is a 5 on the sat essay good

SAT Essay Scores Explained

On january 19th, 2021, college board announced that they will no longer administer the sat subject tests in the u.s. and that the essay would be retired. read our blog post  to understand what this means in the near term and what the college board has in store for students down the road., our articles on subject tests and the sat essay will remain on our site for reference purposes as colleges and students transition to a revised testing landscape..

Why are there no percentiles for the essay on an SAT score report?

No percentiles or norms are provided in student reports. Even colleges do not receive any summary statistics. Given Compass’ concerns about the inaccuracy of essay scoring and the notable failures of the ACT on that front, the de-emphasis of norms would seem to be a good thing. The problem is that 10% of colleges are sticking with the SAT Essay as an admission requirement . While those colleges will not receive score distribution reports from the College Board, it is not difficult for them to construct their own statistics—officially or unofficially—based on thousands of applicants. Colleges can determine a “good score,” but students cannot. This asymmetry of information is harmful to students, as they are left to speculate how well they have performed and how their scores will be interpreted. Through our analysis, Compass hopes to provide students and parents more context for evaluating SAT Essay scores.

How has scoring changed? Is it still part of a student’s Total Score?

On the old SAT, the essay was a required component of the Writing section and made up approximately one-third of a student’s 200–800 score. The essay score itself was simply the sum (2–12) of two readers’ 1–6 scores. Readers were expected to grade holistically and not to focus on individual components of the writing. The SAT essay came under a great deal of criticism for being too loosely structured. Factual accuracy was not required; it was not that difficult to make pre-fabricated material fit the prompt; many colleges found the 2–12 essay scores of little use; and the conflation of the essay and “Writing” was, in some cases, blocking the use of the SAT Writing score—which included grammar and usage—entirely.

With the 2016 overhaul of the SAT came an attempt to make the essay more academically defensible while also making it optional (as the ACT essay had long been). The essay score is not a part of the 400–1600 score. Instead, a student opting to take the SAT Essay receives 2–8 scores in three dimensions: reading, analysis, and writing. No equating or fancy lookup table is involved. The scores are simply the sum of two readers’ 1–4 ratings in each dimension. There is no official totaling or averaging of scores, although colleges may choose to do so.

Readers avoid extremes

What is almost universally true about grading of standardized test essays is that readers gravitate to the middle of the scale. The default instinct is to nudge a score above or below a perceived cutoff or midpoint rather than to evenly distribute scores. When the only options are 1, 2, 3, or 4, the consequence is predictable—readers give out a lot of 2s and 3s and very few 1s and 4s. In fact, our analysis shows that 80% of all reader scores are 2s or 3s. This, in turn, means that most of the dimension scores (the sum of the two readers) range from 4 to 6. Analysis scores are outliers. A third of readers give essays a 1 in Analysis. Below is the distribution of reader scores across all dimensions.

What is a good SAT Essay score?

By combining multiple data sources—including extensive College Board scoring information—Compass has estimated the mean and mode (most common) essay scores for students at various score levels. We also found that the reading and writing dimensions were similar, while analysis scores lagged by a point across all sub-groups. These figures should not be viewed as cutoffs for “good” scores. The loose correlation of essay score to Total Score and the high standard deviation of essay scores means that students at all levels see wide variation of scores. The average essay-taking student scores a 1,080 on the SAT and receives just under a 5/4/5.

College Board recently released essay results for the class of 2017, so score distributions are now available. From these, percentiles can also be calculated. We provide these figures with mixed feelings. On the one hand, percentile scores on such an imperfect measure can be highly misleading. On the other hand, we feel that students should understand the full workings of essay scores.

The role of luck

What is frustrating to many students on the SAT and ACT is that they can score 98th percentile in most areas and then get a “middling” score on the essay. This result is actually quite predictable. Whereas math and verbal scores are the result of dozens of objective questions, the essay is a single question graded subjectively. To replace statistical concepts with a colloquial one—far more “luck” is involved than on the multiple-choice sections. What text is used in the essay stimulus? How well will the student respond to the style and subject matter? Which of the hundreds of readers were assigned to grade the student’s essay? What other essays has the reader recently scored?

Even good writers run into the unpredictability involved and the fact that essay readers give so few high scores. A 5 means that the Readers A and B gave the essay a 2 and a 3, respectively. Which reader was “right?” If the essay had encountered two readers like Reader A, it would have received a 4. If the essay had been given two readers like Reader B, it would have received a 6. That swing makes a large difference if we judge scores exclusively by percentiles, but essay scores are simply too blurry to make such cut-and-dry distinctions. More than 80% of students receive one of three scores—4, 5, or 6 on the reading and writing dimensions and 3, 4, or 5 on analysis.

What do colleges expect?

It’s unlikely that many colleges will release a breakdown of essay scores for admitted students—especially since so few are requiring it. What we know from experience with the ACT , though, is that even at the most competitive schools in the country, the 25th–75th percentile scores of admitted students were 8–10 on the ACT’s old 2–12 score range. We expect that things will play out similarly for the SAT and that most students admitted to highly selective colleges will have domain scores in the 5–7 range (possibly closer to 4–6 for analysis). It’s even less likely for students to average a high score across all three areas than it is to obtain a single high mark. We estimate that only a fraction of a percent of students will average an 8—for example [8/8/8, 7/8/8, 8/7/8, or 8,8,7].

Update as of October 2017. The University of California system has published the 25th–75th percentile ranges for enrolled students. It has chosen to work with total scores. The highest ranges—including those at UCLA and Berkeley—are 17–20. Those scores are inline with our estimates above.

How will colleges use the domain scores?

Colleges have been given no guidance by College Board on how to use essay scores for admission. Will they sum the scores? Will they average them? Will they value certain areas over others? Chances are that if you are worrying too much about those questions, then you are likely losing sight of the bigger picture. We know of no cases where admission committees will make formulaic use of essay scores. The scores are a very small, very error-prone part of a student’s testing portfolio.

How low is too low?

Are 3s and 4s, then, low enough that an otherwise high-scoring student should retest? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. In general, it is a mistake to retest solely to improve an essay score unless a student is confident that the SAT Total Score can be maintained or improved. A student with a 1340 PSAT and 1280 SAT may feel that it is worthwhile to bring up low essay scores because she has previously shown that she can do better on the Evidence-based Reading and Writing and Math, as well. A student with a 1400 PSAT and 1540 SAT should think long and hard before committing to a retest. Admission results from the class of 2017 may give us some added insight into the use of SAT Essay scores.

Will colleges continue to require the SAT Essay?

For the class of 2017, Compass has prepared a list of the SAT Essay and ACT Writing policies for 360 of the top colleges . Several of the largest and most prestigious public university systems—California, Michigan, and Texas, for example, still require the essay, and a number of highly competitive private colleges do the same—for example, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

The number of excellent colleges not requiring the SAT Essay, though, is long and getting longer. Compass expects even more colleges to drop the essay requirement for the classes of 2018 and 2019. Policies are typically finalized in late spring or during the summer.

Should I skip the essay entirely?

A common question regarding SAT scores is whether the whole mess can be avoided by skipping the essay. After all, if only about 10% of colleges are requiring the section, is it really that important? Despite serious misgivings about the test and the ways scores are interpreted, Compass still recommends that most students take the essay unless they are certain that they will not be applying to any of the colleges requiring or recommending it. Nationally, about 70% of students choose to take the essay on at least one SAT administration. When looking at higher scoring segments, that quickly rises to 85–90%. Almost all Compass students take the SAT Essay at least once to insure that they do not miss out on educational opportunities.

Should I prepare for the SAT Essay?

Most Compass students decide to do some preparation for the essay, because taking any part of a test “cold” can be an unpleasant experience, and students want to avoid feeling like a retake is necessary. In addition to practicing exercises and tests, most students can perform well enough on the SAT Essay after 1–2 hours of tutoring. Students taking a Compass practice SAT will also receive a scored essay. Students interested in essay writing tips for the SAT can refer to Compass blog posts on the difference between the ACT and SAT tasks  and the use of first person on the essays .

Will I be able to see my essay?

Yes. ACT makes it difficult to obtain a copy of your Writing essay, but College Board includes it as part of your online report.

Will colleges have access to my essay? Even if they don’t require it?

Yes, colleges are provided with student essays. We know of very few circumstances where SAT Essay reading is regularly conducted. Colleges that do not require the SAT Essay fall into the “consider” and “do not consider” camps. Schools do not always list this policy on their website or in their application materials, so it is hard to have a comprehensive list. We recommend contacting colleges for more information. In general, the essay will have little to no impact at colleges that do not require or recommend it.

Is the SAT Essay a reason to take the ACT instead?

Almost all colleges that require the SAT Essay require Writing for ACT-takers. The essays are very different on the two tests, but neither can be said to be universally “easier” or “harder.” Compass recommends that the primary sections of the tests determine your planning. Compass’ content experts have also written a piece on how to attack the ACT essay .

Key links in this post:

ACT and SAT essay requirements ACT Writing scores explained Comparing ACT and SAT essay tasks The use of first person in ACT and SAT essays Understanding the “audience and purpose” of the ACT essay Compass proctored practice testing for the ACT, SAT, and Subject Tests

About Art Sawyer

Art graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he was the top-ranked liberal arts student in his class. Art pioneered the one-on-one approach to test prep in California in 1989 and co-founded Compass Education Group in 2004 in order to bring the best ideas and tutors into students' homes and computers. Although he has attained perfect scores on all flavors of the SAT and ACT, he is routinely beaten in backgammon.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Role: --- Student Parent/Guardian Counselor Other

Class Year: --- 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Other N/A

Popular Posts

• National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs Class of 2025 April 8, 2024
• SAT and ACT Policies and Score Ranges for Popular Colleges and Universities April 11, 2024
• Colleges that Allow Self-Reporting of SAT and ACT Scores November 20, 2023
• National Merit Scholarship Program Explained October 4, 2023
• Using digital PSAT Scores to Compare SAT and ACT October 23, 2023

Recent Posts

• Testing Policies in the Spotlight April 22, 2024
• Superscoring and Score Choice Policies April 8, 2024
• You Received Your March SAT Scores, Now What? March 21, 2024

Previous Post SAT Subject Tests FAQ

Next post test prep in 10th grade: when does it make sense, 222 comments.

Hi! I’m a high school junior who took the October and November SATs. I got a 1500 on October and then retook it to get a 1590 in November. I’m very happy with my score, but my essays are troubling me. I got a 6-4-6 in October and thought I would improve in November, but I got a 6-3-6. I really cannot improve my actual SAT score, but I don’t understand the essay. I’ve always been a good writer and have consistently been praised for it in English class and outside of class. Is this essay score indicative of my writing skill? And will this essay hurt my chances at Ivy League and other top tier schools? None of the schools I plan on applying to require it, but, since I have to submit it, will it hurt my chances? Thank you so much.

Maya, The essay is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Honestly, a 6-4-6 is a fine score and will not hurt your chances for admission. It’s something of an odd writing task, so I wouldn’t worry that it doesn’t match your writing skills elsewhere.

By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy .

