DET Writing Sample
A longer piece of writing at the end of the test. The engine does not score it — and it is sent to every institution that receives your results. It is simultaneously the least consequential item for your number and one of the most consequential for your application.
Who reads it, and why that matters
Admissions staff may read it alongside your personal statement. A sample markedly weaker than an essay you submitted elsewhere invites an obvious question, and a sample that is competent and plainly yours quietly supports the rest of the application.
- Write in your own voice, at your own level.
- Structure it: a position, reasons, a conclusion.
- Finish it. An unfinished sample is the one thing a reader certainly notices.
Practical approach
- Spend the first thirty seconds deciding a position and two reasons.
- Write continuously; this is the end of an hour-long test and energy is the constraint.
- Keep to sentences you can control. Clear beats ambitious here.
- Use the last few seconds to finish the sentence you are on rather than starting another.
Because it is unscored by the engine, it is also the one place on the DET where a spelling slip costs nothing. Fluency and completeness matter more than surface accuracy.
Writing Sample — FAQs
2 questions
No. It is not scored by the engine.
Every institution you send your results to.
More writing question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.