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The Essay |
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What does the SAT essay measure?
According to the College Board, creators of the SAT, the essay is intended to measure the student’s ability to: “organize and express ideas; develop and support opinions; use appropriate words and sentence structure to back up opinions.” - collegeboard.com
What does the ACT essay measure?
“The essay is evaluated on the evidence it gives of the student's ability to: express judgments by taking a position on the issue in the writing prompt; maintain a focus on the topic throughout the essay; develop a position by using logical reasoning and by supporting their ideas; organize ideas in a logical way; use language clearly and effectively according to the rules of standard written English.” - actstudent.org
Essay Scoring
The SAT and ACT both use the same approach to essay scoring. The essay is scored by two readers on a scale of 1-6, with 6 being the highest, for a combined sub-score between 2 and 12. An essay that does not address the essay question will receive a score of 0. The essay accounts for 1/3 of the entire writing section score.
5 Tips for writing a successful essay
- Take a firm position. The essay section asks you to take a position on a topic, so you should aim to argue your point articulately (even if you don’t completely believe in it); you want your readers to respect the quality of your argument, even if they don’t agree with it.
- Begin with an outline. Taking a few minutes to organize your thoughts in an outline will make it much easier to write the essay.
- Stay on topic. Don’t try to impress your readers with ideas on other subjects. Once you’ve stated your position, use relevant examples to support that position.
- Keep it simple. Avoid big “show off” words and writing about subjects you don’t fully understand. Stick to the examples you know best.
- Don’t forget to write. Choosing a position and writing an outline are important, but the bulk of the time allotted for this portion should be spent actually writing the essay.