© 2024 Compass Education Group. SAT, PSAT, NMSC, National Merit, Merit Scholar, ACT, ISEE, SSAT, HSPT and AP are registered trademarks not owned by Compass Education Group. The trademark holders were not involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this website.

• OUR APPROACH
• DIGITAL SAT / PSAT
• ACADEMIC / STUDY SKILLS
• COLLEGE WRITING PREP
• HSPT / ISEE / SSAT / SHSAT
• ACT/SAT FUNDAMENTALS
• SAT, ACT, & PSAT
• TEST PREP ESSENTIALS
• MATH SUMMER BRIDGE
• PROCTORED (In-Person or Live Online)
• INTERACTIVE (Online, On-Demand)
• DIGITAL ADAPTIVE (New for Class of ’25 & Beyond)
• SELF-ADMINISTERED
• RESOURCE CENTER
• COMPASS GUIDE
• PRIVACY POLICY

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

The CollegeVine Guide to SAT Scores: All Your Questions Answered

Is your SAT score enough to get you into your dream school?

Our free chancing engine takes into consideration your SAT score, in addition to other profile factors, such as GPA and extracurriculars. Create a free account to discover your chances at hundreds of different schools.

If you’re like many high school students, the hardest part of the SAT isn’t the hours of prep work that you put into it. Yes, that’s definitely hard, but at least you have some control over it. There’s some reassurance in being able to direct your time towards productive and, hopefully, satisfying results. What’s harder for many students like you is the time between your test and your score release. There’s nothing you can do to speed the process, so waiting patiently (or impatiently) is your only option.

If you’re awaiting SAT scores, or perhaps you’ve just received them, you might be wondering how your test is scored, what the scores mean, or even what to do if you believe your SAT score is incorrect. Read on for CollegeVine’s answers to all your SAT score questions.

How is the SAT scored?

Most of your SAT answers were multiple-choice bubbles that you meticulously filled in with a #2 pencil. Even the grid-in math questions involved those tiny little bubbles. So it’s probably no surprise that those bubbles play an integral part in scoring your exam. With millions of students taking SAT or PSAT-related exams each year, the ability to score each exam quickly and efficiently is beyond important. After all, imagine how long the wait would be if each test had to be scored by hand.

What is a raw score?

Multiple-choice and grid-in answers are scored by a computer that scans your answer sheet. This computer produces your raw score, which, simply speaking, is the number of questions answered correctly. Beginning in spring 2016, there is no penalty on the SAT for incorrect or unanswered questions, so your raw score simply accounts for the number of questions that you answered correctly.

A separate raw score is produced for the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing Section and for the Math section. Each of these scores is then converted to a scaled score of 200 to 800. This conversion accounts for slight differences in difficulty among different versions of the test, so your resulting score is consistent across test forms.

How is the SAT essay scored?

If you took the optional essay section of the SAT, you will remember that this portion of the test was the one that did not involve those little bubbled-in answers. Instead, you produced a written product, which obviously must be scored quite differently from a computer-scanned answer sheet.

Each essay written for the SAT is scored by two separate and independent readers. The readers evaluate essays on three dimensions. These dimensions include reading, analysis, and writing.

For the reading dimension, scorers assess your understanding of the passage, including central ideas and important details. For the analysis dimension, scorers evaluate your understanding of how the author builds an argument and how you support and develop your ideas with evidence from the text. Finally, for the writing dimension, essay readers score your ability to craft a focused, organized, and precise essay with appropriate style and tone.

Each essay reader will award between one and four points for each dimension. These scores are then added together to create a score ranging from two to eight for each dimension. If the scores awarded for any dimension differ by more than one point, a scoring director will score the essay. This automatic validation helps to ensure the universal accuracy of the essay scoring process. For more information about the SAT Essay scoring process, including a rubric of scoring guidelines for each dimension, review the College Board’s SAT Essay Scoring .

When will I receive my SAT score?

The release date for SAT scores varies depending on when you took the test. Tests administered in the fall are usually scored and released in about three to four weeks. Tests administered in the spring tend to take a little longer, probably due to the large volume of students taking them. These are scored and released in about five to six weeks. For an exact calendar of score release dates organized by test date, check out the College Board’s table of When to Expect Scores .

How will I receive my SAT score?

Sat scores online.

The easiest way to receive your SAT score is through the College Board website. If you registered for the test online, you have already created an online College Board account. Log in to your account on the score release day to view your results.

SAT Scores By Paper Score Report

If you do not have an online College Board account, or you registered through the mail and did not include your College Board account on your registration, you will receive a copy of your scores in the mail. This will be mailed around the same day that scores are released online.

SAT Scores By Phone

You may also receive your SAT scores by telephone beginning on the date of the score release, but there is a fee attached to this service and you will need to provide a credit card number when you call. To receive scores by phone use the following phone numbers:

Domestic: 866-756-7346

International: 212-713-7789

TTY: 888-857-2477 (U.S.), 609-882-4118 (international)

What do my SAT scores mean?

When you receive your scores, you’re probably expecting a number between 400 and 1600. You will get this, and a whole lot more, on your official SAT score report. So what do all these different numbers mean?

SAT Total Scores

This is the number you’re probably most familiar with when it comes to SAT scores. It is a single number between 400 and 1600 and represents your total score. This total score is calculated by adding your score from the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section (200-800) with your total score from the Math section (200-800). You will also receive a percentile accompanying your total score. This number shows you how your score compares to the scores received by other students taking the SAT.

SAT Section Scores

These are the individual section scores between 200 and 800 for the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section and the Math section. The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section score is a combination of the Reading Test score and the Writing and Language Test score. The Math section score is a combination of the Math Test – Calculator score and the Math Test – No Calculator score.

SAT Essay Scores

The SAT Essay scores will include three scored dimensions. The dimensions scored are Reading, Analysis, and Writing. Each dimension is scored on a scale from two to eight points. The score report will show the prompt you responded to, your essay itself, and a link to the Essay Scoring Guide .

Other Score Components

Although the total scores, section scores, and essay scores are the most important numbers on your score report, they are not the only numbers.

You will also receive test scores ranging from 10-40 for the content in each of the tests: Reading, Writing and Language, and Math.

You will see cross-test scores ranging from 10-40 as well. These scores show your performance across the three tests in the domains of Analysis in History/Social Studies and Analysis in Science.

Finally, you’ll see subscores ranging from 1-15, which reflect your performance in the following skill areas:

• Command of Evidence
• Words in Context
• Expression of Ideas
• Standard English Conventions
• Heart of Algebra
• Problem Solving and Data Analysis
• Passport to Advanced Math

Although these scores aren’t necessarily important to colleges or universities, they can be used as feedback to guide your studying for any future SAT exams you might choose to take.

Discover how your SAT score affects your chances

As part of our free guidance platform, our Admissions Assessment tells you what schools you need to improve your SAT score for and by how much. Sign up to get started today.

Is my SAT score good enough for schools?

There is no standard SAT score required for college admissions. The exact range of SAT scores admitted to each college varies widely depending on how competitive the school’s admissions are and the various other factors considered on every application, such as grades and extracurricular activities. To get an idea of the SAT scores expected at the college or university of your choice, look them up online. A simple online search query with the college name and the term “average SAT score” should yield the results for which you’re looking.

Although there is no minimum SAT score required for general college admissions, the College Board does set benchmarks that assess your college readiness. These benchmarks are designed to:

• Identify students who are on track for success in college and career readiness.
• Identify students who may need extra support while there is still time for improvement.
• Find students who may be ready for more challenging course work.

The benchmarks are not intended to assign academic tracks, discourage students from pursuing college, or keep students from participating in challenging courses. Instead, these benchmarks are designed by the College Board to predict a 75% likelihood of achieving at least a C in a set of first-semester college courses.

The benchmarks are set separately for each section. The current Evidence-Based Reading and Writing benchmark score is 480. The current Math benchmark score is 530. Your score report will include your performance compared to the benchmark scores. This comparison is categorized by color with the following designations:

• Green: Your section score meets or exceeds the benchmark.
• Yellow: Your section score is within one year’s academic growth of the benchmark.
• Red: Your section score is below the benchmark by more than one year’s academic growth.

How do I send my SAT scores to schools?

Sending sat scores before test day.

Every time you register for the SAT, you can order four free score reports to colleges and scholarship programs at no cost to you. This is a good choice because it’s the only free option available, and many colleges will view your early submission as a demonstration of your interest.

Although some students might hesitate to send scores before you know them, if this is likely the last time that you’re taking the test or your test date falls close to the application deadline, you should definitely consider taking advantage of the free score reports. For more information about sending test scores before you’ve received them, read CollegeVine’s Should I Send My Test Scores To Colleges Before I Know Them?

Sending SAT Scores After Test Day

There are two scenarios for sending scores after test day. If you leave the test on cloud nine and you are certain that you aced it, you can still take advantage of the four free score reports up to nine days after the test. Simply log in to your College Board account online and send your scores.

If you wait longer, or would rather postpone sending any scores until you’ve seen them yourself, you’ll still be able to send scores easily through your online College Board account, but you’ll have to pay to do so. These score reports are $12 each ( fee waivers are available if needed). A rush report is an additional $31.

What should I do if I think my SAT was scored incorrectly?

There are a couple levels of review available if you think your SAT was scored incorrectly.

Student Answer Service (SAS)

First, if you just have an inkling that something is off but aren’t totally sure, you can request a Student Answer Verification. This service includes an overview of the difficulty of each question answered correctly, incorrectly, or omitted and of the type of test questions.

Essentially, the Student Answer Service is a more specific overview of your performance for you to look over. It is not reviewed by anyone else, but is provided for your own personal use to better understand what went wrong (or right!). If your SAS report reveals that you got every difficult question wrong, it’s likely that your exam was graded correctly, and you may not have realized how hard those questions actually were at the time of the exam.

This answer verification service is not designed to be used as a test prep or practice tool. You may request this service when you register for the test or up to five months after your test date. The fee for this service is $13.50. See the SAT Answer Verification Services Order Form for 2016-17 for more information.

Question and Answer Service (QAS)

You may also choose to receive a Question and Answer Verification Service on select exam administrations. This service is available for all May administrations of the test, and for other select administrations within Canada and the U.S. For a calendar of availability for this service, see the SAT Answer Verification Services Order Form for 2016-17 .

The Question and Answer Service includes a booklet copy of the test you took with a table of correct answers and scoring information. You will also receive a report that lists the type and level of difficulty of each question, along with what your answer was, and whether it was correct, incorrect, or omitted. Again, this service does not include a review by anyone else, but is provided for your own personal use to better understand where you failed to gain points. This service costs $18.00.

Score Verification

If you still don’t think your test was scored correctly, you may request a score verification. This is a good idea if your score is very different from what you expected and you believe you may have made an obvious mistake in marking your answers, or if your essay appears blank or completely illegible when you view it in your online score report. In this case, you may have written your essay in ink (which does not scan properly), and it would not have been assessed appropriately.

