May SAT results are in online-retake?

[rockala]

The results are in and dd was sick with strep when she took it in May so we signed up for the June one. Orignally though our intention was to take SAT II in June, Biology & Literature as she is finishing A & P now.

 

Her results are in and the scores are okay, just above average. her prelim tests suggested she would get around an 1800, and she got 1680. I know that is not high as many here are over 2000, but that is not us.

 

Now I am wondering if she should try to take SAT in the fall and try to contact College Board to change next weeks test to SAT II. I am not sure that is possible though. DD is not up yet and she is quite burned out from a heavy course load this year and just wants it over.

 

DD will be first generation college and so the whole thing is new to us. She will go to college, but sometimes is burned out and is unsure. Do others have kids who feel this way and are college bound? We have done more than fine without college, in fact better than many college friends we have. I know that it is different now though and am trying to encourage that.

 

I am just not sure how to guide her. She is not looking at elite colleges, but wanted to do well. The thought of having to study all summer to retake SAT in October though is overwhelming.

 

Kathy

Edited May 24, 2012 by rockala

[mooooom]

I really doubt that they would allow you to "switch" tests, they have to be ordered in advance - but it couldn't hurt to ask.

 

I do, however, think it would be beneficial to retake in Oct - this is what my kids did. Read books all summer to boost vocab, and spend .5hrs a day on math review. Any point increase will be beneficial - even if you don't change ideas on which schools to apply to, the higher the score, the more likely to get merit aid. And a 4 month breather might be a good idea. Also, with the results you have, you will know where to focus studying. And I do think there is a big difference between 1680 and 1800.

 

From what I've read, schools don't like to see the SATs taken more than twice.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The results are in and dd was sick with strep when she took it in May so we signed up for the June one. Orignally though our intention was to take SAT II in June, Biology & Literature as she is finishing A & P now.

 

Her results are in and the scores are okay, just above average. her prelim tests suggested she would get around an 1800, and she got 1680. I know that is not high as many here are over 2000, but that is not us.

 

Now I am wondering if she should try to take SAT in the fall and try to contact College Board to change next weeks test to SAT II. I am not sure that is possible though. DD is not up yet and she is quite burned out from a heavy course load this year and just wants it over.

 

DD will be first generation college and so the whole thing is new to us. She will go to college, but sometimes is burned out and is unsure. Do others have kids who feel this way and are college bound? We have done more than fine without college, in fact better than many college friends we have. I know that it is different now though and am trying to encourage that.

 

I am just not sure how to guide her. She is not looking at elite colleges, but wanted to do well. The thought of having to study all summer to retake SAT in October though is overwhelming.

 

Kathy

 

My kids took the May test and I stuck around in the lobby for a bit, just to be available if there was any sort of problem. There was a small group of students who were doing various changes to their tests.

 

There was a particular order to how they were called. I think the priority was change in date, change in center, change in test (from subject to reasoning or vice versa). These student might have all been in standby status, hoping there were extra tests available, but there is definitely a mechanism for making changes. If she registered online, she should be able to go online and see how to make any changes.

 

My suggestion would be to have dd take whichever test she feels she's most prepared for, planning to study for the other test in the fall. Many people suggest subject tests close to the time the course was taken. However, it also doesn't sound like she's spent the last few weeks prepping for those. On the other hand, the summer might give her time to master math concepts that gave her trouble on the test.

 

While there is probably little to be gained by taking the SAT a half dozen times, I don't think most schools would frown too much at three. Or even four, depending on how they are distributed.

 

If she has some specific colleges in mind, take a minute to go to those websites and see what SAT scores they are looking for. You can often find this by looking for "freshman profile". I think College Board might also have a search engine that displays colleges with their average SAT.

 

Seeing this could help your dd see that her scores aren't terribly distant from the average for the schools she's interested in. It might make it seem like she is trying to improve 20-50 points rather than trying to go up hundreds. That could take a lot of stress off.

[KJB]

First, go here:

 

http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/

 

Play around with location, GPA, scores, and the other fun things you can put in as search criteria. You'll find lots and lots of schools she can get into with a 1680.

 

I would figure out where she is most likely to go and work backwards from their requirements to your plan for rather or not she retakes.

 

And, a 1680 still works out to be a better score than almost 70% of all test takers (taken from 2006 data). She did well and should be proud!

 

Check this out:

 

http://www.satscores.us/sat_scores_by_score.asp?score=1680

 

I wanted to add, you can cancel and reschedule testing fairly easily. We had to reschedule due to travel and it wasn't a problem.

Edited May 24, 2012 by KJB

[Susan C.]

Major burn out here too, and dd missed the score she needs by a very small amount. Her scores are about what your dd got, and both of them should be proud! They are not bad scores!!

 

I am going to try to put her together enough for June test, I signed up several weeks ago, and told her she could just not go if she didn't need to. Hopefully she will be comforted that just a little more will get it for her! For you, I would just send your dd without too much prep since she got the scores already. My dd is a senior, so June is it.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The results are in and dd was sick with strep when she took it in May so we signed up for the June one. Orignally though our intention was to take SAT II in June, Biology & Literature as she is finishing A & P now.

