Hello, I am the same person who posted this thread two months ago. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1970695-my-mom-has-not-let-me-do-any-ecs-throughout-high-school-will-college-admission-teams-understand.html#latest
The people on this thread told me that in order to get out of my rough life I will need a high SAT score.
Well my score was up on College board today and it was not good. I ended up getting a 1060 (520 W/CR + 540 M)
I know that this may appear as a red flag to colleges since my GPA is about a 3.8. I really don’t believe that my school participates in grade inflation. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have our exceptions, but I think I have had only 1-2 grades in my entire high school experience that were truly inflated. In most of my classes, our grades are based on what we get on tests or quizzes with a slight (1-3%) boost coming from homework and classwork.
If you don’t believe me still, my school is one of the top feeders into University of Michigan. https://www.michigandaily.com/content/feeder-schools We were #4 that year
I think the problem is more with me. I got really anxious during the test. It was so bad that I had to bubble about 20 random-ish answers on the reading section. I am also a really slow reader. It just takes me longer to process things than it does other people. In an un-timed context, I am a heck of a lot better at Writing/Language than I am at reading. On the SAT however, I didn’t even get to 2 of the questions on writing. I had a slightly easier time finishing math, but not much. I had to flat out guess on some of them because I realized it was going to take me too long to do something like synthetic division. At least I got myself to calm down, slightly, by the time we hit the calculator section.
Sylvan gave my school a free Practice SAT in October and I did WAY better on that. My score was a 1180 (640 W/CR + 540 M). So after seeing this, I expected to at least get a 1200 on the real SAT. The testing rooms were a lot more relaxed when we took these. I was allowed to have my water bottle, use my phone during break, and go to the bathroom between any section. They also didn’t jam pack each room with about 45 people. I think with all of these combined factors, I felt a lot more at ease during it. I finished reading with about 5-10 minutes to spare, I had a little trouble finishing writing, and I think I had trouble finishing math.
I would probably really benefit from tutoring and prep classes, but financial restrictions will prevent me from having any of this. From what I observe at my school, these classes/tutors are what gets most people to 1400-1600. Being in the Honors/AP classes, however, does skew what I see.
The teachers at my school say that their teaching is more tailored to the ACT… I don’t fully understand that statement, because aren’t you supposed to take what you learned from school and just study/practice the format? Our tests/quizzes in school aren’t SAT/ACT formatted.
My prep was not as intense as it should have been. I mainly focused on taking a bunch of SAT maths and focused on getting the problems right or understanding what I did wrong. I should have put a time constriction on myself. With no time limit, I was getting around 600-620 on math.
I realize my math scores on both tests were pathetic, but my main focus right now is to get that 520 back to a 640.
Should I try the ACT? I don’t see the point since I am already having enough trouble finishing the SAT. The latter seems to be a little more generous in time limits. I don’t have an IEP or anything like that to give me extended time nor would my mom be willing to jump through the hoops to get me one (if I truly do need it).
For college, I am looking to go anywhere that will give me lots of money to cover tuition/room and board. I just don’t want to be in a state like Alaska or go to any religious school. Michigan State did seem appealing to me. I’d like to study Genetics.