<p>when colleges look at your scores on the old + new SAT will they put together your highest math, verbal, and writing or just look at the highest combined on both the old + new?</p>
<p>They probably wouldn't combine scores from old and new because they test different things. The critical reading section is a lot different on the new, and math contains harder material.</p>
<p>Most of the top schools will combine scores from the old and new SAT.</p>
<p>IMO they will look at m/v as one and then writing ie: SAT2 writing</p>
<p>Repeating my post from last month:</p>
<h2>"How colleges will use new SAT </h2>
<p>"Officials with the College Board, which administers the test, said it will take at least a year before they will have a large enough sample to provide comparison data, including average scores and percentile information, to the public.</p>
<p>For now, they urged people to resist the urge to draw parallels between scores on the 1600 scale with the new 2400 scale. Caren Scoropanos, a College Board spokeswoman, said students can compare their scores on the verbal and math portions with those from previous exams. But the essay, because it's new, would have to stand alone, she said.</p>
<p>In the meantime, college admissions officers are wrestling with how they will use the new scores, particularly on the written portion. Georgetown University and the University of Maryland said they will look only at verbal and math scores this year, until they have more experience with the essay section. Howard University officials said they are trying to determine how they will use the writing section.</p>
<p>Harvard University and the University of California system have said they will look at the entire test -- writing section included.</p>
<p>University of Virginia officials also will count all sections of the new SAT in admissions decisions. But John A. Blackburn, dean of admission at U-Va., said the college will be as "skeptical as ever" about the test and not consider it a major factor in decisions" </p>
<p>The above was from a Washington Post article which is no longer on-line (unless presumably one buys it from their archives."</p>
<p>Lots of newspapers have written about this issue, so a Google search should provide plenty of other info.</p>
<p>I mostly agree with northstarmom, but it should be noted that there is a difference between what colleges say in the media and what will actually happen in the admission committees behind closed doors. What does "look at" mean? I believe that Georgetown, like many other colleges, is p---ed off about seeing changes to the SAT dictated by the whims of the UC's and therefore they may not be formally factoring in the Writing score yet, but I don't believe for a second that they won't take a peek at the Writing score that will be right in front of them as they're trying to make a close call. </p>
<p>Blackburn's quote is politically correct and might make you feel better until you take a look at the median SAT scores of the students admitted to UVA last year. You're crazy if you think that you won't be at a disadvantage if your Writing score is far lower than their median Math and Verbal scores on the old SAT.</p>
<p>A rule of thumb is that the more competitive the school, the more likely it is that they mix and match subscores. Exceptions typically include the high-end publics like UCLA and Berkeley. Stanford is a good example of a school with a really liberal testing policy--they'll mix and match anything.</p>
<p>Math and verbal will be most important to almost all schools. At the same time, one should be careful to have at least a respectable writing score, but there's more flexibility for these scores because the effectiveness of the section isn't known yet. A great writing score will only help you, but its effect will be relatively small.</p>
<p>Mother~~~~~ Do not understand all of this PSAT, SAT, ACT stuff.....Trying to understand it all to get my children in college...My daughter got a 191 on her PSAT for a Sophmore. I do not even understand what that score means.....My son just got a 1650 on the SAT his Junior year. Is this good, average, or needing improvement for the both of them? I would love for someone to talk to me and let me know what all is going on. I have been trying to find out information on the internet but I get lost. Please help!</p>
<p>It really depends on what schools they are aiming for. Your son has a score that is slightly above the national average (not sure of percentile), and your daughter has a pretty good score as a sophomore (probably about 92nd percentile, which means she beat 92 out of 100 people). The breakdown of math/critical reading/writing also makes a difference. For example, the writing score won't be as important as math and critical reading for the class of 2006. I'd recommend to have your son prepare more for the SAT and take it again. The test does not really measure intelligence, and it is very coachable. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a SAT course (like myself), just buy prep books. I'd recommend Princeton Review and the Collegeboard's Real SAT's to practice with.</p>
<p>I appreciate you writing me....Still confused. MY youngest did make the 93 percent but what does all this mean? I as a parent am not sure what to do and how important. She has the dream of going to Columbia.....Yeah, right....MONEY issues...Anyway, I do not even know how to begin to get her there let alone anywhere....Learning????</p>
<p>Isn't the new writng section of the SAT basically just the SAT II writing? How could schools not use it?</p>
<p>The curve on the new SAT writing is much harsher than the old SAT II writing.</p>
<p>Also, some of the schools conducted their own analysis of early test scores and realized that there was a strong corrolation between essay length and essay score, regardless of content. This is the reason some of the top schools have said they will wait until next year to decide how to deal with the new writing section.</p>
<p>That correlation was only the first couple of administrations. Once the schools published their observations, CB went to work to end that.</p>
<p>So how could they consider the old SAT II writing if there were flaws in the grading?</p>
<p>So Suzy - lemme draw up a chart for you (And don't listen to a lot of the hype on CC, we're a bunch of prestiege whores - scores don't need to be as high as you would think by reading this forum. And a prestiege whore is someone who wants to go to a good college mainly for the name. A good example of a prestiege whore is someone who says "I want to go to an ivy," not taking into consideration that all ivys have different focuses...they just want the name, not to find the college that bets fits them.).</p>
<p>600-1400 - Um...Retake Please
1400-1600 - Average Scores, community college material
1600-1800 - Better than average scores...possible for lesser known 4 year institutions.
