So after yesterday's post about how you should worry about SAT grammar before you worry about the essay, I'm going to switch gears and make some suggestions about when you should lay off the grammar and start thinking seriously about getting your essay score up.
Let me stress that working on the grammar before the essay is a long-term strategy; essay scores do not usually jump up overnight. Ideally, you still want to give yourself at least a couple of months to work out examples and structures and timing.
That said, I usually recommend that people start worrying seriously about the essay when your multiple choice score has plateaued and and a high(er) essay score has the potential to push your score across a major threshold.
For example, if you're consistently scoring about a 33 raw score (36/49 correct) and are at an 8 essay, pulling your essay up two points to a 10 will move you from a 560 to a 600, and pulling your essay up four points to a 12 will get you a 630.
Likewise, if you're consistently at a raw score of 43 (44/49 correct), going from an 8 to a 10 will pull you from a 660 to a 700, and a 12 will get you to a 730.
Since colleges tend to look at scores in bands of 50 (e.g. 600-650; 700-750), those are jumps that can make a very big difference.
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