If your kids aren’t doing well in the math SAT- why not focus on getting them better in math? Similarly, have them take a look at where they are getting multiple wrong answers on the verbal- and focus on that. Continuing to take the test seems like a waste of time in the absence of understanding what they are getting wrong.
It may simple stuff- some confusion around percentages or fractions. It could be slow reading and processing skills. For the sake of their actual college life (not admissions, but in doing college level work) why not figure out what’s going on and help them improve?
Test taking and more test taking doesn’t seem to move the ball down the field…
A kid who always gets a problem wrong when it involves order of operations needs to relearn that concept. A kid who cannot do simple fractions in his or her head (i.e. 20% is equal to 1/5th) is going to take much longer than necessary to work through a question. A kid who typically cannot finish the verbal section in time without taking wild guesses for the last three questions needs to work on improving their reading speed and comprehension.
These tests aren’t rocket science- but most kids don’t do the follow up after getting the score- i.e. what am I getting wrong, and how do I learn the technique or material or formula so I get better.
Randomly banging away at the tests without addressing the underlying issues isn’t going to magically make a math score go up by 50 points.
So yesterday both of them took the SAT test for the first time and both of them said the actual tests were FAR EASIER than the online prep tests. They said the difference was in there was far less geometry - which they said they had in 8th grade and had mostly forgotten.
We get the scores in about 2 weeks or so. They both seem to think they will score in the 1300’s, which isn’t bad for a first attempt, IMO… now they kind of know what to expect.
My son who was doing well on the reading practice said yesterday’s reading passage questions were tougher than the practice - he said a few of the questions were confusing.
However, he did feel the math was easier than the practice. Someone on the reddit SAT board posted (after the exam) the last reading passage. I thought it was extremely difficult (like I understood nothing - lol) and find it odd that the college board thinks comprehending nuclear science is a measure of college readiness.
I’m so hopeful he can just get to the 90th percentile first go around and not think about this darned test any more.
I think that you need to look at certain target schools and see where the student stands. I think that aiming for / being at the 75% percentile is a good place to be absent any other hooks.
Let say you take the same student with a 3.8 UW GPA and a 4.4 weighted GPA. Is getting a 1300 a problem on the SAT?
School A 3.6 - 3.8 25%/75% UWGPA and 1250-1290 25%/75% SAT
School B 3.6 - 3.8 25%/75% UWGPA and 1350-1390 25%/75% SAT
For School A it would appear not to be a problem. For School B, the student is hurt by having a 1300 SAT.
My D has very similar #'s (5.29W 4.0UW). She got a 1260 on Nov SAT (710 R & 550 M). Obviously math is where she needs to improve. She basically went in cold, just did the Khan Academy stuff based on her PSAT in 10th grade.
One thing that nobody has mentioned is to pay the extra $15 or so to get the official test report. It said “you did well on standard a, b, c…etc”. “You need to work on standards x, y, z…etc.” (sorry that I don’t know the exact name of this report)
It seemed like well worth that small amount of money. Our plan is to take that and hire a math tutor to focus on the specific standards she needs work on.
About reading those score reports–my S was one of those “doesn’t study for anything, generally did fine”, kind of students. When he took the SAT for the first time, his math seemed kind of low for him. He looked at the report and realized he was getting things wrong through hasty computation. Took it three months later and math went up 60 points–putting his SAT well in line with his grades. Learned a lesson in paying attention to detail, as well as ended up in his reach school.
“The dedicated, hardworking student has a better chance of succeeding in life than the flaky whiz kid with perfect SAT scores.”
Most kids that have perfect scores also work hard to get those scores, like spending most of the summer before to prep. What do you mean by flaky whiz kid? Someone like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg who dropped out of college? Yeah they sure toiled away.
^Most may work hard prepping for high scores, but certainly you don’t have to be one of those listed above to get high to perfect scores with little or no prep. They may be a minority of high-scorers, but certainly not a tiny one.
If there is going to be a gap between test scores and grades, it is better to have the grades be better than the test scores. Colleges want to know who is going to perform in college. Performance in college requires the same skill set as high school performance. On the other hand, it is true that colleges screen on test scores too. I think that a trained test-specific tutor can be well worth the time and money investment. There are lots of options for test prep. For example, Kaplan offers one-on-one tutoring that can be costly but also offers group sessions (even some online). Depending on the student, group sessions can be useful too. Finally, some students get better scores on the ACT than the SAT. It is worth taking both tests at least once to see what happens.
More and more schools are offering the no-test option for applicants, even some high quality liberal arts colleges.
At the end of the day, the family needs to sit down and talk about goals, finances and target schools. It could be the case that the target schools are going to treat this sort of overall applicant package quite favorably.
Yes, they toiled away at their startup projects. Of course, if their startup projects failed, they could have just gone back to college and finished their degrees.
^ While Jobs has many faults, I am not sure if it’s fair to put him there. He didn’t have wealthy family and saving tuition was one of the reasons he dropped out.
“All of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition,” - Jobs
Well they got there first ever SAT scores today… not as good as the PSAT scores…1290 and 1320… But they both said that is 90th percentile. So that is good, I guess.
“Yes, they toiled away at their startup projects. Of course, if their startup projects failed, they could have just gone back to college and finished their degrees.”
I think you may have misinterpreted my comment, I was trying to point out that flaky whiz kids can do real well in life too.
1330 here for son. 1330 is 90th percentile according to college board. Same thing here - the reading section was hard and my son’s score went down from the 700s in practice test.
I was hoping for one time test but he is 30 points away from merit at a college of interest so he will be trying again
