<p>I have a problem understanding my daughters SAT scores. She had a very low math score (barely got 500) but 680 in writing, 600 in reading and 650 multiple choice and 10 on the essay. (she got 23 on ACT with 11 essay) She has never been a strong math student but is getting A's and B's in pre-calc with an occasional C. In the past she never had a lower than B+ in math. Her English, Bio and History grades (all AP) are A's along with Spanish and her electives (photography/gym) which are easy. She is looking into free tutoring after school and missing some clubs and doing online tests, but she needs someone to help her know why she got something wrong.I think a small part is anxiety and some of it is the length of the test, she misses a lot toward the end. Her doctor said she had mild ADD but not bad enough for medication unless it worsened. (some children get better with age)She also didn't want to take anything.
I know there are SAT optional schools but I don't want to make it seem like she didn't do well overall, not high of course, but respectable. She is taking 2 SAT II tests in May, but not in math (Lit and History) She will of course take the SAT again in June and probably in the fall, but averages show you usually only improve so much.
Has any parent dealt with this issue? She was trying to get merit money and is getting depressed thinking she will "bomb again" as she put it. I try to be encouraging and tell her I know she will improve,and emphasize her very good reading/writing scores, but at this age, it's hard to make an impact. Her original college picks were in a match/safety range, 3 state schools, Providence, American, CU, Marist, schools along those lines.
Any advice. tips, would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I assume she knows the strategies for taking the test: do all the easy problems first, then go back and tackle the more difficult, how to take educated guesses, etc. On her practice tests, is she going back over the problems she is getting wrong to detemine if there is one particular area she needs to review? I would concentrate on those particular points. Don’t just keep taking the test without a strategy. Find out what she is getting wrong. I also suggest just doing math problems from sample tests, one at a time, reviewing the answer and if she gets the problem wrong have her review the material til she understands it.</p>
<p>Similar problem with my D although for her it was English. Writing was up there (I don’t remember the actual scores off the top of my head) and math was her highest. You would have thought English was her third language not her first. Even when we got the results back indicating what she did wrong it wasn’t clear to us why she got certain questions wrong. She had a bunch of really easy questions that she got wrong. She took a few prep classes and retook. She went up about 50 points and said that would have to be good enough. She was done. In retrospect I believe she just doesn’t have the interest in the information that is covered on the English part of the exam an even though I know that she tried I think she just lost her focus part way through the test. When she isn’t interested in something she doesn’t do well.</p>
<p>I wonder if it may be something as simple as skipping a question and then answering the remaining questions in the wrong line?</p>
<p>Chedva’s thought also occurred to me. If that’s not the case, it sounds like your daughter is a little stressed/fragile and I think putting <em>too</em> much emphasis on raising the math score might be detrimental. If it were me I’d consider doing a tiny bit of SAT prep private tutoring focusing on the math section. One of my kids is in a Georgetown Learning Center group prep course but they also offer private, one-on-one sessions that can address specific concerns.</p>
<p>Again, I’d offer a little help if your daughter is amenable, but definitely don’t let her think she’s shot herself in the foot just because of one score on one sub-test. Admissions offices, particularly at smaller schools, will look at the whole package.</p>
<p>I recommend having her learn and practice the basic test taking strategies. I think there’s a book called “Cracking the SAT” that is focused on just that. </p>
<p>She should also get a book of practice tests and do some of them. I’d say do them without time pressure, just take one section and have her analyze her errors. </p>
<p>Fatigue is a factor in the SAT, but the test taking strategies should help with that.</p>
<p>I will have her look at that test strategy book, she is overwhelmed…3 AP tests coming up, SAT II’s and all of a sudden, you become a “number”. I put a massage GC in her Easter basket and will try to have her get one before her next test, might not help, but it can’t hurt. : )
She said she needs a program that tells her why she got it wrong, not just give her the correct answer, I don’t know if that is more prevelant online or in books.
I am walking on eggs, not to add to her pressure, but will casually mention some options. Thank you for your suggestions.</p>
<p>My daughter was identical to yours…490 math, 690 verbals…She applied to one SAT optional school but believe it or not she got into 8 out of her 8 colleges w/that score. she despises math, we tried extra studying, tutor, to no avail. I finally said ENOUGH! Sure enough it did not seem to matter. Other pieces of her application mattered more than 1 math SAT score, thankfully. She did fine in math, As and Bs, but no calculus, not even pre-calc.</p>
<p>Gaby you might also want to sign up for the collegeboard’s question of the day. They email one problem each day which you get to answer and they explain carefully why the correct answer is right and/or why the others aren’t. Very non-stressful way to review topics with actual problems.</p>
<p>It could also be that your school’s math department is weak or there is grade inflation. So although your D is doing well grade-wise in her math classes, the curriculum just isn’t that strong but the deficiencies are showing up on the standardized tests. Back when S was in 4th grade, I recall a time when parents got up in arms because their children had been straight A students in language arts, yet somehow their standardized test scores indicated they were only minimally proficient. The parents had no idea anything was wrong or they would have gotten tutoring or something, and concluded that the school’s grading system was off or the curriculum wasn’t being adequately taught. Do you know how other kids with similar math grades as your daughter did on the SAT math section?</p>
<p>“I know there are SAT optional schools but I don’t want to make it seem like she didn’t do well overall, not high of course, but respectable.”</p>
<p>Your daughter might be able to improve some, but she is clearly not a good test-taker; even 600 on the Critical Reading is far below her actual performance in school. The good news is that, even though my children are all good test takers, I would bet on the high achiever not good test taker any time over the opposite.</p>
<p>Under the heading of free advice, worth what you paid for it: for merit money, I would look for SAT optional schools and just not submit scores. At this level of school, merit money is used to drive up their profile, and your daughter’s GPA might be just the ticket.</p>
<p>I’d have your daughter concentrate on practicing for the math part of the SAT. Were you able to get the question and answer service so that you could actually see the problems she got wrong? I found it’s often quite interesting - my older son for instance (who had a fantastic math score), nevertheless, lost points in math every time. Why? Because he’d misread the questions or do really boneheaded things like leave out steps on problems a fourth grader could do. Remember if she doesn’t like her May or June scores, there’s another chance in the fall.</p>
<p>But as others have pointed out, lopsided scores are not uncommon and there are plenty of colleges that will forgive one bad score if the rest of the application is solid.</p>
<p>B+ indicates the acumen is there , improving strategy and alleviating any test taking anxiety should be the initial goal.
