Unless your SAT Essay score is rock-bottom, you should not feel the need to retest just to improve your Essay score. Here are a few tips on how to improve your SAT Essay score:. Annotate the passage. Read carefully. Start by boxing the main argument of the passage, then put a star next to three or four places where the author employs a strategy to win the readers over.
These may include:. State the main point of the passage author. Make it clear that you understand what the author is trying to say by stating their thesis clearly in your essay response. No one reading your essay should have any doubt as to what you think the main point of the passage is. Tie back to it often within your body paragraphs too.
Outline before you write. Spend minutes organizing your thoughts. Think of yourself as a debate coach. Give feedback on the persuasion tactics the author used.
The response demonstrates a consistent use of precise word choice. The response maintains a formal style and objective tone. Shows a strong command of the conventions of standard written English and is free or virtually free of errors.
Is mostly cohesive and demonstrates effective use and control of language. Includes a central claim or implicit controlling idea. Includes an effective introduction and conclusion. The response demonstrates a clear progression of ideas both within paragraphs and throughout the essay. Has variety in sentence structures. The response demonstrates some precise word choice. Shows a good control of the conventions of standard written English and is free of significant errors that detract from the quality of writing.
Demonstrates little or no cohesion and limited skill in the use and control of language. May lack a clear central claim or controlling idea or may deviate from the claim or idea over the course of the response. The response may demonstrate some progression of ideas within paragraphs but not throughout the response. Has limited variety in sentence structures; sentence structures may be repetitive. Demonstrates general or vague word choice; word choice may be repetitive. The response may deviate noticeably from a formal style and objective tone.
While the essay is now optional you don't automatically have to take it every time you take the SAT , s ome colleges still require students to submit SAT essay scores with their applications. Learning how to consistently write a perfect SAT essay will be a huge boost to your application to these schools. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.
What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? The perfect SAT essay is like a puzzle that happens to be in written form—it can be mastered, but to do it well and completely every time requires practice with a lot of sample topics.
You need to learn the format of an effective essay and how to fill out a complete essay within 50 minutes. Because the whole essay task reading, analyzing, planning, and writing must be completed in 50 minutes, getting an 8 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing requires some luck.
A lot depends on how quickly you can come up with a thesis and relevant support for whatever the prompt happens to be—you might find some articles easier to read and analyze the argumentative structure of than others.
You'll need to use precise language to show mastery of English writing. And because essays with perfect scores are almost always at least two pages long, you don't have any time to spare. Because the essay is so formulaic, it's always possible to get a 6 across the board. No college worth its salt is going to base your college admissions decision on getting those last two points on an essay you had 50 minutes to write especially when the essay is optional. But you should aim as high as you can, so keep reading to find out what it really takes to get a perfect score on the SAT essay.
If we asked the College Board what the difference is between a 6 and an 8 SAT essay, they would direct us to the scoring rubric that shows the criteria for a 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Reading, Analysis, and Writing. SAT essays are scored by two graders who each rate your essay on a scale of in Reading, Analysis, and Writing; the two graders' scores are added together to get scores out of 8 for each domain.
Below, we've excerpted the criteria for a 3 and a 4 in all three domains and described the differences between the 3 and 4 score levels for Reading, Analysis, and Writing. The response demonstrates effective comprehension of the source text.
The response is free of substantive errors of fact and interpretation with regard to the text. The response makes appropriate use of textual evidence quotations, paraphrases, or both , demonstrating an understanding of the source text.
The response demonstrates thorough comprehension of the source text. The response is free of errors of fact or interpretation with regard to the text.
The response makes skillful use of textual evidence quotations, paraphrases, or both , demonstrating a complete understanding of the source text. The response offers an effective analysis of the source text and demonstrates an understanding of the analytical task. The response contains relevant and sufficient support for claim s or point s made. The response focuses primarily on those features of the text that are most relevant to addressing the task.
The response offers an insightful analysis of the source text and demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the analytical task. The response contains relevant, sufficient, and strategically chosen support for claim s or point s made. The response focuses consistently on those features of the text that are most relevant to addressing the task.
The writer not only states the techniques used in the text, but also thoroughly explains their impact on the reader. The response is mostly cohesive and demonstrates effective use and control of language. In general, any SAT score above the 50th percentile, or median, can be considered a decent score, since this means you've performed better than the majority of test-takers.
Scoring in the 50th percentile, however, won't cut it at most selective colleges. The standard for a good SAT score increases considerably depending on how competitive the applicant pool is.
This is why it's typically better to aim for at least the 75th percentile, or or higher. Each section uses a scale of in point increments. Percentiles can be used to see how well you did compared with other test-takers. Refer to the following percentile charts to see what constitutes a good SAT score. Note that the percentile rankings for scores may change slightly from year to year. To raise your chances of getting accepted to a particular college, aim for an SAT score that's around that of the typical enrolled applicant.
In other words, if the average first-year student earned a , then you too should try to get at least Your goal should be to earn a score around your school's 75th percentile. If that's too difficult, aim for higher than the 25th percentile score though know that your application may be less impressive.
Many colleges provide SAT stats on their websites. You can either search online for the school's name and the phrase "SAT score range" or look for a first-year class profile page or a general facts and figures page. Say you're applying to Emory University.
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