Am I screwed?! (West Point)

<p>Greetings everyone,</p>

<p>I am currently a Junior in an extreme case of panic. My dream since I was young was to enroll in West Point and become a commissioned officer to serve my country, but as usual, our American way, not to different as other nations, have erected barriers to hinder us from our goals <em>cough SAT</em></p>

<p>Well, I took the PSAT in last year (10thgrade) and received a grotesque score of 1300 (no joke) This is on that new sat, not the old one out of 1800 (or whatever it was) Okay, lets be honest, that score sucks. </p>

<p>I have a GPA of 4.0, currently enrolled in 3 Aps, and some other classes. I am also in JROTC for my third year, which should overall help in the west point selection process. I am an Eagle Scout, which usually carries a lot of weight, and a member in the National honor Society. I am in other clubs as well, book club, german club, 4h, american red cross, order of the arrow (boy scout's national honor society) and a few others.</p>

<p>anyhow, my SAT score is what's hindering me. Its an evil test, they want us to do poorly on it to weed out the capable from the rest of the bunch. Quite frankly, I think its a fascist test, and proves nothing what so ever because a lazy guy could end up with a 2400 on their SAT and never do any of their work. Anyhow, who cares what I think. :(</p>

<p>the only way i can get in is to get a good SAT score... Am I doomed? please help me. XD</p>

<p>Study like crazy... Some people only study for the SATs in the last month they plan to take it and get pretty decent scores. That's all I can say. </p>

<p>Well, if you can't go to West Point, there's always ROTC at about a hundred other schools.</p>

<p>Stop being bitter about the test cuz that doesn't help you get anywhere. Use that time to STUDY STUDY!!! STUDY like it's the best thing in the world. Other than that, I don't know how your score can magically improve.</p>

<p>a 1300/1600 is not a bad score</p>

<p>He said new SAT. That's 1300/2400.</p>

<p>Ahahahahah. Ahhhh. There are some things I want to say, but it would be rude.</p>

<p>Buy the blue College Board SAT book and study. You should be able to improve it significantly.</p>

<p>umm yah, i think you should study alot as well. Your GPA is very VERY high compared to your SAT scores. Are you just a bad test taker? cuz if you r, i'd suggest you take a princeton review class (if possible) since they give you a TON of practice tests and give you dibs on how to guess (i did decently on mine even though i know ****). So yah, good luck!</p>

<p>i also dreamed of applying to west point, as long as you exhibit great leadership skills and keep the gpa i think a mediocre score (hopefully an 18/24) could be overcome. make sure your athletics stay up to par as well</p>

<p>I am a terrible test taker. There is no doubt about it, but I did manage to buy an SAT book (though its not made by collegeboard) My last question is.. how much weight does the SAT carry when you apply for college? Does it weigh around 25 percent? Less or More? I thought it went something like this:</p>

<p>gpa/class ranking = 50
SAT = 25
EC/volunteer/leadership/community= 25</p>

<p>Is that correct?</p>

<p>I think at West Point, academics are 60% of your evaluation on a whole, with 30% going to class rank and 30% going to standardized tests. </p>

<p>You should also check out the ACT. It's a different test and some people do a lot better on it versus the SAT.</p>

<p>Don't study from the collegeboard book except taking those practice tests. Collgeboard gives you no strategies whatsoever on how to take the test and no reviews whatsoever on the materials that you need to know. Use the Kaplan and Princeton ones. (You probably won't need the Barron's one)</p>

<p>Why would you want to serve a country which is the home of hypocrisy in the modern world? The US is the most ******** country in the world. Whatever though. Yea, try the ACT.</p>

<p>He thinks it's a 'fascist test' when he probably doesn't even really know what that word means. He'll fit in nicely in the military. Which, regardless of personal opinion, is the most powerful in the world.</p>

<p>I went to the local library, got the blue book. I hope it helps me somewhat...:(</p>

<p>we'll keep eyes open for princeton.</p>

<p>Yes, it is a fascist test. These kind of aptitude tests were designed to see who gets into the technical fields most desired. Thats why NCOs in the military should sue the army for creating the Asvab test.</p>

<p>Consider the ACT, but don't come to the conclusion that your PSAT score is going to be your SAT score. Lots of people do well on one and bad on the other. I speak from personal experience having only scored about a 117 (1170/1600) on my PSAT, but over 1440/1600 on my SAT with two 800s on the SAT IIs. </p>

<p>The key is to use your PSAT score as a wake-up to the fact that study will help you improve. </p>

<p>Here's a quick true-story. I wanted to go to Law school--you need at least an 88% on the test to qualify for most schools. My first practice test I was at 70%. Second was at 74%, etc. etc. until I was 95% on my 7th practice test after going through and figuring out what I was doing wrong and right each time.</p>

<p>When I finally took the test, I scored 93%. (This was after one month of study--if I started sooner, I'm sure I could have done better).</p>

<p>So you need to do the same. Have a regular regimen (pretend you are already in the military), and set aside a certain time when you will study for this test). In just a short time, you will have consistently high practice test scores that will give you the confidence you need to do well in the test.</p>