You may request a multiple-choice hand score verification and/or an essay score verification. Each service costs $55 (or $27.50 for fee-waiver users). Your score verification fee will be refunded if your score changes because of an irregularity in the College Board’s scanning and/or scoring processes. If your score does not change, if it changes due to an obvious error you made in marking your answer sheet, or if you wrote your essay in pen, or otherwise failed to follow directions for marking your answers and completing test information, your fee will not be refunded.

Keep in mind when requesting score verification that your new score will be final, regardless of whether it is higher or lower than your original score. Also, you should know that the verification of essay scores does not include rereading the essay or an appeal of the essay score. It simply reviews the essay visually to ensure that it was legible to the original readers who scored it.

For more about score verification services, check out the College Board’s Important Information for Using the SAT® Score Verification Service .

To learn more about the SAT, check out these CollegeVine posts:

• ACT vs SAT/SAT Subject Tests
• Are PSAT Scores Related to SAT Scores?
• What Should I Bring to My SAT?
• A Guide to the New SAT

Want to know how your SAT score impacts your chances of acceptance to your dream schools? Our free Chancing Engine will not only help you predict your odds, but also let you know how you stack up against other applicants, and which aspects of your profile to improve. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to gain access to our Chancing Engine and get a jumpstart on your college strategy!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

US South Carolina

Recently viewed courses

Recently viewed.

Find Your Dream School

This site uses various technologies, as described in our Privacy Policy, for personalization, measuring website use/performance, and targeted advertising, which may include storing and sharing information about your site visit with third parties. By continuing to use this website you consent to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .

   COVID-19 Update: To help students through this crisis, The Princeton Review will continue our "Enroll with Confidence" refund policies. For full details, please click here.

Enter your email to unlock an extra $25 off an SAT or ACT program!

By submitting my email address. i certify that i am 13 years of age or older, agree to recieve marketing email messages from the princeton review, and agree to terms of use., 5 sat essay tips for a great score.

Thinking about tackling the SAT Essay? Here's what you need to know: you'll be asked to read a text (typically a speech or editorial of some sort) and discuss how the author effectively builds an argument. This might be a familiar task if you’ve done it in school, but if not, don’t worry. The format is straightforward, and with some practice, you can learn how to write a great SAT essay.

What is the SAT essay?

The SAT essay is optional and costs an additional fee of $17.00. Currently, only 25 colleges and universities require the SAT essay. You can find a searchable list of school requirements for the essay here . If there is any chance that you might apply to one of those schools, you should sign up for the essay. If you are not sure where you will apply, you should strongly consider signing up for the essay. Your essay score will appear on every score report you send to colleges, regardless of whether or not the school requires an essay. 

Here are 5 tips for writing a killer SAT essay, should you decide to add on that section:

1. Stay Objective

The thing to remember here is that ETS (the company that writes the test) is not asking you for your opinion on a topic or a text. So be sure to maintain formal style and an objective tone. Tip: Avoid “I” and “you.

2. Keep It Tidy

Handwriting is becoming a lost art. Unfortunately, this is one occasion where your skill with a pencil matters. Graders read tons of essays each day. If they cannot decipher your script, they will lower your score. Do yourself a favor and write legibly.

3. (Indented) Paragraphs Are Your Friend

Remember the basic essay structure you learned in school: introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a conclusion? The SAT essay graders love it! Your introduction should describe the text and paraphrase the argument being made, as well as introduce the specific elements of the passage and argument that you will discuss in the essay. Your conclusion should restate the goal of the passage/argument and sum up the points you made.

Read More: SAT Tips and Strategies

4. For Example…

Use your body paragraphs to back up your thesis statement by citing specific examples. Use short, relevant quotes from the text to support your points.

5. Don't Worry About the Exact Terms for Things

Blanking on terminology? When describing how the author builds his or her argument, “appeal to the emotions” is fine instead of specifically referencing “pathos.” And “comparison of two things” can be used instead of referring to a metaphor. If you do know the official terms, though, feel free to use them!

Build the right SAT prep plan for you

Our private tutors will help you build a prep plan that's customized to your score goals, study habits, and schedule.

Find a Tutor

Explore Colleges For You

Connect with our featured colleges to find schools that both match your interests and are looking for students like you.

Career Quiz

Take our short quiz to learn which is the right career for you.

Get Started on Athletic Scholarships & Recruiting!

Join athletes who were discovered, recruited & often received scholarships after connecting with NCSA's 42,000 strong network of coaches.

Best 389 Colleges

165,000 students rate everything from their professors to their campus social scene.

SAT Prep Courses

1400+ course, act prep courses, free sat practice test & events,  1-800-2review, free digital sat prep try our self-paced plus program - for free, get a 14 day trial.

Free MCAT Practice Test

I already know my score.

MCAT Self-Paced 14-Day Free Trial

Enrollment Advisor

1-800-2REVIEW (800-273-8439) ext. 1

1-877-LEARN-30

Mon-Fri 9AM-10PM ET

Sat-Sun 9AM-8PM ET

Student Support

1-800-2REVIEW (800-273-8439) ext. 2

Mon-Fri 9AM-9PM ET

Sat-Sun 8:30AM-5PM ET

Partnerships

• Teach or Tutor for Us

College Readiness

International

Advertising

Affiliate/Other

• Enrollment Terms & Conditions
• Accessibility
• Cigna Medical Transparency in Coverage

Register Book

Local Offices: Mon-Fri 9AM-6PM

• SAT Subject Tests

Academic Subjects

• Social Studies

Find the Right College

• College Rankings
• College Advice
• Applying to College
• Financial Aid

School & District Partnerships

• Professional Development
• Advice Articles
• Private Tutoring
• Mobile Apps
• Local Offices
• International Offices
• Work for Us
• Affiliate Program
• Partner with Us
• Advertise with Us
• International Partnerships
• Our Guarantees
• Accessibility – Canada

Privacy Policy | CA Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information | Your Opt-Out Rights | Terms of Use | Site Map

©2024 TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University

TPR Education, LLC (doing business as “The Princeton Review”) is controlled by Primavera Holdings Limited, a firm owned by Chinese nationals with a principal place of business in Hong Kong, China.

If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser.

What Is a Good SAT Essay Score?

To Get a Good SAT Essay Score, Get the Purpose of the Essay

When the new SAT was released a few years ago, the essay became an optional element of the test. Many colleges don’t require it for admissions, as it’s unclear if the essay measures something meaningful to a student’s application.

Nevertheless, if a school requires the SAT essay, you need to know how it’s scored and what the scorers are looking for.

The SAT essay has departed from asking students to take a stance on a topic or weigh in on a perspective. In other words, the SAT essay is not at all about what you, the student, think: the purpose of the essay is to see if you can write without inserting personal opinion.

Now, the essay is a formal analysis of someone else’s argument. This is brilliant, if you ask me, because the College Board has finally created an assessment that more closely mimics the kind of writing students actually need to do in college. Notably, the new essay style is also a lot more like one of the writing tasks on the GRE; in other words, this is real academic writing.

Table of Contents

Academic Writing Is Objective

The SAT essay had to become more objective as students’ writing became more fanciful and, due to cultural trends, more opinion-based.

The A-number-one most important thing you can do to earn a good SAT essay score is to leave your opinions out of the essay.

A Good SAT Score Isn’t an Absolute Number

The SAT Essay is scored on a scale just like the SAT multiple choice tests are. Rather than scoring from 200 to 800, though, the three SAT essay subscores are rated on a scale of 2 to 8. They mimic the 200 to 800 scale in that an 8 is a top score and a 2 is a low score.

Because the SAT essay score is guided by a rubric used by two people, your score is the sum of the scores given to you by those two graders. Your graders individually give you a 1, 2, 3, or 4 on each of the three scoring dimensions identified by the College Board.  

That means that a good SAT essay score is a 6, 7, or 8 on each of the scoring dimensions if we use the logic that a 6 is the sum of two scores of 3 from your graders, and those 3s reflect that both graders thought you adequately accomplished that objectives of that dimension.

Because your SAT essay score is a list of three numbers, (like a possible SAT essay score might be 7, 5, 7), a good SAT essay score is a little less definitive.

One way to consider whether your SAT essay score is good is to take the average of your subscores and then translate them to the 200 to 800 scale. For example, if your SAT essay score were 7, 5, 7, you could average them (add and divide by 3)  to find 6.3, which loosely translates to a 630. It’s easier to sense then, then, that 7, 5, 7 is a pretty good SAT essay score, but probably not as high as you would need for an extremely competitive college that requires the SAT essay section to begin with.

In order to help you maximize your SAT essay score, let’s look at the SAT essay scoring dimensions one by one.

The College Board offers a detailed rubric so that you can dive deeply into SAT Essay scoring. I expand on some of those ideas in my post, How to Write the SAT Essay. Let’s look at some of the highlights here.

Dimension One: Earning a Good SAT Essay Reading Subscore

It might seem odd to see “Reading” as the first dimension on a writing test, but it makes sense: you show how well you read by accurately identifying and articulating precisely what the author of the passage is saying.

Can you identify the author’s argument? Can you cite specific supporting details that she/he uses to make that case?

• You’re more likely to get a good score here if in your introduction you say that [the author] argues that [what the author wants her audience to believe]. The more specific you are, the better.
• Take quotes from the passage that support your evidence. These should be short quotes, not two hundred words to stretch out your essay length.
• Again, leave your opinion out of it. Don’t reinterpret what the author is saying, don’t add in more (like “the author might also think X, Y, and Z” when those things aren’t listed in the argument.

Dimension Two: Earning a Good SAT Essay Analysis Subscore

A good SAT Essay score in the Analysis department shows off that you’re able to trace how an author builds an argument. You’re probably familiar with building an argument, even if you don’t realize it yet:

Imagine you want to convince one of your parents to let you stay out three hours after curfew because you’re going to a concert two hours away. You wouldn’t just ask if you could stay out late; obviously, the answer would be an outright “No.”

Instead, you’d formulate a plan: you’d think of all the logical reasons it’s safe to stay out late, you’d appeal to your parent’s sense of adventure, or maybe his/her sense of pity. Maybe you’d bargain.

Every author on the SAT sample passage that you’ll analyze is creating an argument in similar ways, albeit more formal ones. The Analysis subscore shows that you see how the author is being convincing, not just what the author wants.

Dimension Three: Earning a Good SAT Essay Writing Subscore

Of course, the whole essay element is a “writing” test, but you’ll earn a good SAT essay score on the writing segment when you show off your structural and syntactic prowess.

This is the score that reflects the strength of your writing sample itself, even if you totally misunderstood the author’s argument. Incidentally, preparing for the Writing and Grammar multiple choice section and learning the rules it tests can be a great exercise for the essay section. Use the rules you know for that section to edit your own essay after the fact.

• Focus on structure when you write the SAT essay–or any essay, for that matter. Think carefully about why each paragraph exists and always loop its last sentence back to your thesis.
• Vary your sentence structure to keep things interesting. Whether you realize it or not, a subordinate clause at the start of a sentence can draw your reader further into your writing.
• Show off proper punctuation and how to employ colons, semi-colons, and dashes correctly.
• If you don’t know how to spell a word, try to avoid using it. This is extra difficult now that we have spell check on every device we use. Poor spelling is distracting to people who read high school English essays and standardized tests essay professionally.

