<p>Here's my score from March 2009 (first time to take SAT):
Math: 740
Reading: 750
Writing: 780
TOTAL: 2270</p>
<p>I was wishing that math wouldn't have come out as my lowest score, since I've <em>heard</em> that many colleges only care about the math + reading. Thus, I don't see how getting a 780 on the writing section did me much good since many colleges superscore math/reading or just look at math/reading.</p>
<p>Also, I wish to apply for the math department across many ivy league schools, and was worried that Math 740 wasn't going to look too competitive compared to some 800s and 780s out there. Also, on practice tests I normally did much better on the math section in general.</p>
<p>My main question is, should I retake the test in the fall in order to try to get a higher score on the math section, and possibly the reading (don't really care about the writing)? Or will colleges understand that a 740 correlates to 3 incorrect answers, and most likely could have been a careless mistake? Also, on the application do we get to write the TOTAL score, or do they ask for just the total between math/reading?</p>
<p>first off, youre fine. i missed 2 and got a 740, and then followed that up by missing like 3 and getting a 740 on the math II also.</p>
<p>second, the collegeboard sends your scores to the school, so they’ll see everything. take it again if you want, but i’d be more worried about how you’re doing in your math classes/activities more than standardized tests</p>
<p>Your math and CR scores are a bit below median at Harvard and on the low side if you are not among the 40% they will accept who have a hook. They won’t keep you out if everything else is stellar.</p>
<p>I disagree with hmom5. I don’t think your scores are on the low end, I think they are definitely competitive. It gets to a certain point in college admissions – especially at super selective places like Harvard – where it comes down to more than SAT scores and grades. If you have the SATs (2200+) and the GPA (3.9+) then that’s good…but you’re not going to get in just on that alone. If your SATs and GPA are in the range AND the rest of your application is amazing including your essays, etc. then you might get in. So I think your scores are fine. They’re definitely in the range to be accepted at Harvard. Now focus on the rest, it’s probably more important.</p>
<p>Raelah, can we have your source? I wasn’t rendering an opinion, I was stating fact. There is a lot of ‘I heard’ advice on this thread, all of you should have a hard look at Harvard’s common data set and factor in that 40% of the class has hooks (athletes, URM, legacy, development) that allows them to have lower scores. The FACT is, your chances go up a lot as your scores do.</p>
<p>Here are scores from last year’s CDS:
C9 25th Percentile 75th Percentile
C9 SAT Critical Reading 700 800
C9 SAT Math 700 790
SAT Writing 690 790</p>
<p>Not that a full 25% plus of the class has a perfect CR score and a 790 math and writing score. you can see that the scores of the unhooked are in the stratosphere.</p>
<p>Any candidate for Harvard without a hook wants to be at or near the 75th percentile in all 3 categories.</p>
<p>hmom5: the OP falls right into the middle or close to the 75th percentile of all of those. you said yourself that about 40% of the class has a hook, assuming that ALL of those hooks are in the bottom, that still leaves 35% right in the middle</p>
<p>No, if you look at the distribution, he’s probably not close to the 75th percentile, especially given that he’s below the 75th in all 3 categories. Keep in mind the near perfect scores belong to more than just 25%, but we don’t know how many more given the way the report. But given how close the 25th percentile is, we can take some educated guesses.</p>
<p>But to really assess his chances we’d need more info. Does he have mind blowing EC’s and is he val of a highly selective school?</p>
<p>If he’s from Alaska or S. Dakota he may have no worries. If he’s from N, NJ, CA or any other well represented state it’s not looking so good. If he has a hook he’s probably fine. If not he definitely wants to retake the test.</p>
<p>hmom5: i said the 75th percentile for each of those, but yes, overall he/she would be somewhere near the 65th percentile overall.</p>
<p>student01: a high score on math II will help, but like i said before, your coursework in math will be a lot more helpful, ie AP calc/stats, and any math related ECs</p>
<p>considering that 10% of ALL students who take the math II get a perfect score, i’m assuming an even larger number do so on the sat I, which completely skews the numbers for people who are great at math but happen to make a couple dumb errors when asked about things they learned years ago (like me)</p>