<p>I am a sophomore in high school and I'm hoping to get into either Stanford or UPenn. I have already taken the SAT once, but I scored a 700 in Math, 670 in CR, and 600 in Writing. Obviously those scores aren't good enough, but will my scores go up next time I take it in the spring? (By the way, I knew my essay was weak when I was writing it. So try not to judge me on that 600.)</p>
<p>Scores don’t increase with age… Studying is really the best way to improve.</p>
<p>I do take practice tests and look up the ones I got wrong. But I feel like another year of English will help build my vocabulary and increase my CR and writing scores. Wouldn’t you agree?</p>
<p>Not necessarily age, but knowledge. As your knowledge increases, you SAT score should. So, it should increase by the time you complete you sophomore and junior year. Not because of increased age, but because you’ve learned additional information in those years.</p>
<p>They did for me. 176 on the PSAT 1st semester soph year. 1860 on a mock 2nd semester. 190 PSAT 1st semester junior year. 1950-2030 on practice tests 2nd semester. Then I got a 1990 on the actual test.</p>
<p>Writing is essentially the easiest subject to improve on. I highly recommend you to purchase a study guide book and read the entire writing lesson. You should see an increase of at least 100 points if you retain the information correctly.</p>
<p>Additionally, your math will improve with another year of school math, but you still need to be practicing SAT math as well if you want to see a real improvement. CR is the hardest subject to improve on, so vocab is a critical thing to master.</p>
<p>I only missed 3 questions on the math, so I think if I clean it up a little bit I should at least be able to get up to a 750 by the time I am a junior. As for CR, I think with two more years of difficult English classes, I should be able to improve my score to about a 720. And as you said, writing could easily be improved to 700. That brings me to a 2170.
Do you think that is a solid enough score to give me a chance at UPenn or Stanford?</p>
<p>Only if you cured cancer in your free time.</p>
<p>2170 isn’t a terrible score, but admission for those schools is competitive. You will need to have a lot of roles in leadership and your community to make you stand out. Class rank is also important.</p>
<p>Do they just look at if you are in the top 10%, or do they actually see if you were one of the top ten students? (It is looking like I will be between number 5 and 10, and my class has 367 students)</p>
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<p>Scores do increase with age. Just look at the College Board statistics on this issue. </p>
<p>Not surprising, since the brain is developing throughout the teen years.</p>
<p>Stanford has the lowest accept rate extant. You should cast a wide net beyond S and Penn. Good luck</p>