act essay 1

THE ESSAY

(Note: the essay on the SAT is mandatory; the essay on the ACT is optional. That is, you can choose to take the ACT with or without the essay. Our advice is to take the ACT with the essay at least once or twice to get a decent score. After that, there’s no need to take the essay section again.)

The essay section on the SAT and ACT debuted in 2005 amid much hoopla. The media fretted that students would be decimated by the challenge of actually having to write.

Nonsense!

Most students taking the SAT and ACT intend to go to college (obviously) and most have had decent college preparatory high school experiences, which includes plenty of writing. Students are no worse at writing than they are at doing fractions or reading—both also heavily tested on the SAT and ACT.

Most students do some writing almost every day in school, so what’s the big deal?

The only real challenge of the Essay section is TIME!

You are given 25 minutes for the SAT essay and 30 minutes for the ACT essay.

That is NOT a lot of time, obviously. But students have done this kind of thing many times in their years of schooling: English and History teachers have often given them 30 to 45 minutes of class time to write an essay on a given topic!

Both the SAT and ACT ask you to defend a position (ANY POSITION, it doesn’t matter which!) on a topic. SO: THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER!

Aside from the facts that students have done this kind of thing a lot in the past, and that there is no right or wrong answer, there is one other reason NOT to fret about the Essay:

IT DOESN’T COUNT MUCH, IF AT ALL!

On both the SAT and the ACT, the essay is combined with the multiple choice Grammar section, BUT IT ONLY COUNTS 1/3 OF THE COMBINED SCORE!

And, on the ACT, that combined score is NOT INCLUDED IN THE OVERALL COMPOSITE SCORE!

So, bottom line: our advice is not to worry about the Essay. Sure, take it seriously, and do your best, of course. But don’t WORRY!

CLICK HERE to see HOW TO APPROACH THE ESSAY