The new SAT, which was introduced in March 2005, includes a writing selection with essay. This study evaluated (1) whether essay placement (either at the beginning or at the end of the test battery) impacts test-takers’ performance on the critical reading, mathematics, and writing multiple choice (MC) measures; and (2) whether essay prompt type (either a simple one-line prompt or a prompt including a short passage) affects test-takers’ essay performance. A total of 2,086 test-takers took the essay section first and 1,921 test-takers took the essay section last. Test-takers’ performance on the critical reading, mathematics, writing multiple-choice, and essay sections was then evaluated and the results compared.
