ACT Essay vs New SAT Essay

How is the ACT essay different from the SAT essay? There were big changes this year to both the ACT essay and SAT essay. The SAT, as pretty much everyone knows by now, is completely changing in spring 2016. And the ACT, which has always been far more hesitant to change, introduced a new essay format in the fall of 2015. In this episode of TuesdACT, we’re comparing both essays. Want to find out which essay is going to be better for you? Check out the video and the highlights below! Time Limit: ACT Essay: 40 Minutes SAT Essay: 50 Minutes Optional? ACT Essay: You betcha. SAT Essay: Me too! The Prompt: ACT Essay: Analyze three perspectives on an issue and present your own. SAT Essay: Read a passage and explain how the author uses certain strategies to build an argument and persuade an audience. The Grading: ACT Essay: Two different graders score an essay from 1 to 6 on four different writing domains: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. The raw score of points added up from the graders is converted to a scaled score from 1 to 36. SAT Essay: Two graders score students from 1 to 4 in three different categories: Reading, Analysis, and Writing. These scores are added together but remain separate in categories, so students will receive three scores from 2 to 8 for each category. How do I know whether the ACT essay or New SAT essay is better for me? The SAT essay is probably going to feel more familiar to most students. You likely are asked to analyze texts and write essays on them in your English classes all the time. Although you may do essays similar to what’s on the ACTbasically a persuasive essayit is less common. If you are good at critically analyzing textsmeaning you can describe why an author is doing certain things to achieve a certain effectyou may be better at the SAT essay. If you are good at logic and debatemeaning you can easily come up with pros and cons for various issues and supporting points and examplesyou may be better at the ACT essay. Because the SAT essay has a domain for â€Å"Reading,† students who are strong readers, but not as confident as writers, may feel this works to their advantage. They can understand what a text is doing, but may not feel like they have that flourish to their writing. Because the ACT essay privileges ideas and examples, students who know a lot about historical and current events may be at an advantage here. The ACT loves good examples, and students who can come up with them will be rewarded!