<p>So my kid - a junior - just got back her SAT scores....a 1980. She's bummed out and i have to admit (in this anonymous forum :) that I am a little too. She had never taken the SAT before but she felt really confident coming out of the room.....and she did great on the sophomore year PSAT (a 210). She was really hoping for a 2200....oh well.....any solace you can give us? :)</p>
<p>And yes…as I sit here & think about it a bit…a 1980 is great…but she really studied for it…its not like some of you here at CC who didn’t even prep & came out with a 2000 plus…I guess I shouldn’t be so blue about it…i just know how hard she worked.</p>
<p>your kid should not feel badly about this! I’m a junior and I got back my scores this morning…my mom thought I was going to make a 2400…I thought a 1500…I ended up with barely making it across the line…a 2010.
i’m going to do better next time.</p>
<p>Hold tight. Wait for the Junior year PSAT scores to come out (Late Dec, I think). Anyway, it should give you a lot of guidance. If its in the 210+ range that will show the SAT was probably a bad test day. If lower then it will show that the SAT is a representative score. The choice then will be the superscore option, but only if applicable. Some schools do not superscore. BTW as mention a 1980 is a very good score. GL</p>
<p>@SouthernHope:
A first-sitting score of 1980 is great. If she is willing to put in the work, she could certainly improve on that score in subsequent tests.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what sort of prep did your daughter do?</p>
<p>There are many possible reasons for her score not being up to expectations…</p>
<p>Was she scoring in the 2100-2200 range on practice tests? Over the years, I’ve found that for “prepared” students official SAT test scores track very closely with practice test scores.
Were her official SAT section scores comparable to her practice test section scores? Perhaps she performed poorly in a couple of sections that brought down the CR/M/W score.
How many full-length practice tests did she take? Stamina could be an issue. Students should be completing several full-length practice tests under simulated testing conditions (start-to-finish with official breaks only). Otherwise, their performance understandably falls off towards the end of the test. It’s a long test, after all.
Was she nervous before the official test? This is certainly a possibility that the proper practice should address.</p>
<p>I’ve worked for various test prep companies where each student devotes 10-12 hours a week over 8-12 weeks to SAT prep…during the school year. You don’t even want to know how many hours some kids spend on SAT prep during the summer. Kids in my classes would routinely improve by 200-300 points (compared to a College Board baseline test taken prior to prep)…some improved by much more. Hard work = achievement in the SAT world.</p>
<p>It’s fairly typical that students and parents underestimate how much work it takes to increase an SAT composite score by 100+ points.</p>
<p>She is a junior she has plenty of time to improve. I’ve only taken the sat twice with minimal effort in between and I went up 150 points (and 400 points from my sophomore PSAT which was a bad score but it goes to show almost everyone improves). I plan to take my last SAT December of senior year where I will most likely go up 100 more. If she got a 210 on her PSAT she already knows what to do she just has to try again. By the way the best way I used to study to go up is just to practice, check what you got wrong, memorize the right way to do the problem, and repeat. If I had taken more time to do that I would have done so much better so let your daughter be aware that she has to make time to study.</p>
<p>thanks you guys…this is good advice.</p>
<p>Bartle, her test prep was a private tutor…12 sessions…she actually never took the whole test as a practice…but this was such a good tutor…ah well…she also wasn’t nervous going in…she felt really well prepared. Well, we’ll wait for the December psat…and then study, study, study…the ACT is the next one up in Feb (she needs it for a couple of the colleges) and then she’ll probably do the late winter SAT.</p>
<p>Thank you Ana, my daughter will like your story! :)</p>
<p>“Bartle, her test prep was a private tutor…12 sessions…she actually never took the whole test as a practice…but this was such a good tutor.”</p>
<p>Why do you think the tutor was so good? The evidence indicates otherwise. Its hard to know how to evaluate a tutor. Have you read the Important threads in the SAT Forum? If not, they might be helpful.</p>
<p>CHD, that’s a good question. I guess because my daughter really looked forward to her visits…and their two hour sessions often went over because the studying was going so well…and also because she gave my DD great confidence…she was also ranked “the best” tutor with the firm we used…and it really was hard to book any time with her at all. </p>
