My kids have not taken SAT’s yet, or an ACT. They have awesome grades - 4.6 weighted. They are taking SATs in November, I think.
So we have online SAT practice tests they can do… and they don’t do that well, IMO… about 1250ish.
They will take the SATs as often as they can in hopes of a good grade. They have taken the practice several times and don’t seem to be getting any better.
So, question is, how much will this hurt them? I know it will vary college by college, but generally speaking, how bad is this for them?
You’re right, it will vary by college. For very selective colleges you are going to want test scores at the mid 50 or higher mark. For colleges that are less selective the scores may not have to be at that level.
You can look up the Common Data Sets for schools you are interested in to get the mid 50 percentile range. Sometimes schools have that info directly on their website too, in the class profile section under admissions.
I’d say to manage your expectations. Look at the Common Data Sets. Your kid could have a great story to tell and an incredible work ethic and be accepted at a place with high test scores, or he could be rejected. Go into the process with your eyes open.
Perhaps they can check what questions they got wrong on the practice tries. If there are specific types of questions that they have difficulty with, perhaps some targeted preparation for those types of questions may be helpful.
Retaking tests, studying and practicing for them, can help a lot. My #1 never studied for the tests but by the time he’d taken tests 2-3 times from “talent search” to PSAT to SAT 1 to SAT 2 he improved a lot and had outstanding scores. He was a National Merit Scholar.
My #2 also never studied but did pretty well, esp. b/c she was interested in attending art school. Her scores were plenty good, as were her grades, but her ability in art (as represented by her portfolio) was the critical part of her application. Several years after she graduated from art school, however, she decided to apply to business school. To get into a top 10 program she would need excellent GMAT scores. She studied hard including taking a college math class as a refresher as well as an on-line Princeton Review GMAT course. Time and money well spent. She got test scores that were much higher than she had in SAT’s. She earned her MBA from a top 10 business school.
Experience matters. Repeat the tests. Take a course – self-guided; online can work fine.
If there is going to be a gap between test scores and grades, an applicant would want the gap you describe. To the extent that test scores reflect potential (which is often the way they are treated) while grades definitely reflect actual performance and effort, the latter are more important. If effort and performance outweigh the test scores, it simply shows a student who probably doesn’t test that well who ALSO, most importantly, works hard and performs well. Colleges care way more about performance than potential.
Of course, many schools will still evaluate applicants with test score targets in mind, so the suggestions above about looking at the range of scores for the incoming class at the target schools are good suggestions. But at the end of the day, depending on one’s target schools, it certainly IS possible to worry too much about the scores.
I don’t know unweighted scores, but since 9th grade neither of them ever scored less than an A- on ANYTHING in school. This year they are both taking 3 AP classes. one expects 3 A’s… one expects 2 A’s and a possible B in AP Bio, which she is freaking out about.
There are plenty of options for students with excellent grades and not-so-impressive test scores. High scores play more into financing because they can be the ticket to substantial merit money at some colleges – so you might want to get a sense of what schools your kids might be aiming for. Don’t even factor the super-elite (Ivies) into the equation at this point-- even with perfect scores, most kids get rejected from those, so not something to stress over.
I think the GPA is much more important because it reflects the student’s discipline and work ethic,
I have a kid with high test scores and one with scores like you are seeing in practice. The kid with the high scores ended up graduating from a directional state U., 7 years after he graduated from high school; the kid with the meh scores graduated summa cum laude from an elite college, right on schedule. That discipline and work ethic part really comes in handy once they actually get to college. Helps down the line on the employment front as well.
I’ve got a kid like that, phenomenal grades at a challenging school but SAT scores that don’t match. Her highest score is not low by any means, it’s just not as high as her abilities would predict. Her scores would not get her into a prestigious school, but that’s OK since she does not care about that. I focused on schools with generous merit aid where her scores put her at the 75th percentile or above. They are out there. She applied to one reach school, just to see if she could get it, but all of other schools she applied to she is a good candidate. She really studied hard for the SAT (she does better on that then the ACT), and managed to bring her score up 70 points between the 1st and 2nd tests, and we pondered a 3rd try, but I really think standardized tests are not her strong suit and I didn’t want to put her through it again.
@AbsDad hire a tutor that can help them work through the tests they’ve already taken and understand what they’ve gotten wrong. I’m guessing the tutor could help both of them at the same time and save you a little money. You may only need two or three sessions. I recommend they continue taking practice tests at home under tight time constraints and exact scenarios as the real thing. They need to go through every single problem they got wrong and understand why they got it wrong. If it’s because they’re running out of time on the ACT then maybe they should focus on the SAT. They should choose one of these tests that they prefer or that they’re doing better on and focus solely on that.
If in the end they do not improve then you should look at test optional schools. There are many!
You need to know the unweighted gpa. “Awesome” depends on available number of AP/Honors, how they influence the gpa et al. Now in Tampa and the vals/sals in the county have gpa’s ranging from 5 something to 7 something- weighted, of course. Awesome grades would be close to a 4.0 unweighted in my book.
You can easily figure the unweighted gpa using the grades and not adding points for AP/Honors.
The reason the SAT exists is to provide a standardized measure of academic ability to colleges because high school grading scales vary widely.
If I want a measure of intellectual ability, I’m going to weigh the SAT score more heavily than the GPA. But if I want to know which kid is more likely to do well in college and in life, I’ll pick the kid with the top GPA, hands down.
The dedicated, hardworking student has a better chance of succeeding in life than the flaky whiz kid with perfect SAT scores.
Your kids may not get into Princeton, which wants top scores and grades, but they’re definitely going to get into a good school, and will thrive there.
They may do better on the actual tests as the environment is going to be what they are used to taking tests in. It’s hard to say as they may get distracted at home. However, there are strategies to taking tests beyond just using the practice test. Our school offers prep courses that teach those strategies several times a year. If your school does not offer prep courses, I would recommend looking into classes elsewhere. I’m sure there are private tutors/companies that offer something similar. My son raised his ACT by 5 points by taking the classes and using the prep offered (for a fee) by ACT. It is actually worse to have a low GPA and a High SAT/ACT. It means you have not worked to your potential. If in the end the scores are not where you hoped, you can look at test optional schools. There are some excellent schools that are test optional - GW, American U & Furman to name a few.
Please don’t have your kids take the SAT over and over and over and over and over. Really…I would say three times would be the max they should do,this.
Look at their scores…if they are very similar from one administration to the hext…with good prep…then the likelihood of them changing dramatically is not very high with more and more administrations.
May I also suggest that if a student has the opportunity to take the SATs or ACTs at a quieter time in their life, it may help with the scores. My DD struggled with the math score. She got the exact same lowish score in the PSATs and first two SATs. She took the SATs one last time in August (not school time in the NE.) She had a busy summer taking a class at the county college, studying for a certification exam and doing a theater show so she did little new preparation. However, the atmosphere at the test was relaxed, almost party like. The kids were all in great moods. She boosted her math score by 70 points and kept her good English score.
I’m going to plan for that timing for my next one.