how long is sat with essay

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True or False: Since essay length is non mentioned in the Saturday essay grading rubric, it doesn't thing how much you write in your essay.

Respond: Truthful...simply also fake. Read on for an explanation of why and how the length of your SAT essay can impact your score.

characteristic image credit: How long by Martin Abegglen, used under CC By-SA ii.0/Cropped & modified from original.

UPDATE: Sat Essay No Longer Offered

In January 2022, the College Board appear that afterward June 2022, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during Schoolhouse Solar day Testing). It is now no longer possible to accept the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the minor number who choose to offer information technology during Sabbatum Schoolhouse Day Testing.

While virtually colleges had already fabricated Sabbatum Essay scores optional, this move by the Higher Board means no colleges at present crave the Sabbatum Essay. Information technology will also probable pb to additional college awarding changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or Act, equally well every bit potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the finish of the SAT Essay mean for your higher applications? Check out our article on the College Lath's Saturday Essay determination for everything you lot need to know.

Why Does Essay Length Matter?

Why would you retrieve that essay length even matters in the first place? As I said in the introduction, information technology's not equally if the Saturday essay rubric mentions essay length at all.

Well, there'southward at to the lowest degree one skillful reason to remember this: essay length is positively correlated with essay score.

Ever since the essay was added to the Sat, current MIT research affiliate (and former director of the MIT undergraduate writing program) Les Perelman has been vocal well-nigh how the longer an essay is, the more than likely it is to get a higher score. Co-ordinate to this 2005 New York Times article by Michael Winerip, Perelman analyzed the lengths and scores of 54 SAT-canonical sample essays and found a nearly 90% correlation. The shortest essays (around 100 words) received the lowest possible score, 1 (or a combined score of two out of 12), while the longest essays (around 400 words), received the highest score, a 6 (or a combined score of 12 out of 12). Based on these findings, representatives of the CollegeBoard stated that they would be releasing shorter examples of higher-scoring essays.

This controversy first erupted in early on 2005, right after the new SAT essay was introduced. To see if there had been whatever changes since and so, I did my ain assay of the essays in the CollegeBoard'south essay scoring guide that were all written in response to the sample prompt. Accept a look at what I establish:

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Bonus graph reading practice for y'all in this, an article on essays. Y'all're welcome.

As you can run across, as essay length (measured by give-and-take count in the graph in a higher place) increases, the score also increases.

Merely because longer essays tend to score better, even so, doesn't hateful that you should simply write the word "ideology" over and over once again to fill up up the folio. The reason longer essays tend to score better is that students who write longer essays provide more than support for their theses.

If this is the essay prompt:

"Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authorization,"

and all you write is the following:

"It's important to question potency considering sometimes authorization stops you from doing things yous want. Like getting a pony. I want a pony. I want a pony. I want a pony. I want a pony."

for ii pages, you'll however get a 0. Mayhap a ane, if the grader is feeling generous and thinks that yous fabricated some attempt to write about the issue discussed in a prompt. For more on the thought procedure of essay grading, read our article about insights from real SAT essay graders.

Similarly, if you attempt to drag out i example past writing larger than usual and restating the aforementioned facts and information over and over over again, it won't automatically get yous a college score. In fact, you may lose points if either of your essay'south graders think that your repeating of information leads to lack of coherence in your writing.

In whatsoever case, unless you have extremely small handwriting, it's very difficult to write an essay that presents a thesis and supports it with at least 2 specific examples in less than 1 page.

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Seriously, though. Look at that face. Wouldn't yous want a pony?

So How Long Should Your Essay Be?

Many factors become into determining essay length, which makes it difficult to give a coating length recommendation. Here are the virtually important factors when it comes to length of your SAT essay:

Vocabulary. Ofttimes, the more advanced vocab you use, the fewer words you'll need to get the chore done, which might issue in a shorter essay.
Handwriting size. Students with larger handwriting will naturally take upwardly more than infinite on the page than students with smaller handwriting. This doesn't necessarily mean students with larger handwriting have an advantage, withal; in fact, students with larger handwriting tend to run into the effect of having filled two pages and non finished saying everything they needed or wanted to say.
How fast yous can write and call back. If y'all need to have longer to plan out your essay, you might terminate up writing a shorter essay, simply considering you don't have every bit much time to write. That doesn't necessarily hateful that yous'll exercise worse on the essay - since an organized essay with potent specific examples will score better than a disorganized ane without specific examples - but it does mean that yous might end upwards with less time to write out your ideas.
How much time you leave yourself to write (vs. how much time yous take to plan). This is something you need to figure out for yourself through practice and observation. Over the years, I've realized that I can write fairly quickly, which means that it'southward okay if I take a picayune more time to plan out my essay - I'll still exist able to fill upwardly those two pages. On the other hand, if y'all find that you're a wearisome writer, you might non exist able to write plenty unless you get very fast at planning your essay.

In full general, bold about 150 words per handwritten page, you need to write at least a page and a half (1.5 pages) to get a iii or above on your essay (or a combined score of vi or above). You lot'll need at least that much infinite to say what you need to say and support it clearly with concrete examples.

What's Next?

Want to find out more than about how to write a good SAT essay? Watch united states write a height-scoring essay step-by-pace, then check out our tips on how to write a long SAT essay as well as our more full general Sabbatum essay tips.

Observe the secrets to getting a perfect 12 on your Sabbatum essay here.

What if yous're planning on taking the new Sat? Read our breakup of the new SAT essay hither.

Want to go serious nigh improving your SAT score? We have the leading online Saturday prep program that will enhance your score by 160+ points, guaranteed.

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Nigh the Writer

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 Sabbatum and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high schoolhouse.