counting the writing section next year?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>There really is no true preparation for the writing section, you should just know how to approach it. I took a class, and she said to write a 4-5 paragraph (write small! They only give you 2 pages). The first paragraph should address the question with a thesis statement. Then write 2-3 small paragraphs describing examples (like a question about heroes being athletically heroic, or only based on what they do as a person; one paragraph could talk about…hercules…the next one could talk about…rosa parks, and just describe how it relates to the question), and then write a conclusion.</p>

<p>She could have been totally wrong, but I think i did ok, I got 660, which I think is alright seeing as I did no studying except for the 3 classes I went to. It is graded subjectively, so it all depends on your natural writing talent, and if you can write an essay in a short time limit.</p>

3

<p>the essay is difficult to prepare for, but YES you should definately study grammar.</p>

4

<p>Even if you don’t manage to prepare for the essay, study grammar and you’ll make a reasonable score.</p>

<p>I blacked out slightly and lost time during my essay, and ended up with an 8 on it; got 79/80 on grammar multiple-choice, though, and ended up with 750 writing – not the best score on the planet, but reasonably good. The essay won’t kill you.</p>

5

<p>Do practice problems. Buy the SAT book by the collegeboard, and do the problems, and find out where you messed up. Study that and your skill will improve a lot.</p>

<p>I raised mine from a 630 to an 800. (yes 800).</p>

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<p>I raised my psat from 61 writing to 700 on the real thing in a month just by doing one, one and a half sections and understanding what constitutes a good essay.</p>

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<p>Def study any section where the score doesn’t match your other 2 sections.</p>

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<p>If you know anyone with an old SAT-II Writing test from a few years back, you can look at it because it’s a very similar test.</p>

<p>There’s good stuff on the CollegeBoard website about the Writing test, too.</p>

<p>For the essay, as another poster said, has a prompt to kick-start you. You respond with an opening thesis, followed by several examples (e.g. from history, current events, literature, or personal experience–the last being the least appealing to the reader BTW) that show support of your thesis.</p>

<p>The logical flow between the paragraphs is very important. Compare and contrast, etc. between your examples. </p>

<p>Vary the sentence style.</p>

<p>You can survive a spelling or grammar error better than writing junk or having no examples to relate to your thesis!</p>

<p>The copnclusion can be as short as 1 sentence, or 2! As long as you’ve built up your argument, the conclusion fairly writes itself. So if you get cut off for time, it’s not a death sentence. Put effort into the thesis & examples, rather than a flowery conclusion.</p>

<p>My S worked his way up from 6 to l0 to perfect 12 on the writing essay. Here’s how: he practiced by taking some old prompts from earlier tests and writing out a sample test until he could feel what 25 minutes felt like in this format.</p>

<p>He looked through lots of old prompts from old SAT-II writing books, discovering that often the theme amounts to some variation of: the role of the individual vs. the group. Not always, but often, so that’s at least one to look out for in practice sessions. </p>

<p>Then he took each prompt and outlined how he “would” answer it–which would be his thesis, what would be his examples. Sometimes he just yakked about it (verbal kid). This was MUCH less time-consuming than writing each one for 25 minutes, and not necessary once he could feel the 25-minute thing and had done it a few times. Practice the thinking part.</p>

<p>At the test, absolutely jot down phrases for the thesis & paragraphs before launching into writing.</p>

<p>Go back and edit a bit. Look for a word or 3 that you can improve or tweak to make more interesting. </p>

<p>It’s more impportant to have an overall sense of how to write the language than to throw in words you don’t understand. </p>

<p>Write with clarity, straightforward. Tell the story, tell the example. Communicate.</p>

<p>ASIDE FROM THE ESSAY, there’s another section of short-answer which is grammar. It’s worth learning the format of these questions. ALso, there are many that deal with these problems: </p>

<p>subject/verb agreeement problems:
“A group of friends (takes) (take) a picnic.”</p>

<p>posessives:
Go out to check on whether (its) (it’s) raining.</p>

<p>but HARDER than those. In other words, there are categories of grammar problems, and you can expect a few of each area, so study up on them.
They’re (not their) all in the study books.</p>

<p>Even though my S got the 12 essay, he didn’t study enough grammar so his final score was 650. It’s hard to get a 12, and writing is his strength, so he’s sorry he didn’t study the grammar more.</p>

9

<p>I can’t give you odds on whether those schools will start counting the Writing tests next year, but it’s already the 2nd or 3rd year they’re in place.</p>

<p>During the first year, lots of places said they don’t know what to make of them because they had no data on the relationship between those scores and how their admitted students would write in college.</p>

<p>But by now, they’re getting in more data, so I’d think they’re looking towards it. They can’t ignore them forever!</p>

<p>You ask a good quetion about balancing your study time, and it’s true after a while you just go for your strengths. Still, I’m guessing if you did that well on CR you could pul up your writing with just that effort re: strategy on the essay plus study time on the grammar from SAT materials (don’t go dust off your old 7th grade grammar book, that’s too unfocused).</p>

<p>I still get the impression that the CR and Math are held in highest esteem, but some say the Writing is the ONLY place a college can see your writing and be sure it’s YOURS!</p>

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<p>what do you mean, only those colleges “take” the Writing section? I thought the WRitig section is now part of the SAT’Is, so the max score is 2400 and no longer 1600. </p>

<p>Perhaps you mean they don’t count the WRiting section heavily at those schools? Because the SAT will surely report all 3 sections to every school.</p>

<p>Don’t get it confused with the SAT-II’s…</p>

<p>ah well, it’s late on the east coast. hope i helped more than confused ya!</p>

11

<p>I hope for my sake they start counting the writing section (somehow managed to score a 790 on it without studying…though that may be in part to me being a grammar nazi), as the other two sections were sub par for me. </p>

<p>You can’t really prepare that much for the essay itself, but try to think up examples from real life experience and literary works that you can easily bend to suit the question. For example, on my essay I used my experience studying abroad in Japan and The Scarlet Letter. That way you can show variety and try to appeal to your two graders. Also, if it’s a sort of controversial question, don’t take too strong of a stance on it, as if the grader(s) disagree with you, you may score lower. Also, try to integrate some good vocabulary in there as well - but not to the extent that you sound like an obnoxious human dictionary or something. Other than that, you just kind of have to wing it, since you can never guess what the question will be. </p>

<p>I’d focus on grammar more than the writing, since it’s something you can feasibly memorize and improve in by actually studying. </p>

<p>So don’t give up on the writing section just yet. :slight_smile: Having said that, make sure your strengths are at their maximum potential as well, so you don’t sacrifice them, like you said.</p>

12

<p>Within the past two weeks have been around 4 threads called Please Grade My Essay, in which people have critiqued each other’s works in detail. It might be helpful to read through those posts to pick up some tips.</p>