Scoring:

    Two trained scorers will take about one minute to read and evaluate your essay. Clearly, this isn't enough time for a detailed examination of each essay. Instead, essays are scored holistically, meaning that scorers base their evaluation on the overall impression of the essay. But what exactly do scorers look for?

    They certainly don't expect perfect essays. Essay scorers are very aware of the limitations under which the essays are written, so they really only expect quality first drafts. In other words, even the highest scoring essays can have a few mistakes. The Guide that scorers use to assess the essays lists the five following categories.

    Development and Support

    This relates to how the writer responds to the question in the prompt and develops ideas. Of the five categories, this one is the most important.

    Here are excerpts from the first two paragraphs of a well-developed essay written to answer the question. Is it more important to be true to yourself than to conform to the expectations of others? Notice how the first paragraph directly answers the question, and then the second paragraph offers ample support for the answer.

    The history of America is rich with examples of people who were true to their own instead of behaving like everyone else. Many of these people actually changed society for the better. Henry David Thoreau was one such person

    Throughout his lifetime, Henry David Thoreau thought for himself and acted upon his own opinions. In the years leading up to the Civil War, he was a vocal opponent against slavery. To protest slavery and the government that allowed it, Thoreau refused to pay his federal taxes. Thoreau was thrown in jail for this refusal. While there, he wrote an essay called "Civil Disobedience", encouraging people to stand up for their beliefs and break laws that were unjust.

    Organization

    This simply refers to the flow of ideas from the essay's introduction to its body, through to its conclusion.

    See how the first sentence of each paragraph in this sample indicates the essay's organization?

    The history of America is rich with examples of people who were true to their own  instead of behaving like everyone else

    Throughout his lifetime, Henry David Thoreau thought for himself and acted upon his own opinions

    A second example of an American who did what he believed rather than what most people thought he should do is the former Illinois governor, George Ryan