<p>So I'm currently a junior, and I dont know what to do for standardized testing... take a look.
SAT I:
May 09:
730 M
540 W
500 R</p>
<p>Oct 09:
740 M
600 W
510 R</p>
<p>Mar 10:
740 M
690 W
530 R</p>
<p>As you can see, it is merely impossible for me to increase my Reading score, as I have been studying this section for over 2 yrs, and I have NEVER gotten above a 550. I tend to cross out the right answers a lot... anyway, I want to know what I should do. I believe it's not right to take the SAT's again for it will be my 4th time, and I remember that more than 3 times sounds desperate to colleges, but my mom says if i study all summer, i can increase my reading to 600+ (I know I will not however). I am taking the ACT's in June and September, so I'm studying for them. I also took the SatII's in Math 1: 800 and Math 2: 750+ (havent received scores yet), and I will take either Physics or Spanish in Oct.</p>
<p>For Ivy League schools, you can use score choice, so it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve taken the SAT. If you feel like you can do better on the ACT, then take that instead. A 1960 is still a very good score, just try to get it up around 300 points.</p>
<p>While I admit it’s not stuck up, it’s still rather arrogant to tell someone to just try to get their SAT score up about 300 points. Is that supposed to be just some trivial step?</p>
<p>For Harvard:
25th Percentile 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading 690 800
SAT Math 700 780
SAT Writing 690 790 </p>
<p>ACT Composite 31 35 </p>
<p>After taking the SAT three times, your highest CR score is a 530 which is well below their 25th percentile. Unless English is not your 1st language, there isn’t any way to get around the low CR score.</p>
<p>Please, do not get so hyped up about Ivies. There are many other excellent schools. Attending an Ivy is not a guarantee for future success.</p>
<p>The Writing Section depends on your ability to memorize and apply rules, and fill up space with words that you string together so that they make sense.</p>
<p>For the Critical Reading Section, take practice exams, and check over the questions you answered incorrectly and understand why the right answer is the right answer.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to tell him; 1960 is an elite score? Geez… Stop being such a baby. Gaining 300 points with a whole summer of studying is very feasible.</p>
<p>Hello. Well, I was almost in the same category as you are and had applied to both YAle and Harvard. Haha…a very brave thing to do! (lol_) Well not surprising I was rejected outright from them. Well, Ivy League is not only about SAT scores… Try to bring the scores up to about 2200 or else give the ACT, many students do well in the ACT. All the best.</p>
<ol>
<li>Taken in a vacuum, no, you will not get into any Ivy with those SATs.</li>
<li>Take the ACT, though it’s hard to imagine a jump to the 31 - 33 range on the Verbal section given your CR scores.</li>
<li>Vocab, vocab, vocab. Spend the summer studying and memorizing vocabulary, this approach bumped my nephew’s score 100 points between tests.</li>
<li>I’m assuming that you’re looking toward a degree in the sciences, if so and if you haven’t already, start aggressively looking at other “technical” colleges, (RPI, Case-Western, etc - No, I have no idea how hard they are to get into).</li>
<li>Come up with some realistic expectations. Hang around CC, talk to your counselor at school, use some of the match programs at the collegeboard, but without a hook and a stellar profile, the Ivies are a reach for just about everyone.</li>
</ol>
<p>The really critical factor in the OP’s admissibility is his/her secondary school transcript, not the ACT/SAT scores. The admissions officers at every single college/university in the country know full well that some students do not perform well on standardized tests. Does the OP have an excellent GPA? Has he/she taken the most challenging coursework available at his/her school? Will the guidance counselor and teachers write truly glowing (and absolutely honest) letters of recommendation?</p>
<p>If those questions can be answered in the affirmative, this student does stand a chance.</p>
<p>Since the OP seems to have great difficulty with the SAT, in addition to trying the ACT he/she should also take a good hard look at the list of colleges and universities that do not require the ACT/SAT for admissions. There are plenty of them [The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org)</p>
<p>Except for the fact that the OP has several 700’s, so there is no use suggesting that s/he “doesn’t do well” on standardized tests. Unfortunately, any top college will be extremely concerned with a low CR score, since it will call into question whether the applicant can keep up with the rigors of their work, which requires lotsa reading and critical thinking. And, the high math-science scores demonstrate a one-dimensional kid, which is typically not very attractive to adcoms at highly selective colleges given that they have plenty of high-scorers to choose from, with breadth across disciplines. (This is particularly true for colleges that hold themselves out as focused on liberal arts.)</p>
<p>btw: I truly believe that high scores won’t get one in, but low scores will keep one out, absent a hook. And the lower the scores, the bigger the hook needed.</p>
<p>I just took a harder look at the set of scores, and I think that the OP needs to pop on down to the school psychologist’s office and ask for testing for learning disabilities. Perhaps he/she is the victim of a lousy language arts program or of an inadequate test prep course, but frankly, failing to raise the CR score after deliberate preparation is a giant, waving red flag. There may well be language-based issues here that need to be addressed before he/she is in reading and writing heavy college-level courses. The only other ready explanation I can think of for this disparity would be that English is a second language, in which case the OP needs to take the TOEFL.</p>
<p>The SAT CR section is deliberately tricky although not as tricky as it used to be back when the Analogies section was part of it. Bearing in mind that the OP has done well on the SAT II exams which are subject specific, chances are that this student would do relatively better on the ACT which is more subject-based than the SAT. But he/she really should get the language-issues checked out first. If they exist, they could cause trouble on the ACT as well.</p>
<p>wow, it’s been a while since i posted this.
i love how all of you said i had no chance, but i think i look a little better now:
SAT 4th time: M 800 CR 550 W 710 Total: 2060
Rank 14/448
GPA 3.82 uw
SAT II: Math 1 730; Math 2 800; Physics 660
oh and almost forgot, im hispanic
PSAT’s: 200–> National hispanic recognition program scholar</p>