Importance of the ACT Writing Score

[swimmermom3]

Sailor Dude's writing score for the ACT is in. It's not good, but on par with his first score which was received before the new changes that took place in September. I read on the PrepScholar  site that if the writing score is five or more points lower than any other subsection on the ACT, this will be a red flag for admissions.

 

Will it really?  If the student has high English and Reading scores along with a good AP English Language score, will that be enough?

 

He is really going to have to make his personal essay for the Common Application top-notch, isn't he?

[anne1456]

My understanding is lots of students are doing poorly on the new ACT writing sections, and even kids with 34-35 composites are scoring the low 20s on the essay. Or worse. Because this was only the first or second time the new writing section was administered I wouldn't worry about it too much, I think colleges don't care much about the writing anyway, and the new scoring clearly is producing strange results. Of course a good personal essay can't hurt!

[clementine]

None of our dd's top school choices require the writing, but they do use that writing score for placement in Comp 101.  

 

A writing score of 17 is in the 52nd percentile, supposedly.  But, I would think that the ELA (English/Language Arts) score would be more important??  

 

 

[Mom22ns]

None of the schools my kids at have wanted ACT writing scores so we didn't do it. Do the colleges he wants to attend require it? If not, they may not look at it. I had one college tell me that even kids take the writing, they have no place in their file for that score, so it is just discarded.

 

Whether or not it will matter will depend completely if the individual college cares about that score or not.

[Mom22ns]

I read on the PrepScholar  site 

 

Did he use PrepScholar and did it help? Feel free to PM. I'd love to get details.

[JoanHomeEd]

We are not using the ACT scores because they are too old and would be expensive to de-archive them, 

but I know some schools say they don't require the ACT writing:

Chicago https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/applicants/firstyear

Wash U https://admissions.wustl.edu/apply/Freshman-Student-Admission/Pages/Freshman-Student-Requirements.aspx

Notre Dame http://admissions.nd.edu/apply/evaluation-criteria/

Georgetown https://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/firstyear/preparation

 

Don't have the link for Cornell, but got this in our spam "beginning with the entering Class of 2016, Cornell University 

will no longer require the Writing section of the SAT or ACT for students applying for freshman admission."

[justkeepswimming]

I think only very specific schools even bother looking at the writing score. Dd has two ACT with writing scores (Both from the new style essay) because most of her schools require it. Her writing scores are a far cry from her English scores (although, percentile-wise not as bad as the score itself looks upon first glance).

 

I don't think the schools are going to know what to do with those scores at this point - kids' scores seem to be all over the map right now and no one seems to know why they got the score they received.

 

So- good application essay is always a good idea - but I haven't stressed over the writing score much at all. Dd - writing a rough draft on an unknown topic with only 40 (ish) minutes... well... it ain't gonna be pretty. 😉😄 She's a revision-necessary kind of girl. Lol

[Sunshine State Sue]

I am not sure of the answer, but I suspect it won't matter, especially because of the high English and Reading scores and the AP score. 

 

I am not sure of the changes, but ds didn't do well with the timed essay for the ACT.  1st time (2012) 51% and 2nd time (2013) 38%.  :scared:He had high English and Reading scores and 2 dual enrollment Composition classes.  I think the only red flag would have to do with the format of the section itself.

[swimmermom3]

I am not sure of the answer, but I suspect it won't matter, especially because of the high English and Reading scores and the AP score. 

 

I am not sure of the changes, but ds didn't do well with the timed essay for the ACT.  1st time (2012) 51% and 2nd time (2013) 38%.  :scared:He had high English and Reading scores and 2 dual enrollment Composition classes.  I think the only red flag would have to do with the format of the section itself.

 

Thanks, Sue.  We are in about the same place. I think the scores were  51% on the old and the new and a slight drop on the new.  I asked ds if he thought his "This is a stupid prompt," attitude was showing in his work. We have often joked about the formats and prompts on standardized tests. After he got his last score, he quipped, "If I'd stayed in XYZ High School, I'd have aced this." :D   I am not exactly sure if he was kidding when he said that his English teacher at PAHS "ruined" him for bs prompts.

 

He's reworking his Common Application essay and has shifted from the failure prompt to the one that asks the kids to talk about a problem they want to solve or research that they want to do. He's hoping that this will not only produce a stronger academic essay, but that it will be engaging because he feels strongly about the topic. It's also a major area of interest for his college studies. We'll see.