I took the SAT the first year they added the essay. It wasn’t optional and they had no accommodations for people with disabilities. I would have much rather had a score of 1500/1600 than the dumb 1700/2400 I got.
Same, we must be about the same age, but interestingly I had the opposite experience there. That newly added section was only partly the essay and the other part was grammar. I got a pretty mediocre score on the essay and thought it would bring down my score but I did perfect on the grammar and got the full 800 points for the section.
In addition to disability issues you point out, I would expect that there was also a very strong racial/class correlation with that section. I'm from a middle class white family and my parents both went to college and speak "proper" english with minimal slang. I didn't study at all the for the grammar section and just chose the option that sounded right to me and I aced it. I'm sure it was more difficult for people from communities that speak different dialects/vernacular.
It was a third of the score and was a minimum of 200 points. I got the minimum because I attempted. They changed the scoring at some point to make the written section not count as much.
Seconding this. The former Writing section was not just the essay: it also had multiple-choice questions. Effectively, the essay itself was worth between 100 and 200 points, and the multiple-choice made up the rest.
1. Take the test the year before they added the essay, so you'd have the "non-essay" exam grade recorded. Even if you were in 9th or 10th grade, that's still useful.
2. Take the test again with the essay. But when you do so, have AP classes worth of "knowing how to write against a graded rubric" experience so that you beat everyone else's writing score. (Thank you AP World History teacher that I've forgotten... I'm pretty sure she taught me how to beat an essay portion on any test)
I have illegible hand writing. I was able to type all other standard tests I had taken up to that point. How was I supposed to know that they changed the test? When I signed up there was no mention of the essay and a lot of kids were surprised by the essay at the time of the test. I’m sure I would have rocked the essay had I been able to type it. I planned to major in English because i enjoyed writing. I haven’t written for fun since that test.
My entire college-bound peer group took the SAT twice, once without the essay and once with the essay. Literally all of us, every single friend/acquaintance in my year. Most of us took the PSAT (practice SAT) to get used to the "timing" of multiple choice. (When you're low on time, its time to start guessing and moving way quicker)
The exceptions were the military dudes, who left for the Iraq / Afghanistan wars. So they had no need to take the SATs.
We all were worried about how the essay would be graded, whether or not colleges would accept the essay score, or whatever. Some of us even took alternative tests (ACT) in addition to the SAT (I only took the SAT twice).
For us, the essay thing was announced long-in-advance and we literally strategized our college acceptance plans around it. I don't know who figured out the essay announcement, but... it was very well known in my bubble.
I took the presat and got one of the highest scores in my city. I wasn’t in any college group, I barely had the attention span to go to school. I was told by my counselor that I should take the sat to get into college, so I did. I was a senior at the time of taking it (2005) and there was a lot of controversy around the test that year. My family was so poor that I didn’t even know if college was going to be an option for me. because of this test I was unable to get any scholarships for English programs, but, since my math score was in the 95th percentile, I was able to get a small amount of engineering scholarships. I still ended up accruing a lot of student loan debt and ultimately dropped out because I never wanted to do engineering.
In addition to disability issues you point out, I would expect that there was also a very strong racial/class correlation with that section. I'm from a middle class white family and my parents both went to college and speak "proper" english with minimal slang. I didn't study at all the for the grammar section and just chose the option that sounded right to me and I aced it. I'm sure it was more difficult for people from communities that speak different dialects/vernacular.