Brandeis is now also test optional.
NYU is test optional. You can substitute SAT with AP or subject tests. Also, maybe she has testing anxiety. Worth looking into.
*** Correction about Conn College. It was a total package. They are full need school so my daughter got an award but they don’t give merit ( to anyone) …I kept all the acceptance packages 
My apologies…I truly thought that most schools required testing scores for their merit awards. I’m not sure where I got that information but I am sorry for posting erroneous information.
Ah that’s ok. I just did not want to discourage anyone. I have helped other kids apply to schools besides my own, The test optional / merit route only works when the other parts of the application are picture perfect. (GPA wise, rigor, EC’s and recommendations.) I found that out last year when I helped D’s friend whose application GPA wise was a little weak.
Ditto. Get her to try ACT. My daughter did much better on ACT than SAT.
@myjanda My D who is a senior did much better on the ACT than the SAT’s. She found them more straightforward and took them 4 times. Increased her score from an initial 25 to a 29 just with practice. She was trying to break 30- wasn’t meant to be. She has gotten into very good schools. There is hope!
As you know , there are a ton of wonderful test optional schools to consider if her scores don’t go up. These schools recognize that not everyone is a great standardized test taker and that the standardized tests are not always a reflection of a person’s ability. In life it is often the hard workers who succeed so tell your D to keep doing what she is doing and she will be just fine.
And I agree that she could try the ACTs. They are better for some kids.
http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional/state
If I’m remembering correctly, my older daughter took the SAT but came home afterward and did whatever the thing is one can do so that the scores are never reported, because she thought she had bombed. She took the ACT and got a 34. Despite her great ACT score, she does not like taking tests, so one of the things she looked for in colleges was programs with alternative-grading possibilities. She ended up at one of those schools, was deliriously happy, and now, two years after graduation, still misses college a huge amount.
Given the details about the pencils, it does sound like going through the test and score sheet is important before making any decisions about next steps. Is it possible that having to switch pencils at the last minute threw her off? Did she ever take a diagnostic for the ACT. That is what a lot of people do in NYC these days. My daughter took diagnostics for SAT and ACT spring of sophomore year and opted to go the SAT route but a lot of her friends opted to go the ACT route and still others, switched to ACT after they couldn’t improve scores on SAT. Even after my daughter did well on the SAT, she second guessed her decision not to take the ACT because the buzz at her school this year was that it is much easier to get a 36 on the ACT than a 2400 on the SAT. I have no idea whether that is true but it did move a lot of people to the ACT.
The SAT is still the norm here in MA. Certainly some kids do take the ACT as well though it usually seems either like a what the hell let me try it or an oops maybe I’ll do better than on the SAT.
I’m signing her up to take the ACT in June and we’ll see. She’ll have to do some work beforehand to familiarize herself with the test but I’d think she’ll be motivated after this experience and it’ll be very interesting to see how it goes.
That’s interesting to hear. Here in NYC there has been a definite shift toward the ACT in the last year and it has become the norm to take diagnostics for both. Some of the test prep places have a combo diagnostic for that reason… I went to hear one of the expensive college consultants speak at the JCC and she said that she felt that you got “more bang for your buck with the ACT” than the SAT. My daughter did slightly better on the ACT diagnostic but preferred the format of the SAT so she stuck with that. The ACT is definitely more straightforward. Also, unlike the SAT, you are not penalized for guessing so when you said that your daughter left some questions blank on the math, that makes me think that she might prefer the ACT. And the fact that she is such a strong student at school also may favor the ACT as it is supposed to be more based on curriculum.
Myjanda, what you shared about the tutor is very good news. There are indeed very valid reasons to avoid January. There are numerous reasons why your D had a bad day, and the tutor might be able to address them.
I would NOT jump on the ACT bandwagon if your daughter had timing issues. One option might be to sit for the ACT as they offer an earlier Fall test. A set of dedicated practices in the summer could do wonders in October and November of the senior year.
Again, the ACT vs SAT is a decision that should be based on the evaluation of the tutor. The experience of thousands of strangers might have ZERO relevance to your case. Some like the ACT better and others remain unimpressed. I happen to think that dedicated students respond better to coaching with the SAT. The straightforward part is entirely subjective. I have always found the SAT more precise and more rewarding for students with reasonable reasoning capabilities. But to each his own.
The next months should help. Fwiw, rebuilding the confidence is really easy. There is a method that works great for that part and requires very little time.
Collegeboard instructions specifically say not to use a mechanical pencil, so I might start with that simple first step of determining whether that had an effect on the scoring.
It’s odd to score so much lower on the real test compared with her practice tests, but my DS has done it before. Maybe it’s test anxiety?
I would forget the sat for now. All colleges accept act in lieu of sat. Get the red “the real act” book from amazon. Have her take the first test under timed conditions and see how she does. I bet she does better. Ask her how this test “feels” to her. Maybe take one more test. If she likes it, then find her a tutor (or she can study independently) for the act instead of the sat.
She should study for the act just as hard as she was studying for the sat previously. If she doesn’t like the act format then continue to work towards retaking sat with tutor.
Act has 4 sections plus writing (she needs to do the writing part) where you can concentrate for 1 hr and when your done withe that section, you can change gears for the next section. And they always come in the same order. Sat gives 10 sections and they come in different orders every time (except writing which is always first) and you have to keep switching gears between topics etc. most will find the act easier than the sat.
Also, I would NOT have her study for both the sat and act at the same time. They have very different timing issues that a good test taker must master. So she should study for either act or decide to restudy for sat, but not do both at the same time.
Good luck!
She sounds like an able student. She should take it again, and also take the ACT. My nephew took the ACT eight times. The first time he made a 24; the last time, a 34. Something is not right for your daughter to have a 180 on the PSAT and then have the SAT score that she posted.
There are lots of very good schools (and the number is increasing every year) that are “test optional” or allow for an alternate to the SAT or ACT (for example submitting several AP scores or an academic portfolio in lieu of SAT scores).
I would wait to jump to the ACT until you know whether the pencil was the problem or at least some of it. Hopefully the hand scoring will show some correct answers that were not scored. As another data point, my son did no better on the ACT but improved on the SAT the second time. Some of his friends also did no better and pivoted back to SAT. As xiggi says have the tutor advise on whether it better to try ACT or just try again on SAT
Get the test hand graded if you can still get the request granted. That the pencil used is not the optimal one is an issue, and you might as well get it off the table.
My son got 4 out of 4 accepts of the Fairtest schools. He sent NO test scores to them. He did not have perfect everything else–about a 3.4 WU gpa but was taking the most difficult courses and his GPA was low because of a bad freshman year. Upward trends all the way to a 4.0s junior and senior years. But he got merit money at only one of the Fairtest schools. The exchange may be an issue. My friend who is eligible for the tuition exchange came up empty with it both times with her girls. It’s an added complication.
“The SAT is still the norm here in MA. Certainly some kids do take the ACT as well though it usually seems either like a what the hell let me try it or an oops maybe I’ll do better than on the SAT.”
It may be the norm but the colleges don’t care at all which test she takes. My son took both (we are in NY) but his ACT was marginally better than his SAT so submitted ACT score. He only applied to colleges in the Northeast and was accepted at all 9 schools where he applied. His college has been test optional since 1984 - one of the first - if not the first.