Simple Tools to Ensure a Higher Score

Proofread Your Work.

• It always amazes me to watch students who finishes their essay with 2 minutes to spare and fold their paper over and stare into space as if they have nothing to do.
• What they NEED to do is PROOFREAD their work!
• On timed tests when students are working quickly and efficiently, test takers often forget a word in a sentence, omit a period or question mark and misspell easy words they know how to spell. Finding even one of these small mistakes might be the last little thing you need to inch your score up a notch and move you into a higher echelon in the Test Grader’s eyes.
• PROOFREAD!!! If you have the time and you really care about earning the best score you can, there will not be a wasted moment of time on the SAT Essay writing section. Students who have the time but do not bother to check over their work are not students who traditionally perform excellently well on the test. Proofread! It matters.

Avoid Carelessness.

• Pay attention to details.
• Make it a point to do away with sloppiness.
• If you practice NOT BEING SLOPPY during your practice essays, you will find that your performance will tend not to be sloppy as well.

Be legible.

• Students will NOT be marked down for their handwriting HOWEVER, without being legible, scores might suffer. (If I can’t read it, I can’t evaluate it.)

Remember, the Essay is Graded Holistically

Students get one score (on a scale from 1-6).

• Simple, proper execution can raise scores.
• A lack of simple execution can lower them.