SAT prompt is “Does our society value certainty more than wisdom”. I read the prompt without reading the excerpt, so I misunderstood it, which should be interpreted “People who are certain seem sure about everything and think this will help to conceal weaknesses, while wise people tend to doubt everything.” I understand “certainty” means the steady growth and stability of the society and “wisdom” is the use of wisdom to get greater benefits (power, profits), sometimes unfairly. Will I receive 0?
Look—I’ve never personally known a student who got a zero, and I’ve known lots of students who didn’t fully understand the prompt. That’s not what zeros are for.
Zeros are for essays that are clearly prefabricated and have nothing to do with the prompt. In other words, zeros are for cheaters. As long as what you wrote looks like you made an effort to respond to the prompt, even if you missed the point, you won’t get a zero.
Comments (2)
Thank you very much! It’s kinda a relief. Yet is there any chance that I could get a high score (8 or above) as I wrote 2 full pages, used many good structures, advanced vocabulary and two good examples? Because this test score is very important to me, so I did try my very best to do well in all sections, without suspecting that I did not fully understand the prompt. At least, I think it would have been a good essay if it had not been written on my misinterpretation.
I have another question. Can I super score or do anything to show that I could have a better Writing score, as on October, my essay score was 8, which was not bad, but I made some mistakes in Multiple Choices, but this time, I believe I did very well in the Multiple Choices?
Thank you very much!!! I am very grateful!
Yes, there’s a chance, but I can’t make any further predictions based only on your recollection.
You cannot superscore your overall writing score between tests. That is, you cannot take your MC score from one test and your essay from another and generate a new score on the 800 scale. If you send both test dates to colleges, they will see both sets of scores and may consider them separately, but you have no control over that other than the choice of overall test dates to send.