What is the average SAT essay score?

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The College Board doesn’t release essay scores:

When I sat down to write this post, I discovered something interesting: the College Board doesn’t actually release an average SAT essay score.

They do, however, release an average composite Writing score for the nation, which includes the SAT essay score. The average Writing score is approximately 510, though it varies from year to year.

Now here’s the good news – as a professional SAT tutor, I’ve got a pretty good idea of the average SAT essay score.

My estimate of the average SAT essay score:

Based on my professional tutoring experience (I’ve worked with over 100 students on SAT prep), the average SAT essay score is right in the middle! The essay is scored on a 2-12 scale, and I’m going to estimate that the average SAT essay score is between a 6 and a 8.

I see a lot of scores in that range, a few that are a 4 or 5, a decent number that are a 9 or a 10, and a very, very few that score an 11 or a perfect 12.

Scores below 4 are pretty rare if you use a good basic essay structure and stay on topic.

SAT Essay books that will improve your score:

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