1800-2100 - Decent scores, good for applications at lower end UC's and second tier Universities (the best of which is Tufts)
2100-2400 - Great scores, first tier competitive. HYPSM - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT (an acronym commonly used on these forums) along with the other ivys and top class public schools (UC Berkeley) applciations should have scores like these.</p>
<p>If you add an extra zero to the end of your daughters score, you get her equivalent SAT score. 1910 - VERY competitive score...bound to go up with time. Most people on this forum (myself excluded) did better on the real SAT than they did on the PSAT. Since the SAT is a reasoning test and your reasoning gets better with age...so do your testing scores.</p>
<p>As for your son, instead of expensive test prep classes, he should try the Xiggi method (see the thread at the top of the "SAT and ACT Tests" forum index page), but it basically involves buying official Collegeboard test prep books and doing multiple tests (up to maybe 40 of em before the november/december SATs)...it's possibly the most fool proof method to ensure his scores increase.</p>
<p>Tell us more about your son and his aspirations and I can try and recommend a few colleges for him to look into over the summer. Maybe some visits are in order? I'm going back east to look at a few schools with my parents in the upcomming weeks.</p>
<p>And about your daughers dream to go to columbia - don't throw it out the window. Although these institutions have sticker prices of around 42000 a year, they always have "need based financial aid," which means that, depending on how much money your family can AFFORD to pay (calculated on your last years income tax return), the college will only make you pay that much.</p>
<p>How the Colleges will weigh the writing portion will be determined by what scores you have. If you score say a 1500 on math and verbal and a 600 on the writing it's there to see -- no matter what they say. But if you earlier scored, say, a 750 on the SATII writing, and a 5 on the English Lanaguage AP, most schools will disregard the 600.</p>
<p>if I submit 5 scores, will the admissions people pick my top 3 SAT II's? will my remaining 2 scores be ignored or will they still play a factor?</p>
<p>(ie. scenario #1: top 3 SAT IIs are in Math 1c, 2c and Bio
scenario #2: top 3 SAT IIs are in 3 separate subjects)</p>
<p>suziemorgan: Have your daughter look at focusing on the sections where she's not scoring as high in (if the scores are somewhat lobsided) and just overall practice (I like to use Princeton Review books and College Board books are really good too) because a 191 as a sophmore is an excellent stepping stone to a great Junior score. If your daughter were to improve by just 12 points (just 4 points on each section), she'd be probably guaranteed Commended Scholar, which looks good on apps. If she were to score 210s (low 220s for some top states, depending on where you live), she would get National Merit Semifinalist and 15000 out of 16000 of those become Finalists (and will get money from most colleges, some even offer full scholarships if in state). Good Luck.</p>
<p>newposter: Colleges probably wont take (look at) both IC and IIC as 2/3 required or recommended. However, they might look at tests from the same category such as Bio, Chem, and Physics.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>A problem I faced between PSAT and the new SAT:</p>
<p>I got a 192 on the PSAT (55CR/71M/66W), but when I took the new SAT, my writing score went down (maybe because of the essay) to a 1880 at best (540CR/750M/590W)- which I would believe is odd, since I expected to at least drop by only a few points, not 70, and most people improve as time goes on! :(</p>