Practice Makes Perfect

Do not take the SAT Essay section without writing several sample essays ahead of time. A time crunch puts pressure on even the best writers; practicing by hand and getting feedback from a trusted teacher or tutor is your best bet. Investing in some SAT prep books wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Absolutely Essential SAT Writing Strategies

tl;dr: The SAT essay is graded on three metrics — Reading, Analysis, and Writing — each on a scale from 1-4. To score an 8/8/8 on the SAT essay, you need to understand the rubric and keep in mind the three important parts of the essay: analyzing the prompt, outlining, and writing. Analyzing the prompt requires you to identify the author’s claim, purpose, tone, and persuasive elements that help build the argument. Outlining helps you answer the three questions for each device—why, how, and affect—to ensure you have strong analysis. Finally, when writing the essay, make sure to include an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. With these tips, you can write a great SAT essay and get the top score!

❓ What are the SAT Sections?

In the SAT, you will have 4-5 sections on the test (depending on whether you choose to take the essay section or not)! The sections are:

• Check out this video with an overview of the reading section of the SAT .
• Writing and Language (aka the Grammar section)
• Make sure to watch this video with tips and tricks for the grammar section of the SAT .
• Math (No-Calculator)
• Review the important aspects of the math section with this SAT math review part 1 and part 2 .
• Math (Calculator Allowed)
• Writing/Essay (⚠️OPTIONAL ⚠️)

If you signed up for the essay portion of the SAT, you have a relaxing 2-minute break after the math calculator section. You're going to need it, as you have 50 minutes to write a rhetorical analysis essay. ⏲️

If you are taking AP Lang or have already taken the exam, you should be pretty familiar with this format of essay. It is very similar to FRQ 2, or the rhetorical analysis essay. 📰

✍️ Mastering the Rubric

Your essay is graded on these three metrics on a scale from 1-4:

Two readers will score your essay , so the highest score you can receive is an 8 on each of the three sections. Unlike the other SAT sections, there is no percentile for the SAT essay nor a composite score (the three categories aren't "added"). 💯 Let's break down each of these three scoring categories and how you can score an 8 in all three.

This scoring category covers comprehension! Essentially, the scorers want to see if you understand the relationship between the main idea(s) and important details. To get an 8 in this scoring category, you cannot misstate facts from the passage, nor make an interpretation about facts not in the passage.

One of the main things that SAT Essay scorers will check is to ensure you have textual evidence (quotations and/or paraphrases) throughout the essay to ensure that you have a true understanding of the text. 📚

What separates an 8 from a lower score in this category is whether you have thorough (as opposed to effective) comprehension of the text and whether you are making skillful (as opposed to appropriate) use of textual evidence. The line between thorough and skillful is drawn at your consistency; if you make a misrepresentation of text in just one place, that may lower you to a 6.

To earn a 8 in the analysis category, you should be accomplishing the following:

• Offering an insightful analysis of source text.
• Evaluating the author's choice of evidence, reasoning, stylistic & persuasive elements, and/or other features that you noticed.
• Using relevant, sufficient, and strategically chosen support for your claims or points.
• Consistently focusing on features that are most relevant to addressing the task.

What separates an 8 in analysis from a lower score is whether you have strategically chosen support for claims and whether your essay is consistent in its analysis and its focus on "features most relevant to addressing the task."

The writing rubric category is exactly what it sounds like—checking your ability to write an essay! There are a number of guidelines that SAT essay scorers will be looking at, and here are a few of them that will help you earn an 8:

• A cohesive essay that effectively uses and commands language
• A precise central claim
• Skillful introduction and conclusion
• Progression of ideas that is highly effective both within paragraphs and throughout the essay
• Wide variety in sentence structures
• Consistent use of precise word choice
• Formal style and objective tone
• Strong command of English conventions, an essay free of errors

Consistency is also key to getting a high score in this category. Having a mostly cohesive essay or including a few errors could bump your score down to a 6 or below!

📖 Analyzing Prompt and Passage

On test day, you're not going to see the rubric or even the three scoring categories. All you will get is the prompt and passage. It's important you analyze and annotate the prompt and passage to ensure you can write an effective essay.

On test day, you'll see this at the beginning of the essay.

The most important thing to do before you even start reading the passage is to read the given context. In this example, we know that the article is from the Huffington Post and the author Peter Goodman is writing about crisis and foreign policy. 🔥

Then, you'll read a passage about an argument written for a broad audience. In that passage, the author will make a claim, and use different techniques to persuade the audience of that claim.

Since you will be writing about how the author uses different techniques in the passage to make their argument more persuasive, that is exactly what you should look out for while writing your essay. 🔍

When reading the passage, you'll want to look at the three bullet points given in the prompt: specific factual evidence or examples, reasoning that connects evidence and claims, and other stylistic or persuasive elements that helps the author build the argument. 🚧

Here's a short bullet list of stylistic or persuasive elements that you can look out for:

• Shifts of any kind (in diction 🗣️, tone 😤, imagery 🖼️, etc.)
• Appeals to emotion 💕, logic 🧠, or credibility 👩🏽‍🎓
• Syntax (organization of paragraphs 📑, length of sentences ↔️)
• Unique diction or imagery (make sure to describe diction/imagery with an adjective )

After you find the rhetorical devices you want to analyze, you'll need to answer three important questions:

• Why does the author use this device or strategy?
• How does this device or strategy help them achieve their purpose?
• How does the device or strategy affect or change the audience?

You can strengthen your analysis and answer these three questions for each of your devices by outlining.

🗒️ Outlining

There are a few components to an outline that will help you secure an 8/8/8 on the SAT essay:

• Identifying audience & author's purpose
• Writing a thesis
• Identifying rhetorical devices
• Answering the three important "analysis" questions for each rhetorical device

On test day, find some white space under the article (or on the next page) to write your outline. Knowing and writing down these elements will make the writing process go a lot smoother!

📝 Writing the Essay

Let's break down how to write each section of the SAT essay portion: the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Introduction

There are a few elements that you should explicitly include in your introduction:

• Author's claim in the passage
• Author's tone & purpose
• Audience of passage
• Specific rhetorical choices or persuasive elements in the passage that "enhance logic/persuasiveness" of the argument

One example template for an introduction is:

Here's an example:

Writer Marcus Stern in his article, "How to Prevent an Oil Train Disaster," asserts that new Obama-era regulations in 2015 were insufficient in protecting the public's safety and needed to be expanded. Stern adopts a critical tone to persuade his audience, the general public, of his purpose of supporting stricter, comprehensive regulations that reduce oil volatility. To achieve his purpose, Stern utilizes a variety of rhetorical techniques, including but not limited to specific credible evidence, appeals to the general public's fear of disaster, and emotional word choice that enhances the logic and persuasiveness of his argument.

Body Paragraphs

Your body paragraphs should create a line of reasoning , which is just a fancy of way of saying that it should follow the structure you outline in the essay. For instance, from the introduction paragraph above, I would make my first body paragraph about the "specific credible evidence," my second body paragraph about the appeals to the general public, and so on. 🤩

⚠️ Note: There is no minimum or maximum number of body paragraphs that you should include —focus on developing solid body paragraphs rather than including as many as possible!

You should include the following in a body paragraph to earn high scores on reading, analysis, and writing:

• A strong introduction sentence tied to the thesis
• Embedded quote or paraphrase with context
• Why the author uses this rhetorical strategy or persuasive element
• How it affects the audience and/or how it helps the author achieve their purpose
• Link back to thesis

Let's see these five elements in an example!

• Stern furthers his argument by appealing to the general public’s fear of disaster.
• He invokes specific visual imagery when asserting that an oil tanker rupture would send a “mushroom-shaped fireball” into the sky. In fact, Stern further builds his argument by citing the “nine other places in North America” in which oil tanker explosions materialized.
• Stern uses these appeals to logic and emotion primarily because they highlight a somber reality of the impacts of continued inaction.
• Because Stern includes multiple instances of oil explosions, the audience feels logically impacted. This sense of urgency communicated by the visual imagery makes the audience more convinced that action must be taken, specifically because it could harm them very soon.
• Ultimately, Stern successfully leaves the audience convinced that lax oil restriction could lead to devastating consequences that could harm the audience, which strengthens the persuasion of his argument that we should enact strict regulation that decreases volatility.

You may hear sometimes from your teacher that the conclusion is not that important, or that it can simply be one sentence. This is not true for the SAT; in fact, you could get points taken off the writing section with an oversimplified or non-existent conclusion.

However, you can score highly with a slightly reworded introduction! Here's what you should include in your conclusion:

• Author's central claim (reworded from intro)
• Persuasive elements/rhetorical choices
• Audience & author's purpose

Here's an example conclusion paragraph that includes those elements (and you can see its parallel to the intro):

Author Olmer Stern communicates to the general public that there is a necessity for stricter safety regulations that decrease oil volatility. To convince the audience of his purpose, Stern effectively invokes fearful emotion of the general public, cites specific evidence from the oil industry, and communicates powerful diction about the imminent oil threat to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument.

📂 Resources and Example Essays

There are some fantastic ways to practice for the SAT essay! Here are some useful resources and example essays :

• Two sample SAT Essay prompts from College Board's website
• 50 CrackSAT Practice Essays and Prompts

Guide Outline

Related content, sat math: guide to quadratic equations & radicals, sat math: guide to linear equations, sat math: how to use your calculator, sat reading: guide to the social science passage, how to study for the sat/psat english sections, sat language: guide to word choice & passive flow.

Stay Connected

How to Write an SAT Essay

A winning SAT essay requires a range of specific skills for the top result. In this article from the cheap essay writing service EssayPro, we will discuss how to write SAT essay and get that SAT essay score for college admission. This includes the definition, preparation steps, time-management, SAT essay outline, tips, and examples.

What Is an SAT Essay?

So what is the SAT essay writing task in general terms? SAT writing is very much similar to your regular college paper. In fact, it’s not what you’re asked to write about. It’s how you’re graded on it that makes it stand out from the rest of the academic writing tasks you are surely familiar with.

Many people question: what schools require this type of assignment? The colleges that require the SAT essay are institutions like Stanford, Stanford, Yale, and many more. Considering most colleges with high reputations require this entrance exam, it is essential to learn how to write a great SAT essay if you want to enter college.

Before You Start Writing an SAT Essay...

While studying for the entrance exam, consider the question: ‘how long it takes to write an SAT essay?’. Time management is an essential part of the test and something to consider while writing the examination. Usually, writing time is made up of four examination stages:

There are different variations of these stages. Some people are faster with reading than they are creating an outline, and some are very quick writers. But regardless of how long it takes, the general approach to essay writing is the same.

Throughout the first stage, you familiarize yourself with the tasks you're going to deal with. 5 minutes is more than enough. But don’t rush through it. Missing some key details during this first stage can lead to failing the entire task before you even get to writing.

After you’ve got all the info you need - you can start planning. A plan of action will help you stay on track throughout the writing process. You can even draw up a schematic to reference as you go.

Writing will take up the majority of your time. Consult your outline and start filling it out step by step. Do not get bogged down. If you can’t get through some section of your outline - move on to the next one and return later.

