<p>DD is a HS junior. Just got back her first SAT scores... CR 660 CW 710 M 560. I'm wondering how badly the math score will hurt her. She is looking at privates in CA, in the Pepperdine, LMU, UoP category. </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with this and would you recommend she try the ACT? </p>
<p>We did not have this first round of scores sent to any schools. </p>
<p>Does anyone think it would be worth talking to her math teacher about what he recommends? She hasn't taken any SAT prep classes, but that might also be an option......</p>
<p>well... I would just keep in mind that the ACT has higher level math problems on it. Not necessarily harder problems, but concepts from trigonometry and pre-calculus are also on there. At least give it a shot though...</p>
<p>I would recommend her retaking the SAT, but this time really focusing on the math. The first time I took the SAT, my grades were high except for math (680). So I took the ACT first, and realized that the ACT math is much more straightforward than the SAT math. None of those tricky word problems that are worded to MAKE you mess up. Then I retook the SAT and got a much better score.</p>
<p>We had a similar experience and though I don't know yet what the outcome will be here is how my girls decided to approach it after I got advice from the CC community:</p>
<p>Scheduled a retake of reasoning test for June to give them ample time to prep esp after APs (took it the first time in Jan)</p>
<p>Signed up for Petersons online course. They are focusing just on Math because like your D, the other scores were fine.</p>
<p>Scheduled ACT for April.</p>
<p>If scores are still not where they want them for the schools on their lists one or both will do even more prep over the summer and retake in the fall. </p>
<p>After that they will be done and edit their lists accordingly if neccessary. </p>
<p>Good Luck...it was quite sobering for all of us to see the math score they earned and how it stacked up against the mid 50% at College Board for their preferred schools. Not so hot.</p>
<p>Math score is the easiest one to improve, especially if you start relatively low. She should do some practice tests, and see what she gets wrong.</p>
<p>ACT is always worth a shot, since you can send only the scores you want. But she should practice math and science sections for that (The science section has nothing to do with science knowledge, but many kids have trouble with it if they don't know what to expect)</p>
<p>ebeee-my son also had loopsided scores. His Math was above 700 but his reading and writing were terrible. The writing so bad that I wondered if he would get in anywhere.
He ended up using a private tutor from Kaplan's to concentrate on getting the reading to a somewhat decent score. We let the writing go since we knew many of his schools were not using the writing.
His grades were in the B range. He was accepted at UOP with a merit scholarship. (Since this is one of the schools you listed)</p>
<p>mom60 thanks for the information. It really is helpful. I don't want to go the private tutor route. This is a kid who rides a horse, dances 4 days a week and works at the dance studio 5 days a week. No time for tutoring....she has A grades and will be applying with some college credit under her belt from community college/dual enrollment so we will do our best with working on math and hope for some merit money!<br>
Did your son end up at UOP? I don't see much about it on these threads...</p>
<p>Back in high school I was pretty darned good at math. I got a 630 my first time taking the SATs. I knew that wasn't quite right, so I retook them without studying and wound up with a 770 (my reading score was 690 both times).</p>
<p>If she's good at math she might have just had a bad day. It happens to everyone.</p>
<p>DS1 is in a similar situation. He's a junior and just got his scores back:</p>
<p>Math 800
CR 570
Writing 620</p>
<p>He prepared for the SAT using Xiggi's method, and we both realized early on that math wasn't going to be a problem but CR was. So he did no math prep other than taking a practice test, and focused only on CR and writing. He struggled. We would go over the answers he got wrong, and often he wouldn't really "get" why the right answer was correct. </p>
<p>The next step might be to go on to the next level of prep as suggested by posters here (including reading the New Yorker, doing more intensive grammar review, etc). However, my thinking right now is that the marginal cost of this extra effort is not going to be worth the marginal increase in score that S1 might obtain. He's going to be taking the US history and math SAT IIs in June, and thinks his time might be better spent preparing for those rather than retaking the SAT.</p>
<p>I hope this decision doesn't come back to bite him, but it seems like the right one for now.</p>
<p>He should also try ACT (even without prep if he has no time for it, though it would be helpful to practice on science section). If nothing else, CR is only 1/4 of the score there, and you don't have to send the scores if you don't want to.</p>
<p>D is in a similar situation. Soph PSAT scores are 66 CR and W, 53 on math. Freshman ACT was 27 (everything 28-32 except for 20 on math), both with no prep whatsoever. Her ACT is in the mid-50% range for UVA, but projected SAT isn't even close. </p>
<p>I'm going to have D try the SAT next year and retake the ACT too. Advantage of the ACT for a kid whose weakness is math is that math is only 1/4 of the score, not 1/3 or 1/2 (I've heard that some colleges don't really consider the Writing score), and if they have strong verbal skills, they should do well on the Science section. I do wish that D would do some sort of test prep, though!</p>
<p>vballmom, your son could also try the SAT one last time in the fall. Maybe with some more review, or some more reading under his belt. I agree though, that trying the ACT may well be worth it. I also think the ACT essay topics are much less intimidating than the SAT essay.</p>
<p>eebay, I'd think some review of math should be of help. If you can get the question and answer service see what sort of questions were missed. For my older son who is very good at math - he either left out steps or misread questions. But for my younger son (at least on the PSAT) it was clear that he needed to review geometry and work on non-multiple choice problems.</p>
<p>My daughter's math and writing each went up 100 points with test prep. I was told by tutors that those are the easiest to increase with just knowing how to handle the test. Unfortunately, her reading didn't go anywhere! It isn't the vocabulary, just the reading comprehension. </p>
<p>Which is weird because I think her reading comprehension in real life is excellent, but her math and writing skills are not. We were told the reading comprehension is the part she is least likely to improve on with test prep :-(</p>