[dragontamer]

You should have been like me and...

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)

[jbluepolarbear]

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.

[dragontamer]

Its so weird to hear that.

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.

[jbluepolarbear]

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.

[satyrnein]

Your differing experiences are an interesting data point in the question of whether the SAT is a fair and neutral evaluation.