Proofreading is one of the most important parts of essay writing. You should always try your best to leave as much time as possible for post-editing. The task is finished; now you have to relax and look through your text a couple more times to weed out any mistakes.

Whichever way your mind thinks, SAT essay practice is always the right way to go, so you’re able to find the most reliable timing combination that works for you within the set duration of the exam.

It is important to consider that the writing segment takes up a large portion of the 50 minutes. The reading and creating outline segments play a vital role in the completion of the SAT essay.

Our argumentative essay writers are ready to help you any time. Order essay or leave us a message ' Do my math homework '.

Things Your SAT Essay Needs

Now, let’s talk about how to write SAT essay tasks in a little more detail. To write a winning SAT essay outline , it is important to know what to include in it. Any paper regarding this examination should include these elements:

Introduction:

• First impressions count;
• Remember to avoid argumentative language;
• Discuss, briefly, the analysis methods that the author has used;
• Address the author’s points;
• Examiners want to see an understanding of the source, a quote might be in order;

Feeling Overwhelmed Writing an Essay on Your Own?

We only need your paper requirements to create a plagiarism-free paper prompt.

• Use examples that support your claims;
• Quote the passage where the writer has used vivid language;
• A short quote will suffice, no need to cite entire paragraphs;
• Follow your evidence up with supporting claims;
• Talk about what makes your arguments strong;
• Explain why the examples are compelling to the reader;

Conclusion:

• Restate the thesis;
• Briefly talk about how your examples support it;
• Be aware that this is not a place to write more in-depth text or more examples;
• End with a conclusive sentence;

This outline should give you a pretty good idea of how to SAT when it comes to essay writing tasks.

SAT Essay Outline

In recent years, a new SAT essay format has been created. Take a look at how applicants tackle this assignment in 2022.

Introduction

• This introduction paragraph is 2-5 sentences;
• Write about the purpose of the source material;
• Write a few lines describing the techniques used in the rest of the paper.
• Usually, the body is made up of 2-3 paragraphs;
• Each paragraph is around six sentences;
• Your first sentence is a transition from the previous paragraph.
• Paraphrase the thesis;
• Mention the arguments discussed in the assignment;
• End with a conclusive sentence.

Get more info about: HOW TO WRITE AN INTRODUCTION

Tips on How to Write an SAT Essay

For a high SAT essay score, consider these SAT essay tips below to get a good feel of how to create a great exam paper. They’ll give you a solid understanding of how to SAT in order to get a decent score.

How to Get a Good Score on SAT

• SAT Essay Prompts Are Essential. Analyze the provided promptly. It can give you hints about the writer’s intent.
• Introductions Are Essential. Ease your reader into the topic. Focus their attention and remember - it sets the stage for the rest of your essay.
• Use Your Vocabulary & Effective Language. Only use formal language. Don’t repeat points, and watch your grammar. Avoid using simple words, slang, and writing in the first person.
• Avoid Going Off-Topic. Keep your essay precise in regards to the source. It is essential to show the examiner that you have read and understood it.
• Practice Makes Perfect. Looking at SAT essay examples will help you understand how the essay should be written. Practice writing your paper using an SAT essay sample as a reference.

What Is an Average SAT Essay Score?

An average SAT essay score is 5\4\5 (for reading\analysis\writing). But you don’t really want to aim for an average SAT essay score. You need to land above that if you want your application to benefit from it.

You have to consider several factors if you want to get a good SAT essay score. Here they are:

You have to demonstrate your proficiency in all three in order to get a perfect score. First, you have to show that you have a thorough understanding of the subject matter of your essay. There is no place for even the slightest missteps. You want to show that you have knowledge of the facts and can interpret them well.

Analysis has to do with the personal conclusions you draw in your essay. You have to show that your writing is not just a stream of consciousness. Your thesis should be well-thought-out and supported by relevant and strong evidence.

Finally, the writing aspect is about presentation. Here you need to show that you have a strong command of language. It’s not only about grammar. Even the particular choice of words matters. How well you form your thoughts will determine your writing score. You should also watch your writing style. For a serious academic paper like this one, it should always be formal. No matter the subject.

So what is a good SAT essay score? It’s the result of your careful consideration of source material, your argument, and your form.

Is SAT Now Optional?

SAT is indeed optional. Very few colleges still practice this approach to applicant screening. But you can still take this test if you’d like to showcase your formidable writing skills. Will it help you when applying to top universities? For example, does Harvard require SAT essay submissions? Ivy League institutions like Harvard have also opted to take SAT test score submission during the application process optional. If you want to get an edge in a competitive environment like this, you have to research modern methods of applicant assessment. Like writing a personal statement.

Should I Take SAT?

Well, that depends on your goals. For example, if you are going for a major that has to do with analytical writing - an SAT test with an essay is a great way to show your skills and talent. But you shouldn’t obsess over it if you’re not entirely sure you’d be able to get a good score. There are alternative ways to show your writing off.

SAT Essay Examples

Check out these SAT essay examples to get a further grasp of how to write an outstanding paper. Feel free to use them as a reference.

Paul Bogard’s “Let There Be Dark” illustrates a large variety of rhetorical writing methods to create a key message. The message being: before the almost infinite list of benefits of the night’s natural darkness is completely lost, people should make more effort to decrease light pollution.

Dr. John’s “The Classics” argues that the enthusiasm of modern children of English literature in the classroom is at the lowest it could possibly be. He argues that there can be some extreme consequences for the survival of classic texts. The claim, itself, mentions classroom surveys that have taken place in high schools across the country.

Don’t Know How to Start?

Have you read the whole article and found yourself in a situation where you type " write my essay online "? Start from structuring your ideas. Writing an outline and a pinch of professional writing help can put you onto the right path to writing your SAT essay paper.

You can also look for SAT essay prompts if you want to practice a bit before the actual exam.

SAT Topics: Best Ideas

The best ideas for an SAT practice essay come in the form of prompts. You are unlikely to find the same exact prompt you have been practicing with on your SAT exam. But it will give you enough experience to feel confident in your writing abilities.

• Write an essay in which you explain how Volodymyr Zelensky builds an argument to persuade his audience that the democratic countries must unite to help the Ukrainian cause.
• How does the availability of information influence our perception of global issues?
• Analyze and evaluate societal constructs and stereotypes in regard to different age groups
• Analyze and evaluate the importance of factors of competition and cooperation in relation to humanity’s technological progress.
• Consider and analyze potential issues of creating a new society in isolation from the rest of humanity. For example, a colony on a faraway planet.

The SAT test is slowly going out of fashion. The pandemic has only reinforced this trend. Despite that, it still remains a pretty comprehensive way to gauge one’s abilities. So, while it’s not mandatory to take the SAT test anymore, you can certainly take it anyway if you think it will help you showcase the skills relevant to your education.

Related Articles

• Have your assignments done by seasoned writers. 24/7
• Contact us:
• +1 (213) 221-0069
• [email protected]

What is a Good SAT Essay Score in 2022: Combined out of 24

SAT Essay Tips

An SAT essay is a type of an essay that one writes while making an application to a new college or school. This essay gauges your reading, analysis, and writing skills as part of your admission process.

In addition, this type of essay has a unique scoring system.

A good SAT essay score should be 6 and above for the essay part of the test. However, a good SAT score for the combined test should be 18 out of 24. Most universities prefer a balanced score for each of the three parts. Therefore, they prefer a score of at least 6 for each part to give a total of 18.

How to Score well in SAT Essays

If you want to improve your SAT score, observe the following:

1. Give a Clear Thesis

The essay should make an argument that a reader can identify easily.

Luckily, SAT offers you the main idea so the author does not have to hunt for a new one.

The thesis is great to give direction on how you will be making your arguments.

2. Create an Outline

Create a sketch of the points and structure of the things that you want to cover in the entire essay. This approach enables you to avoid skipping the key ideas that you want to cover in a topic.

An outline is good for you to ensure that there are no gaps in the arguments.

 3. Understand the Scoring System

The scoring system is necessary to indicate how one understood the passage. The area of scoring revolves around three items namely; reading, analysis, and writing which appear in the essay score. We rate them on a scale of between two to eight.

The reading score indicates how well the author understood the essay. The writing score exposes the cohesiveness of your essay. Finally, the analysis part indicates the author’s analytical ability to persuade the audience.

4. Have an Introduction and Conclusion  

The introduction part enables the reader to know what you want to talk about and it sets the essay structure. You can use this introduction part to set the quality and the tone of the entire essay.

In case you run short of time, you can stick with an introduction and skip the conclusion part. Typically, an introduction should include a thesis statement for you to build your argument.

5. Effective Word Choice

You should have a good command of language to make you remain effective in delivery.

You should avoid making grammatical mistakes. Furthermore, do not be repetitive.

Avoid first-person statements because you are writing an equivalent to a school paper. It is not an opinion piece.

Opt to use different words when describing the same idea. It is an opportunity to show off your vocabulary.

6. Stick on relevant Details

Your essay will be effective if you stick to just a few points. Avoid mentioning every minute detail by picking the most important item only to make your arguments. However, ensure that your facts are accurate. Convince that author by citing relevant examples

7. Answer the Prompt

Apart from summarizing your essay passage, ensure your arguments in the whole context answers the prompt. Develop ideas that connect your claim and evidence. The standard way is you use at least four or five paragraphs to keep it organized.

You should review some of the examples concerning the essay prompts for you to understand what the grader expects for one to get a higher score. Understand the writing styles in terms of writing styles and persuasive elements.

8. Learn from Experts

You can build your reading and analytical skills by studying passages from reputable writers in the same field. That is the only way you can hone your skills.

Getting the right skills offers you an edge when you are tackling your sat essay.

9. Prepare with Practice Essay

The only way you can perfect your skill is to practice frequently. You can get the samples and practice with them to replicate a situation as it would be in the real exam.

Doing so helps you to gauge your strengths and improve on your areas of weakness.

While doing practice, it would be sensible to work with a friend or a tutor to get instant feedback.

It can be a perfect experience to improve your learning skills.

People Also Read: How to Find Answers to Homework Worksheets Online

How Long is the SAT with or without an Essay?

The entire SAT test takes quite some time to finish depending on whether there is an essay or not.

Commonly, if you are taking an SAT with an essay, it takes four hours with breaks. The essay section takes about 50 minutes and you will work on it at the end of the tests. The entire break time is fifteen minutes.

However, without an essay, an SAT takes 3 hours and 15 minutes with breaks inclusive. The break time takes fifteen minutes. You will dedicate the three solid hours to testing without an essay.

People Also Read: Technical Plagiarism: definition, examples and How to Avoid

Tips How to Write a Good SAT Essay

1. adhere to rules.

Ensure that you follow the given rules. Avoid scoring a zero for failing to stick to the rules on the provided essay paper. For example, never change the question. Read the passage thoroughly to understand it well.

Make sure you understand the prompt before you get the temptation of writing your essay as soon as you go through it. The blunder can come if you write the essay fast and later realize that you did not answer the prompt as provided. As such, you should not underestimate the necessity of reading it well.

2. Divide your Time well

Typically, you have fifty minutes to write your essay.