<p>That said, i have not read anything about the SAT but I will do so now. I guess I thought she was going to float through it…which is sort of idiotic of me, when you think about it. :)</p>
<p>
I’ve been helping kids prepare for the SAT for many years. If the tutor never asked your daughter to take a full-length practice test in the course of her prep, that’s a big oversight, in my opinion. No excuse for that really.</p>
<p>Established test prep companies usually have a large collection of full-length SAT practice tests developed in-house. While these tests are typically not as good as the ones constructed by College Board, students still learn a lot from taking them.</p>
<p>I’d be willing to bet that your daughter’s performance level fell off as the test wore on. She probably missed a higher proportion of questions in Sections 7-10 of the official test. If you ordered College Board’s Student Answer Service (SAS) for the Nov. test, you’ll be able to find out the specific number of each incorrectly answered question. FYI, SAS is different from the Question and Answer Service (QAS) which gives the student a hard copy of all the test questions in addition to which questions were answered correctly/incorrectly. QAS is only offered for the Oct., Jan., and May tests.</p>
<p>
“Best” is a relative term. Over the years, I’ve worked at companies in which all of the other tutors weren’t very good instructors…or test-takers, for that matter. Test prep companies do very minimal instructor training. Often, the instructor turnover rate is high because they are getting paid a lot less than what they could be making as independent, private tutors.</p>
<p>It’s wonderful that the tutor had great rapport with your daughter. That still doesn’t excuse the fact that she never asked your daughter to complete a full-length practice test. That’s awful.</p>
<p>There could be any number of reasons why it was difficult to schedule time with the tutor. Perhaps the tutor only set aside a handful of tutoring slots per week on account of a busy work schedule. After all, many part-time tutors have day jobs outside the test prep industry.</p>
<p>On the bright side, who knows how much better your daughter will perform once she does the proper preparation? :-)</p>
<p>Truthfully, I’m kicking myself right now, Bartleby. I will order the SAS…and look more into the specifics you mention. Her broken out scores were 690 critical reading. 620 math. 670 writing.</p>
<p>@SouthernHope:
You didn’t know. Don’t be so hard on yourself. The fortunate thing is that now you know your daughter should be taking full-length practice tests as part of her prep. Scores in every single section should go up once she does that.</p>
<p>12 two-hour sessions…and not one full-length practice test. Absolutely appalling. (That’s entirely on the tutor and the company.)</p>
<p>You’d be surprised by all of the funny things I’ve witnessed in the test prep industry over the years. Poorly-trained, inexperienced teachers. Up-selling of ridiculous packages. Packing 30 students into a classroom. One thing that most companies get right is that they make students take full-length practice tests. It’s so important that it’s company policy (at least at most companies).</p>
<p>My first SAT taking I got a 1910. On my third take, I ended with a 2210. There is much room for improvement :)</p>
<p>Bartleby, i cannot thank you enough. Seriously.</p>
<p>Marcus, thank you for sharing your scores…a question…how do you think you went from a 1910 to a 2210 (I already know you’re going to say the old-fashioned way, but I have to ask :)</p>
<p>Well, there were a few jumps-- when I took my first practice test the summer between sophomore and junior year I got an 1840 (Princeton review), and took 3-4 practice tests before taking the real deal and getting a 1910. I knew that I could do better and signed up for a local SAT course (with heavy emphasis on writing), crunched a bunch of practice math sections, and got a 760 on writing (640 CR 680 Math) coming to a total of 2080.</p>
<p>To be honest, I was surprised at my poor CR score because I took AP Language, got a 5, and was never really bad at critical reading.</p>
<p>Then, I just went through my junior year taking difficult classes (3 APs and self studied USH) and took the ACT on a whim and got a 33. I was pleasantly surprised but took the SAT again anyway just for fun and ended up with the 2210.</p>
<p>You’ll hear stories about people doing 10+ practice tests, but for me going in with a relaxed and focused mind just did the job. Taking hard courses during the school year got my brain used to working hard (taking calculus continues to help my understanding of basic math). Maybe it would be higher if I did 10+ practice tests like others, but my extracurriculars generally occupy too much of my time for that :)</p>
<p>Good luck in your endeavors!</p>
<p>Marcus, many thanks for the great reply. Very helpful.</p>
<p>Did she study at all? Because my first time without studying, I got a 1980 too! And then after I studied, I ended up raising it to a 2330! so just tell her to study, and I’m sure she’ll bring it up.</p>