 

Her results are in and the scores are okay, just above average. her prelim tests suggested she would get around an 1800, and she got 1680. I know that is not high as many here are over 2000, but that is not us.

 

Now I am wondering if she should try to take SAT in the fall and try to contact College Board to change next weeks test to SAT II. I am not sure that is possible though. DD is not up yet and she is quite burned out from a heavy course load this year and just wants it over.

 

DD will be first generation college and so the whole thing is new to us. She will go to college, but sometimes is burned out and is unsure. Do others have kids who feel this way and are college bound? We have done more than fine without college, in fact better than many college friends we have. I know that it is different now though and am trying to encourage that.

 

I am just not sure how to guide her. She is not looking at elite colleges, but wanted to do well. The thought of having to study all summer to retake SAT in October though is overwhelming.

 

Kathy

 

I have to add that I'm so jealous that you have the scores already. We did paper registration, so I have to wait a couple weeks to see how the scores turn out.

[snowbeltmom]

I have to add that I'm so jealous that you have the scores already. We did paper registration, so I have to wait a couple weeks to see how the scores turn out.

If your child is under 13, you can call and get the scores for free. If your child is over 13, you can also call today and for a fee, the 'non-profit" CB will provide the scores.

[Tiramisu]

What is a realistic expectation for a score increase in retaking the SAT?

 

I was a little disappointed in my dd's scores, too. They were lower than I expected based on the PSATs, both the actual PSAT scores and the percentile ranking. I wish they had the percentile ranking for the May test to see where dd fits in because it seems like quite a drop.

 

With the scores she got, she shouldn't have a problem getting into the schools she's looking at, but for different practical reasons, I was hoping for a chance for a scholarship at a less selective school.

 

She'll take the ACT in June. I think that may suit her better since it's supposed to be an achievement test rather than a reasoning test. We'll see how it goes. Unless she does particularly well, we're looking at the SAT again in the fall.:001_smile:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

If your child is under 13, you can call and get the scores for free. If your child is over 13, you can also call today and for a fee, the 'non-profit" CB will provide the scores.

 

Well, I was able to get one set of scores by phone and did end up creating an account for the other son so I could see his. Glad I did. Nice not to have to wait.

[ThisIsTheDay]

but sometimes is burned out and is unsure. Do others have kids who feel this way and are college bound? We have done more than fine without college, in fact better than many college friends we have. I know that it is different now though and am trying to encourage that.

 

I am just not sure how to guide her. She is not looking at elite colleges, but wanted to do well. The thought of having to study all summer to retake SAT in October though is overwhelming.

 

 

My dd scored 1590, about 100 less on the math portion than expected, based on her prelim testing. She'll be taking it again in the fall.

 

She's overwhelmed in general about her upcoming senior year. She's eager to start a new season of her life, but there are so many changes, so many decisions to be made, and I think she worries that if she makes the "wrong" decision, she'll mess up her life.

 

While her goal is a four year college, I've encouraged her that there are plenty of other things she can do--community college into a four year, or a trade. She's considered the military, either pre- or post-college. Because of her interest in foreign culture and language, we'd gladly send her overseas in some sort of mission field for a year or two, if she'd prefer. Ultimately, she'd likely get as much out of that as college, just with different end results. I don't think the variety of options she has is helping her though, poor kid.

 

I don't think your dd needs to study all summer for fall SATs. She expected to score better based on earlier scores. She can take a break, and then begin brushing up in August, a few times a week, or whatever works best for her.

[Tiramisu]

I think it depends on whether the student is taking more math (for example) or not. Ds currently has a 1970 and I would expect a huge jump since he's finishing geometry and alg II. Also, if the student already has a 740 for example (ds in Reading) he's not likely to go up much in that. Since his math is only at a 600 as a sophomore, it should. It should go way up. Our experience has been that once they are at the end of junior year, there hasn't been much of an improvement.

 

Thanks, Margaret. She's a junior so I guess I shouldn't expect too much improvement.

 

I was a little bummed yesterday, but then I went on the collegeboard.com and looked again at the profiles of the colleges dd is looking at--those few that have her desired major--and she is in a stronger position than I thought. I guess we'll hope for the best and should be glad that she in a good position for admission at least.

 

At the same time, she needs to take math more seriously. This year was mostly SAT math review, but she said she basically went through how problems were solved using the materials we had, but did not really work through the problems herself.:001_huh: and :confused:

[Jen in NY]

http://blog.pwnthesat.com/

 

http://thecriticalreader.com/SAT/ACT-Blog.html

 

My dd took the SAT in March, and she was fairly happy with her scores but wanted to do better. Instead of studying content she learned some strategies (especially in the Critical Reading), and her composite score went up almost 200 points. There are websites that give tricks about how to approach the test, which she found more helpful than trying to strongarm it. I will come back and edit in links when I find out what they were.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Jen in NY
adding links