Before you begin, divide it well and allocate each part fruitfully. For example, you can take five minutes to brainstorm key ideas about the essay.

You can use the rest of the time to create a great introduction. Make your first impression by creating a fact-filled one.

Use some few minutes by coming up with good paragraphs backed by examples.

3. Take a position

Your essay argument will be about a particular issue. The audience will judge your essay based on the complexity and depth of your argument. At this point, you should take a stand on that particular issue of your argument.

You must be thorough with both sides of the issue that you are making your points about. For example, pick one side and explain why you believe that side is right.

4. Remain Consistent with the Subject

It can be tempting to alter the question to something that is almost similar. If your answer fails to address the provided question, you are likely to get a zero mark. Even if you change the question slightly, there is a risk that the reader may not like your answer.

5. Talk to Your Reader

The person who will be giving you a score is not a machine. When you are writing your essay, try to be interactive as if you are talking to your friend. Let your tone be formal and friendly. Even better, you can stick with simple language that makes you express yourself well without difficulty.

Use paragraphs to express your points well. Let each paragraph carry a particular idea. Also, focus on both quality and quantity. You will only get a full score if your response is full. An incomplete response will limit your score.

6. Proofread and edit

As you complete writing, take the last few minutes to read your passage and see if you can spot any errors.

Such could be typos and other grammatical mistakes. If you misinterpreted some information through the poor sentences section, you can edit that section until you deliver.

Edit any visible errors and read them carefully to ensure that you captured what you intended to say.

This method will assist you to ensure that you get a near-perfect document.

When not handling complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

Related posts

writing 1200 Words Essay

1200 Words Essay: How Many Pages, How to Write& It’s Structure

Past, Present, and the Future Tenses in Your Essay

Past, Present, and Future Tense in Essays: How to Switch

Can-a-Plagiarism-Scanner-Detect-AI-written-Paper

Can Plagiarism checkers detect AI Text like Jervis? Turnitin or SafeAssign

The Optional SAT Essay: What to Know

Tackling this section of the SAT requires preparation and can boost some students' college applications.

Getty Images

Even though an increasing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements, students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so.

Although the essay portion of the SAT became optional in 2016, many students still chose to write it to demonstrate strong or improved writing skills to prospective colleges.

In June 2021, the College Board opted to discontinue the SAT essay. Now, only students in a few states and school districts still have access to — and must complete — the SAT essay. This requirement applies to some students in the SAT School Day program, for instance, among other groups.

How Colleges Use SAT, ACT Results

Tiffany Sorensen Sept. 14, 2020

Whether or not to write the SAT essay is not the biggest decision you will have to make in high school, but it is certainly one that requires thought on your part. Here are three things you should know about the 50-minute SAT essay as you decide whether to complete it:

• To excel on the SAT essay, you must be a trained reader.
• The SAT essay begs background knowledge of rhetoric and persuasive writing.
• A growing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements.

To Excel on the SAT Essay, You Must Be a Trained Reader

The SAT essay prompt never comes unaccompanied. On the contrary, it follows a text that is about 700 words long or approximately one page. Before test-takers can even plan their response, they must carefully read and – ideally – annotate the passage.

The multifaceted nature of the SAT essay prompt can be distressing to students who struggle with reading comprehension. But the good news is that this prompt is highly predictable: It always asks students to explain how the author builds his or her argument. In this case, "how” means which rhetorical devices are used, such as deductive reasoning, metaphors, etc.

Luckily, the author’s argument is usually spelled out in the prompt itself. For instance, consider this past SAT prompt : “Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved.”

Due to the essay prompt’s straightforward nature, students should read the passage with an eye toward specific devices used by the author rather than poring over “big ideas.” In tour SAT essay, aim to analyze at least two devices, with three being even better.

The SAT Essay Begs Background Knowledge of Rhetoric and Persuasive Writing

Since your SAT essay response must point to specific rhetorical devices that the author employs to convince the reader, you should make it a point to intimately know 10-15 common ones. The more familiar you are with rhetorical devices, the faster you will become at picking them out as you read texts.

Once you have read the passage and identified a handful of noteworthy rhetorical devices, you should apply many of the same essay-writing techniques you already use in your high school English classes.

For instance, you should start by brainstorming to see which devices you have the most to say about. After that, develop a concise thesis statement, incorporate quotes from the text, avoid wordiness and other infelicities of writing, close with an intriguing conclusion, and do everything else you could imagine your English teacher advising you to do.

Remember to always provide evidence from the text to support your claims. Finally, leave a few minutes at the end to review your essay for mistakes.

A Growing Number of Colleges Are Dropping Standardized Test Requirements

In recent years, some of America’s most prominent colleges and universities – including Ivy League institutions like Harvard University in Massachusetts, Princeton University in New Jersey and Yale University in Connecticut – have made submission of ACT and SAT scores optional.

While this trend began as early as 2018, the upheaval caused by COVID-19 has prompted many other schools to adopt a more lenient testing policy, as well.

Advocates for educational fairness have long expressed concerns that standardized admissions tests put underprivileged students at a disadvantage. In light of the coronavirus pandemic , which restricted exam access for almost all high school students, colleges have gotten on board with this idea by placing more emphasis on other factors in a student’s application.

To assess writing ability in alternative ways, colleges now place more emphasis on students’ grades in language-oriented subjects, as well as college application documents like the personal statement .

The fact that more colleges are lifting their ACT/SAT requirement does not imply that either test or any component of it is now obsolete. Students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so, especially those who wish to major in a writing-intensive field. The essay can also demonstrate a progression or upward trajectory in writing skills.

The SAT essay can give a boost to the college applications of the few students to whom it is still available. If the requirement applies to you, be sure to learn more about the SAT essay and practice it often as you prepare for your upcoming SAT.

13 Test Prep Tips for SAT and ACT Takers

Tags: SAT , standardized tests , students , education

About College Admissions Playbook

Stressed about getting into college? College Admissions Playbook, authored by Varsity Tutors , offers prospective college students advice on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, SAT and ACT exams and the college application process. Varsity Tutors, an advertiser with U.S. News & World Report, is a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. The company's end-to-end offerings also include mobile learning apps, online learning environments and other tutoring and test prep-focused technologies. Got a question? Email [email protected] .

Ask an Alum: Making the Most Out of College

You May Also Like

Photos: pro-palestinian student protests.

Aneeta Mathur-Ashton and Avi Gupta April 26, 2024

How to Win a Fulbright Scholarship

Cole Claybourn and Ilana Kowarski April 26, 2024

Honors Colleges and Programs

Sarah Wood April 26, 2024

Find a Job in the Age of AI

Angie Kamath April 25, 2024

Protests Boil Over on College Campuses

Lauren Camera April 22, 2024

Supporting Low-Income College Applicants

Shavar Jeffries April 16, 2024

Supporting Black Women in Higher Ed

Zainab Okolo April 15, 2024

Law Schools With the Highest LSATs

Ilana Kowarski and Cole Claybourn April 11, 2024

Today NAIA, Tomorrow Title IX?

Lauren Camera April 9, 2024

Grad School Housing Options

Anayat Durrani April 9, 2024

• SAT BootCamp
• SAT MasterClass
• SAT Private Tutoring
• SAT Proctored Practice Test
• ACT Private Tutoring
• Academic Subjects
• College Essay Workshop
• Academic Writing Workshop
• AP English FRQ BootCamp
• 1:1 College Essay Help
• Online Instruction
• Free Resources

The SAT Essay: Should You Take It?

Should you take the sat essay in 2021.

NOTE: The SAT Essay no longer exists as of 2024. The SAT has transitioned into a new digital format, which is radically different. For an updated guide to the new digital SAT, follow the link here.

The SAT Essay is optional. Students do not have to sit for it. In fact, they must elect to take the Essay when registering for the SAT. This costs an additional $15 .

Plenty of U.S. universities and colleges do not require the SAT Essay, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Brown. But in the context of college admissions, “optional” often takes on a whole new meaning. 

What’s more, the CollegeBoard will now be discontinuing the SAT Essay following the June 2021 SAT administration .

Should you take the SAT essay between now and 2021? Or should you pass on it and spend those 50 minutes elsewhere?

In this article, we answer these questions and more.

Here’s what we cover:

The SAT Essay: The Basics

• How We’ve Approached the Essay Until Now (2021)
• Should You Take the Essay Between Now and June 2021?

If they’ve registered for it, students take the SAT essay after they have completed the first 4 sections of the test. The Essay portion is 50 minutes long (as opposed to the old SAT’s 25-minute essay section) and is hand-written.

The Purpose of the SAT Essay

According to the College Board, the SAT essay is “about the real world.”

The SAT Essay is a lot like a typical college writing assignment in which you’re asked to analyze a text. Take the SAT with Essay and show colleges that you’re ready to come to campus and write.

Yes, students must write analytically after nearly three hours of testing, when their brains are significantly fatigued! Nonetheless, the SAT essay is designed to showcase a student’s writing capabilities in the context of college preparedness .

Source : College Board

Notice how students are not asked whether or not they agree with the author’s argument. Nor are they asked to assess its logical soundness.

They must simply identify the tools or “rhetorical devices” the author uses to make his/her argument persuasive.

Passages will be similar in length and style to those on the Evidence-Based Reading test of the SAT, although notably more argumentative in nature. Many essay passages are speeches or editorials. These can be from any century.

SAT Essay Scoring

Two separate readers will assess students’ essays and score these in three categories:

• and Writing

They will award 1-4 points for each category. The SAT test graders then add the two scores for each category. Here’s an example:

A student’s SAT essay scores do not impact their SAT composite score or Verbal section score. Essay scores appear separately on the score report itself. These do not include a composite score or percentiles.

Our Historic Approach to the SAT Essay (pre-2021)

Before the CollegeBoard announced that it would be discontinuing the SAT Essay in June 2021, these were our thoughts on this optional section of the test.

First things first, plenty of institutions have dropped their requirement of the SAT or ACT essays due to the financial obstacle it may pose to some students. As we’ve already mentioned, the SAT essay requires $15 on top of the exam’s registration fee of $49.50. ( Fee waivers do exist.)

Yet some colleges have sometimes filled the SAT essay gap with something else, such as supplemental writing materials .  Despite not requiring it, a dwindling number of institutions have “recommended” that students take the essay if they have the means to do so.

College Application Requirements 

In the past, the CollegeBoard has been quick to emphasize that taking the SAT Essay enables students to apply to schools that “recommend or require it.” 

Indeed, some of the colleges on students’ lists may have different policies and/or requirements when it comes to the SAT Essay. 

If you do use this tool, be sure to confirm essay policies with what colleges specify on their websites.  

Essay Alternatives

Some colleges have requested an alternative to the SAT essay in past admission cycles.

While Princeton University has not historically required the SAT or ACT essay, it does request a graded academic writing sample from all applicants. This is designed to “ assess the student’s written expression in an academic setting” and “further the holistic understanding of the student’s application.”

Other universities, such as Harvard , permit applicants to supplement their applications with academic papers, research projects, and other scholarly documents of which they are the sole author. 

In other words, colleges are keen to assess students’ writing capacities, SAT/ACT essay aside.

