this article aims at describing the essay, how to compose them, and how to use scoring rubric or scoring criteria in assessing the students answers. there are some advantages and disadvantages of these tests. the main advantage because of its function to know about testee's competences in higher level thinking, such as: to analyze, to interpret, to sinthesize, to evaluate, and to predict something. this test is also effective in assessing complex learning outcomes, relatively easy to construct, and guessing is eliminated on the contrary it is difficult to be scored objectively because there is no common set of criteria for all students in essay tests, scores are as unreliable, well as effect or personal judgement, which can be catagorized as the disadvantages of essay test. to prevent the disadvantages, evaluates may use "the guidelines for writing clear essay questions "such as using keywords to specify thinking process, stating requirements clearly, indicate response length expected, setting time limits, and giving weights to questions. evaluators can also make scoring rubric to assess students answers to avoid unreliabilities.