B+ math students should score at least 600.I would schedule a meeting with her GC and the head of the math department to devise a strategy to improve her test taking skills.
See if you can hire a tutor.It can be a teacher , retired teacher , college student etc.
Good luck.</p>
<p>To the OP: Marist has a rough chart that will tell you the merit aid that you might anticipate:</p>
<p>[Merit</a> Scholarships: Marist College](<a href=“http://www.marist.edu/financialaid/merit.html]Merit”>http://www.marist.edu/financialaid/merit.html)</p>
<p>Might be worth a try at the ACT too. It is a shorter test and some kids do far better on that than SAT.</p>
<p>I think you need to have her study or be tutored in strategies for that particular test. My whole family is rather mathmatically impaired, but with an SAT prep course, Son was able to get a 690 in math. Then, about 3 months later he took the math SATII cold with no prep for that particular test and got a score so low that I’ve banished it from my memory. I bet that if he’d prepared for a few months for that specific test, he could have done better.</p>
<p>Gaby, My daughter’s story was like yours and radannie’s—math was never her strong suit and no amount of practice questions or retakes was going to make a significant difference in her score. But she shone in other areas, so we decided to relax and hope that a positive picture of her strengths came through on her apps. She was accepted at her top choice (among others). In the end, I think that the SAT score was only a very small piece of the picture (at least at the schools to which she applied).</p>
<p>I second ingerp’s suggestion of one-on-one tutoring. Work the parent lore in your community and identify a tutor who comes highly recommended. We did a one-time session for Math, and my DD’s score improved 100 points. Unless you are a natural math person, the SAT Math testing presentation is all about learning the tricks of the test, i.e., my DD walked out of the tutoring session with 3-5 solid, easy-to-master “if the question is {generic type}, then here’s the method for quick elimination of wrong responses and, if choice still remains, quick solving or at least smart guessing.” To get your money’s worth, you must provide the tutor with online access or paper access to the past PSAT and SATs actually taken so the tutor can quickly identify your child’s usual problem areas. Where we live, this session cost $150. I expect the cost is even higher in many areas. Exorbitant? Yes. But that $150 was worth every cent in balancing out her lopsided score situation (whether that enabled her to receive the merit money offers extended to her, I dunno, but I am sure an improved score wasn’t a negative!).</p>
<p>If the cost is not something your family can manage, then I would strongly encourage your DD to make the best effort she can to look at her online PSAT and SAT detailed score reports to see if she can identify a pattern and pinpoint the types of Math questions she usually misses. Then, she can focus her self-study on those areas–the various test prep books should be broken down by math topics that match the topical descriptions the College Board assigns.</p>
<p>A lot of good advice. I thought about the inflation part, but I don’t think so, her sister had similar scores, a bit higher, and got a 620 first try in math and didn’t study her first time last year. With math, unlike some other subjects, you usually get the material or you don’t. I think essays, things like that are more subjective. She does get some 70’s in class but then will get a 90, so it’s like a roller coaster that will even out by the end of the semester to a B or low A. Certain concepts come easier than others.
My nephew got 640 studying for the SAT but canceled his Math II subject test because he knew he did badly and hadn’t studied which sounds like a previous posters son. It varies so much with different students. My daughter is well-rounded in many ways and I do hope schools see that. She never tested as well as she did in school, but won awards for writing, poems, things like that. With math, she was always (after algebra) needing a little more time and if she had to study for AP Bio or AP English, her grades suffered. I wish she only took 2 AP classes this year but GC thought she could handle it. (they don’t always know the best thing) Her ACT math wasn’t high either, but she didn’t study for that, it was a last minute decison to see how she would do since it was score choice.</p>
<p>I did emphasize she isn’t alone, a lot of students are “lopsided” to some degree and she doesn’t want to go into any math heavy majors for sure. I feel a little guilty being math-challenged to some degree myself (hubby was opposite) but you have to deal with what you have and a high math score doesn’t define who you are, but for those few months of angst in high school, they seem too for a while.</p>
<p>I should also add that for my non-math DD, it was really a relief and positive motivator for her to be able to sit for Math the second time and not approach it as a general beast, but see it as a collection of topics she either knew she could handle or had a trick for handling.</p>
<p>Also, I think it is more realistic, and you get more bang for your buck, if you treat a one-off tutoring session as a last-minute “cram.” My DD did that one-on-one tutoring 2 weeks before the test, did a couple of follow-up home study sessions reinforcing the tricks the tutor taught, took one practice test in Math only–buoyed to see upward change!–and then the real administration.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>