SAT Test Prep

The essay does incorporate much of what both SAT verbal sections already test: expression of ideas, logical organization, critical analysis of a text, and author’s intent.

Students who prepare for both SAT verbal sections will thus already be poised for success on the essay!  In this sense, studying for the SAT essay nicely complements any SAT test prep timeline and curriculum. 

AP English students may also be at an advantage for the SAT essay. The prompt’s focus on argument and rhetorical devices frequently aligns with AP English curriculum, making essay prep more straightforward. 

Taking the SAT Essay in 2021

The CollegeBoard will no longer offer the SAT Essay after the June administration of the SAT.

In the past, we’ve encouraged students to take the Essay to keep their options open, especially those applying to more selective colleges. We haven’t advised  spending too much time preparing for the Essay, however.

Now what? S hould you even consider signing up for the SAT Essay since it’s going away in six months?

In general, plan on taking the SAT Essay if:

• You have already significantly prepared for the essay at this point in your SAT test prep
• You’ve taken the SAT essay once and plan on taking the SAT at least one more time before or on June 2021
• You plan on taking the SAT at least twice by June 2021  (this allows for SuperScoring with Essay)
• You desperately wish to showcase your writing skills and/or
• You have substantial extra prep time (i.e., preparing for the Essay won’t compromise your prep for other more valuable sections)

We recommend that you skip the essay if:

• You are just starting your test prep journey now
• You plan on taking the SAT after the June administration, at least one time
• At least one college on your list requires an essay alternative (such as an academic paper)
• You’ve already taken the essay at least twice and/or
• Your time is better spent preparing for the required sections of the SAT (Math, Reading, Writing & Language)

At the end of the day, colleges are likely to still be interested in applicants’ ability to write well and think critically.

That’s why we encourage students to spend time honing their personal statements , in-class academic papers, and supplemental essay responses , regardless of their history with the SAT Essay.

Kate is a graduate of Princeton University. Over the last decade, Kate has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay.

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED POSTS

12 Free Official SAT Practice Tests (Including Digital SATs)

August 2, 2022

Find everything you need to self-administer a full-length SAT test - 8 Official SAT Practice Tests, blank answer sheets, and proctoring instructions.

What is a Good SAT Score for 2024? (And 6 Steps to Get One)

April 28, 2022

What does it mean to get a good SAT score in 2020? Our complete guide walks you through competitive scoring and steps to achieve a great score on this college entrance exam.

Scoring on the SAT: What You Need to Know

December 9, 2020

What does scoring on the SAT look like? The SAT is scored on a range of 400-1600. This composite score consists of a Verbal sectional score and a Math sectional score. But much more goes into SAT scoring than most students realize!

SAT Goal Setting: The Ultimate Guide

January 15, 2020

The key to getting your dream SAT score? Preparation, preparation, preparation. With our SAT goal setting guide, you'll be starting your prep the right way.

How to Proctor Your Own ACT Practice Test

May 21, 2018

Taking official practice tests is one of the best ways to prepare for the ACT. Here you will find detailed instructions for how to take your own practice ACT test.

Privacy Preference Center

Privacy preferences.

•   Weather

Search location by ZIP code

Should the sat still matter after all these years why some colleges are bringing it back.

• Copy Link Copy {copyShortcut} to copy Link copied!

GET NATIONAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

Generations of American teens have taken the SAT, a blood-pressure-raising multi-hour exam they are told could make or break their academic futures.

The longest-enduring standardized college admissions test in the nation, the SAT has faced decades of controversy over bias and criticism for reducing aspiring college students to a test score. It has also been denounced as part of the high barrier to entry into the so-called American meritocracy.

Related video above: Almost 2,000 universities in the U.S. are scrapping or have scrapped standardized testing requirements. That's not the case at all universities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when dozens of the most prestigious universities in the nation suspended their standardized testing requirement, some were hopeful of a new era of more equitable college admissions.

But this year, many of these institutions have done an about-face on their test-optional policies. At the same time, at least 1,825 US colleges and universities, or more than 80% of four-year schools, will still not require testing for 2025 admissions, according to FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

The splintering of admissions policies post-pandemic has reinvigorated debate around the necessity of the SAT.

To test, or not to test?

Criticism has dogged the SAT for years. The exam, whose acronym originally stood for "Scholastic Aptitude Test," was developed in the 1920s by Princeton-based eugenicist Carl Brigham, who believed immigration was diluting American intelligence and adapted US Army mental tests to determine whether similar exams could measure innate student intelligence. (Brigham retracted some of his views several years later.)

The College Board, the educational non-profit that designs and administers the exam, told CNN the SAT has been "completely overhauled" since the 1920s and now measures how well a student has learned specific content, not inherent aptitude.

But the test's legacy — one steeped in racism and classism — has raised questions about the need for high-stakes testing at all. The National Education Association has noted that the SAT, and its counterpart the ACT, can factor too heavily in the college admissions process.

"It's important that we don't overly rely on them because they're not holistic. They are one snapshot on one day and it can determine whether or not you get into college," NEA's Director of Policy Daaiyah Bilal-Threats told CNN.

Most colleges have no plans to reinstitute their pre-pandemic testing requirements.

"Test-optional policies continue to dominate at national universities, state flagships, and selective liberal arts colleges because they typically result in more applicants, academically stronger applicants and more diversity," said FairTest Executive Director Harry Feder in a February statement, after some Ivy League schools announced they would reinstitute their testing requirements.

A strong emphasis on high SAT scores has also spurred the rise of a lucrative test prep industry in the United States, which is estimated to grow by about 7% to almost $50 billion by 2027, according to a report in October 2023 from market researcher Technavio.

Discrepancies with standardized testing appear to be symptomatic of the inequality endemic to the education system. Some experts point out that doing away with the SAT as an admissions component, like many universities did at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, does little to remedy systemic inequity. In fact, it can bring the disparity into starker focus.

Wealthier students may have access to prestigious internships, schools with better-funded clubs and sports, as well as music and arts programs — all elements of the quintessential college application.

Video below: Last year, a study found that very high-performing students from middle-income families are the least likely to be accepted to Ivy-league schools

"(Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds) don't have any of these fancy extracurriculars. They haven't played in a fancy jazz band. They don't do fancy internships. They don't work as volunteers in Guatemala. And yet some of them will be very capable students," said Daniel Koretz, a testing policy expert at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He says the question is: How do schools find these students?

According to Koretz, the SAT's longevity can be attributed to its efficacy in predicting how a student will perform in college.

A study published in January by Harvard's Opportunity Insights center found that standardized tests are more effective predictors of performance than high school grades.

Critically, the study also found that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds who have similar test scores have "virtually identical" college GPAs.

Weeks after the study was released, several schools that had been test-optional for nearly four years officially reversed their stances. Yale and Dartmouth announced in February they were reinstating a testing requirement and were quickly joined by private and public institutions, including Brown, Georgetown, Harvard, the University of Florida and the University of Texas at Austin.

"SAT/ACTs can be especially helpful in identifying students from less-resourced backgrounds who would succeed at Dartmouth but might otherwise be missed in a test-optional environment," Dartmouth wrote in a statement in February.

"With an abundance of high school GPAs surrounding 4.0 … an SAT or ACT score is a proven differentiator that is in each student's and the University's best interest," UT Austin said in March.

Still a need for standardized tests

Education experts who spoke to CNN say the SAT is necessary because there is no "standard" American education.

Individual schools may have different grading criteria. Some schools weigh grade point averages differently. An A+ in an AP class in one district is equivalent to a 4.0 GPA. In another, it could be 5.0, 4.5 or 4.2.

Even within the same school and subject, some teachers might grade more or less leniently than others.

College admissions officers simply don't have the ability to account for all of these minute discrepancies, experts told CNN, so standardized tests will likely stick around unless US education becomes standardized in other ways.

"Anytime you have a system as big as ours and in the absence of that kind of standardization in the K-12 system, schools are going to find value in finding ways to compare students. It doesn't have to be the SAT necessarily, but something standardized like it," said Ethan Hutt, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Education.

Democratizing education

This lack of standardization reaches back to the early days of U.S. education. Throughout the 1800s, there was little tracking of student achievement, and grades and written tests weren't common.

"In the 19th century, schools … would gather parents and townspeople, and the teacher would basically put on an exhibition with the class," said Hutt. "They would ask students questions and to recite things (they had learned)."

Oral examinations were the norm until 1845, when education reformer and then-Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education Horace Mann instituted a written test to gauge the level of student instruction across Boston-area public schools.

A college education was exceedingly rare, as the system was designed to favor wealthy White men funneled from elite private schools in the Northeast to prestigious private universities also in the Northeast.

"Often, it would consist of either colleges accrediting certain high schools and saying, 'OK, any graduate of (Phillips Exeter Academy) is automatically given entrance to Harvard,' or they would send out professors to do exams at individual schools," said Hutt.

First administered in 1926, the SAT was an attempt to broaden the university candidate pool.

Three legislative milestones indirectly expanded the influence of the SAT. First, the 1944 Servicemen's Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill, gave returning soldiers the funds to pursue higher education. Between 1944 and 1951, more than two million veterans enrolled in college.

Second, the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited colleges and universities that received federal money from discriminating against applicants according to "race, color, or national origin." Eight years later, Congress would pass another landmark legislation — Title IX — a law that prohibited institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex. These laws, at least in theory, sought to even out the playing field for college admissions.

Between 1945 and 1995, the percent of Americans older than 25 who had earned a bachelor's degree had increased from about 5% to 23%, according to the Census Bureau. And as higher education grew more attainable, the SAT became the most important exam some Americans would ever take.

A standard in flux

The College Board continually revamps and redesigns both its SAT scoring metrics and exam content. For decades, the test consisted of two multiple-choice sections: math and verbal reasoning. Each section was worth a total of 800 points, making a perfect score 1600.

In 2005, the College Board added an 800-point writing section to the exam alongside its math and verbal reasoning sections. The test, scored out of 2400 instead of 1600, was also 45 minutes longer. About nine years later, the SAT reverted to a 1600-point essay-optional model before entirely scrapping the essay section in 2021.

On March 9, the College Board administered its first fully digital SAT exam. At around two hours, the test, which was taken by over 200,000 students on a test-taking app, is much shorter than its predecessors. It's also adaptive, meaning the questions in the second half of the reading and math sections are adjusted based on the student's performance on the first half.

Video below: Pencils down: SAT makes all-digital change for college prep test

Part of the push to redesign comes from competition with the Iowa-based ACT, which has been administered since 1959 but has since become the preferred exam in many parts of the country.

"When the ACT started getting so much more traction and because it was shorter, the SAT really wanted to maintain its market share, and so it made a number of changes for that reason," said Rachel Rubin, a higher education policy expert and co-founder of Massachusetts-based educational consulting company Spark Admissions.

Although the SAT has seen a slight slump in the number of test takers, with 1.9 million students sitting for the exam in 2023 compared to 2.2 million pre-pandemic, the College Board's exam still reins supreme. Only about 1.4 million students took the ACT in 2023, compared to 1.7 million in 2019.

