Hi Mike,
I got a 10 on the October essay, which was “is it effective for leaders to compromise?” I really thought it was better than a 10, and got 1 MC wrong (770). Some of the essay is illegible due to the scanning,-even though I did erase a lot-it was readable when I proofread. Unfortunately, my whole first line, is unreadable! Should I try to get the College Board to regrade it? I’m not sure what to do/how to do it.
-Not sure how to post image of essay
Thanks for you help!
From College Board’s page on score verification:
“If you choose to have your essay score verified, the College Board will determine whether there was an error made in the scanning or processing of the essay scores assigned by essay readers. In this situation, your adjusted score is automatically reported and your fee is refunded.
IMPORTANT: The verification of essay scores does not include rereading the essay or an appeal of the essay score. The score verification fee will not be refunded for essays written in pen.”
So the question is, really, whether it’s worth $55 for you to go from almost perfect (770) to possibly higher. That depends on how much $55 means to you. 🙂
Comments (2)
Maybe you could let me know what you think? I really thought it was an 11 at least.
770 is a high enough score that no school (literally NO school) is going to put you in the reject pile because of it. If the remote possibility of an 800 means more to you than $55, well, it’s your money.
I think it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll prevail. That first line is pretty unreadable, but you can get the gist of it from the rest of the first paragraph. I think CB’s argument would be that the rest of the essay, totally legible, got the score it got, and one sentence couldn’t change that. Remember that paying the $55 doesn’t mean they’ll re-read your essay to see if the graders were asleep at the wheel. There is no way for you to make that happen.
Also remember that, if you’re arguing it should be an 11, then you’re arguing that one person should have given it a 5 and one person should have given it a 6. You just got two people who both thought 5. Bad luck.
Here’s the bottom line: the essay is the worst, dumbest part of the current SAT. The scoring system is idiotic; it regularly produces high scores for total dreck, and low scores for pretty good, thoughtful writing. The quality control in place (that a third person reads the essay if the first two disagree by more than one point) is insufficient. I don’t know how I’d fix it, because I don’t have much more insight into how it’s currently done, but you can rest assured that for the next two tests until this format goes away, College Board isn’t going to make any efforts to fix it either.