So I took my Math 2 after my SAT math, and despite struggling a little about the SAT math portion, I actually did surprisingly well on the MATH 2 subject test. In fact, I did better. How exactly will that be examined?
I don’t think that’s that unusual. My son got a 700 on regular SAT math and an 800 on SAT2 Math 2.
So you wouldn’t suggest I take the SAT again?
Oh, I don’t know. My son’s 700 was the third pass, and his second 700. I think if you’ve taken it only once, you do have a good shot at improving the score, so if you have it in you, go for it. Once you’ve taken it 2 or three times though, I think you learn where you’re going to land.
Check the percentiles on your score reports. I think you may find that your 700 SAT math subscore is actually better than your 740 SAT Math 2 score. Please let us know what you find.
@BunnyBlue You were right, my percentile score for math 2 was only 74th. If that was my Math 1 score, I would have gotten in the 94th. Which raises a question. It SEEMS that the Math 1 is harder (based off of these percentiles, I haven’t actually taken the test). If that’s the case, why do so many people take the Math 2 instead?
@AllReachSchools Math 1 is not harder. Stronger math students only take math 2 which skews the percentiles. A perfect score on math 2 is only in the low 80%ile.
We found out the hard way that students are more likely to get a high score on the Math 2 SAT Subject Test than on the Math 1 SAT Subject Test. With S1 we didn’t realize that schools are mainly interested in the Math 2, so he took both. His Math 1 score was 50 points below his Math 2 score, but percentile-wise they were nearly the same, because CB sets the scores differently for the two tests. Here is an example, not sure from what year:
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SAT_subject_tests_percentile_ranks.pdf
We figured that it would have looked better if he had only taken the Math 2 with the nice high score because we’re not sure if the colleges are aware of how differently the Math 1 and 2 are scored. I guess they should be aware of it, but who knows.
Colleges are aware.