Working through a history of bias

The SAT's analogy section, a fixture of the exam until 2005, had long been criticized for presupposing that test-takers come from certain cultural backgrounds. An infamous example from the 1980s exam included "regatta," which is a sporting event consisting of boat races that is almost exclusively common in wealthy Northeast communities.

"For many years the SAT … was crafted by people who were almost entirely White, were overwhelmingly male, and were largely educated in colleges and universities from the Northeast," said Jack Schneider, the head of UMass Amherst's Center for Education Policy. "The assumptions that they made about the things that any well-educated person should know were in many ways biased against communities of color, low-income communities, and communities where languages other than English were the predominant language."

Schneider acknowledges that eliminating bias from the SAT is incredibly difficult because "we live in a biased society."

The College Board told CNN it has also done away with its esoteric vocabulary in the past decade.

"Starting in 2014, we said let's measure all the most common things that are most useful in college and that students are more likely to encounter in their high school classrooms," said College Board CEO David Coleman, noting this applies both to the math curriculum and the mastery of vocabulary.

In recent years, the College Board has implemented cost-saving initiatives for eligible test-takers to promote equity, such as waiving the $60 registration fee and offering college application fee waivers, which can save applicants as much as $90 per school . It has partnered with education non-profit Khan Academy since 2015 to provide free test prep materials.

The SAT School Day program, which launched in 2014, allows students to take the test on a weekday rather than on a designated weekend at a potentially unfamiliar testing center. The College Board say a majority of students use the program, which "has been shown to lead to higher college-going rates for low-income and rural students."

Coleman says administering the test in a familiar environment can reduce the stress inherent to the SAT experience. He added that the shorter digital exam is also aimed at accommodating different types of test-takers.

"(The older version of the SAT) can feel like it's designed for young people who are very quick, and it's a great error to confuse quick and smart," Coleman said. "The digital exam gives kids 160% more time per question … to make sure they can finish the exam without feeling out of breath."

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, sat essay prompts: the complete list.

SAT Writing , SAT Essay

On every SAT Essay, you'll have to read an argument meant to persuade a broad audience and discuss how well the author argues his or her point. The passage you'll have to read will change from test to test, but you'll always need to analyze the author's argument and write a coherent and organized essay explaining this analysis.

In this article, we've compiled a list of the 14 real SAT essay prompts that the College Board has released (either in The Official SAT Study Guide or separately online) for the new SAT. This is the most comprehensive set of new SAT essay prompts online today.

At the end of this article, we'll also guide you through how to get the most out of these prompts and link to our expert resources on acing the SAT essay. I'll discuss how the SAT essay prompts are valuable not just because they give you a chance to write a practice essay, but because of what they reveal about the essay task itself.

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});.

In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. 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? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

SAT essay prompts always keep to the same basic format. Not only is the prompt format consistent from test to test, but what you're actually asked to do (discuss how an author builds an argument) also remains the same across different test administrations.

The College Board's predictability with SAT essay helps students focus on preparing for the actual analytical task, rather than having to think up stuff on their feet. Every time, before the passage, you'll see the following:

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

And after the passage, you'll see this:

"Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his] audience that [whatever the author is trying to argue for]. In your essay, analyze how [the author] uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with [the author]'s claims, but rather explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his/their] audience."

Now that you know the format, let's look at the SAT essay prompts list.

14 Official SAT Essay Prompts

The College Board has released a limited number of prompts to help students prep for the essay. We've gathered them for you here, all in one place. We'll be sure to update this article as more prompts are released for practice and/or as more tests are released.

SPOILER ALERT : Since these are the only essay prompts that have been released so far, you may want to be cautious about spoiling them for yourself, particularly if you are planning on taking practice tests under real conditions . This is why I've organized the prompts by the 10 that are in the practice tests (so you can avoid them if need be), the ones that are available online as sample prompts, and the ones that are in the text of the Official SAT Study Guide (Redesigned SAT), all online for free.

Practice Test Prompts

These 10 prompts are taken from the practice tests that the College Board has released.

Practice Test 1 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Jimmy Carter builds an argument to persuade his audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry."

Practice Test 2 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Martin Luther King Jr. builds an argument to persuade his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust."

Practice Test 3 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Eliana Dockterman builds an argument to persuade her audience that there are benefits to early exposure to technology."

Practice Test 4 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved."

Practice Test 5 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Eric Klinenberg builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to greatly reduce their reliance on air-conditioning."

Practice Test 6 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Christopher Hitchens builds an argument to persuade his audience that the original Parthenon sculptures should be returned to Greece."

Practice Test 7 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Zadie Smith builds an argument to persuade her audience that public libraries are important and should remain open"

Practice Test 8 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Bobby Braun builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to invest in NASA."

Practice Test 9 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Todd Davidson builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to fund national parks."

Practice Test 10 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Richard Schiffman builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to work fewer hours."

Special note: The prompt for Practice Test 4 also appears on the College Board's site with real sample essays written in response. If you've written a practice essay for practice test 4 and want to see what essays of different score levels look like for that particular prompt, you can go there and look at eight real student essays.

Free Online Practice

This prompt comes from the College Board website .

"Write an essay in which you explain how Dana Gioia builds an argument to persuade his audience that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society."

This prompt comes from Khan Academy , where it is listed as an alternate essay prompt to go along with Practice Test 2:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Leo W. Gerard builds an argument to persuade his audience that American colleges and universities should be affordable for all students."

The Official SAT Study Guide 2020

The Official SAT Study Guide (editions published in 2015 and later available online for free) contains all 10 of the previously mentioned practice tests at the end of the book. In the section about the new SAT essay , however, there are two additional sample essay prompts (accompanied by articles to analyze).

Sample Prompt 1:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Peter S. Goodman builds an argument to persuade his audience that news organizations should increase the amount of professional foreign news coverage provided to people in the United States."

Sample Prompt 2:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Adam B. Summers builds an argument to persuade his audience that plastic shopping bags should not be banned."

Ready to go beyond just reading about the SAT? Then you'll love the free five-day trial for our SAT Complete Prep program . Designed and written by PrepScholar SAT experts , our SAT program customizes to your skill level in over 40 subskills so that you can focus your studying on what will get you the biggest score gains.

Click on the button below to try it out!

How Do You Get the Most Out of These Prompts?

Now that you have all the prompts released by the College Board, it's important to know the best way to use them. Make sure you have a good balance between quality and quantity, and don't burn through all 14 of the real prompts in a row— take the time to learn from your experiences writing the practice essays.

Step By Step Guide on How to Practice Using the Article

#1: Understand how the SAT essay is graded .

#2: Follow along as we write a high-scoring SAT essay, step by step .

#3: Plan a set of features you'll look for in the SAT essay readings and practice writing about them fluidly. This doesn't just mean identifying a technique, like asking a rhetorical question, but explaining why it is persuasive and what effect it has on the reader in the context of a particular topic. We have more information on this step in our article about 6 SAT persuasive devices you can use .

#4: Choose a prompt at random from above, or choose a topic that you think is going to be hard for you to detach from (because you'll want to write about the topic, rather than the argument) set timer to 50 minutes and write the essay. No extra time allowed!

#5: Grade the essay, using the official essay rubric to give yourself a score out of 8 in the reading, analysis, and writing sections.

#6: Repeat steps 4 and 5. Choose the prompts you think will be the hardest for you so that you can so that you're prepared for the worst when the test day comes

#7: If you run out of official prompts to practice with, use the official prompts as models to find examples of other articles you could write about . Start by looking for op-ed articles in online news publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, LA Times , and so on. For instance, the passage about the plastic bag ban in California (Official SAT Study Guide sample essay prompt 2, above) has a counterpoint here —you could try analyzing and writing about that article as well.

Any additional articles you use for practice on the SAT essay must match the following criteria:

• ideally 650-750 words , although it'll be difficult to find an op-ed piece that's naturally that short. Try to aim for nothing longer than 2000 words, though, or the scope of the article is likely to be wider than anything you'll encounter on the SAT.
• always argumentative/persuasive . The author (or authors) is trying to get readers to agree with a claim or idea being put forward.
• always intended for a wide audience . All the information you need to deconstruct the persuasiveness of the argument is in the passage. This means that articles with a lot of technical jargon that's not explained in the article are not realistic passage to practice with.

What's Next?

We've written a ton of helpful resources on the SAT essay. I f you're just getting started, we recommend beginning with our top SAT essay tips for a quick overview of the essay task and what you need to know.

A little more familiar with the SAT essay but still not quite sure how to write one? Follow along with our step-by-step guide to writing the SAT essay .

Looking to earn a high score? Learn what it takes to get the highest score possible on the SAT essay here .

Plus, if you want a reference linking you to all of our great articles on the SAT essay, be sure to check out our ultimate SAT essay guide .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?

Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more.

Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also have expert instructors who can grade every one of your practice SAT essays, giving feedback on how to improve your score.

Check out our 5-day free trial:

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Weekend Edition Saturday

• Latest Show
• Scott Simon
• Corrections

Listen to the lead story from this episode.

Week in politics: Arizona Grand Jury indictments, aid for Israel amid Gaza protests

by  Scott Simon ,  Ron Elving

Gaza solidarity encampments sweep college campuses, police responses heighten

by  Scott Simon ,  Jasmine Garsd

Scott Simon's daughter Elise and his wife, Caroline, on Elise's first birthday. Scott Simon hide caption

Opinion: We do anything to make our kids smile

by  Scott Simon

Former National Enquirer publisher testifies about his role in helping Trump in 2016

by  Scott Simon ,  David Folkenflik

Abortion rights on the ballot won't necessarily sink Republicans in GOP-led states

by  Jason Rosenbaum

He runs an internet cafe on a military base. He wants to be deployed to the field

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah sit in the shade of their tent on a 100-degree day in the Gaza Strip. Anas Baba for NPR hide caption

Middle East crisis — explained

A 100-degree heat wave in gaza offers a sweltering glimpse of a tough summer to come.

by  Becky Sullivan ,  Anas Baba

Oklahoma lawmakers vote to give local law enforcement power over immigration

by  Lionel Ramos

How South Africa's 'Born frees' — those born after apartheid — could impact its election

by  Kate Bartlett

Movie Interviews

'the old oak' follows a small english community amidst the arrival of syrian migrants, a recap of trump's trial in nyc, and why a delay in the jan. 6 case is likely.

by  Scott Simon ,  Carrie Johnson

Germany's far-right AfD is using TikTok to vie for the immigrant vote

by  Esme Nicholson

Grizzly bears are coming back to Washington after no sightings in almost 20 years

by  John Ryan

New Mexico becomes the latest state to require waiting periods for gun purchases

by  Megan Myscofski

Middle East

A small museum of palestinian embroidery in jordan keeps ancient heritage alive.

by  Jane Arraf

Saturday Sports: Reggie Bush gets Heisman Trophy back; Chicago's new football star

The americas, at this annual festival in colombia, donkeys play dress up.

by  John Otis

What we know about the hacking attack that targeted the U.S. healthcare system

Ruth reichl's 'the paris novel' is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s paris.

Searching for a song you heard between stories? We've retired music buttons on these pages. Learn more here.