<p>I get all A's, take honors and AP classes, and am involved in clubs and other activities. I really want to go to a competitive four-year college out of high school (preferably Harvey Mudd or Berkeley). The only problem is I'm not the best test taker, and I'm wondering: How important are SAT scores? I have not taken the SAT reasoning test yet (I'm a sophomore), but I didn't do very well on the PSAT this year and I only got a 620 on my Biology subject test. Any information would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>SAT scores are definitely very important, especially at schools like harvey mudd and Berkeley (which happens to be my top choice, and I’m a junior btw). I would not say that they are the single most important factor that colleges look at in your application, but they are definitely up there. For example, I got a 1970 on the SAT the first time I took it, and I knew that despite being ranked 5 out of 613 in my class with a 4.0 GPA (4.4 weighted), I still needed to raise my SAT score, so I did SAT tutoring and I took the SAT yesterday, hoping to get high 2100s or hopefully in the 2200s (according to what practice tests have predicted). I consider my SAT II scores (chemistry 760, math II 760, US history 740) to be pretty competitive, so I recommend that if you’re taking AP courses next year, do about three subject tests and try to aim for over 700s on all three to improve your chances of having two high scores (btw SAT IIs are important but not as important as the SAT Reasoning, which is why UC’s won’t look at SAT II’s starting with the high school class of 2012). Obviously keep up the good work with your grades and do all the other things everyone recommends as you’ll find throughout this website, but definitely take the SAT a few different times and do prep if you don’t manage to score in the 2000s (if you score between 2000-2100 you might still want to). I recommend doing extensive prep over the summer so you can also take the PSAT in October and possibly end up being a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist which will look awesome on college apps. Hope my awfully long post helped.</p>
<p>gtrkman, i took the sat for the first time no real study and got a 1960. I was going to take it again yesterday, but I kind of realized I didn’t do any more prep (or any really for that matter, i know huge fault) so wouldn’t do that much better. I took the Subject test in bio in may, got a 740 (a little low, right after the test i noted on two easy mistakes i know i made). Is it bad if i take chem/math2 in october, then after slowly but surely studying for the sats for the next 5 months take them again in november and see where it gets me?</p>
<p>I can then apply Regular decision</p>
<p>me and you are kind of in the same boat (you got a 1970, i got a 1960)…if you could, will you let me know when you get next time? I’d like to know how big of a score increase you see. Thanks a ton man.</p>
<p>^Taking them in November, you can probably even apply early. The early action deadlines for the schools I’m applying to are around November 1st, and they say that you can take the SAT then, have it automatically sent to the schools, and they’ll consider it with your early application. If you do worse, it won’t matter, because they’ll just take the highest.</p>
<p>oh really?? wow i did not know that</p>
<p>Thanks… I really need to bring my bio subject test up… Hopefully I can do well on some others next year and possibly retake bio.</p>
<p>dancingmac: If you really want to review for bio again, i guess you could study over the summer, or even better you can work hard on the subjects you’ll actually be taking next year and then take the subject tests for those intstead, which would seem like a better idea. I would recommend not worrying as much about bio as the SAT I, which is way more important (unless you want to go into medicine or something in college then dont retake it. If you do want to do that, take it in october, also do prep for the SAT and do the PSAT which is later in october, and then take the SAT in november. If you decide not to take bio in october, do the SAT in october, followed by the PSAT).</p>
<p>davematthewsxvii: im assuming you took chem this year if you’re going to take the subject test (along with math 2) in october. And like heyitslauriebeth said, apparently you can take the SAT IIs in october and then SAT I in november and still apply early. I’m not planning on applying to any school early, so I was not aware of that. And I just want to make sure you know that I did a private SAT tutoring course with a friend, and the results may vary for everyone, whether its due to the quality of the tutoring or the ability of the student to get a lot out of the tutoring (or both). I’ll still let you know what I get, but I definitely recommend prep courses (and not like princeton review or kaplan, my tutor told me about some of their methods and they really are not too effective, but as i said results may vary for different people. I recommend a private tutor from a company that is pretty well known in your area, if you can afford it.). You’re lucky since you have so much time to study (I had to cram 10 lessons into a month and a half so near the end I ended up having to take three full practice tests in one week – not fun, but my choice for not wanting to do SATs my senior year) and especially if you want to apply to top schools (idk which ones you were looking at but I assume they’re pretty elite if you wanna go beyond a 1960, which is already pretty good). If you don’t want to or can’t afford private or group tutoring, then I definitely recommend gettin the collegeboard official SAT study guide as I’m sure you’ve seen mentioned everywhere on this site, I used to not think that it could help because its made by the company that makes the actual test so they would want you to struggle, but my tutor gave me homework out of that book, and it really helped. If you’re going to prep on your own, then be very diligent this summer and study the different sections of the test from that book, and then with the 8 full practice tests in the back, take the first 3 or 4 to do a few different sections at a time, first without timing yourself and then timing yourself (and make sure you go over your answers and see what you did wrong after, this is very important, and go back and review when necessary). Use the last 4 tests to take them as full-length timed practice tests (I know its a pain, but it really helped me out), and space this out well so you can review well in between and so that its all fresh in your mind before taking the actual test. </p>
<p>Sorry for that very long post but I hope it helps.</p>
<p>Yeah, the way an admissions rep at Carolina explained it to me was that they spend November getting paperwork & all together, and organizing the electronic and paper versions of the applications. Then, when they get the November SAT scores, they automatically file them with your application to be considered when they start making decisions in December/January.</p>
<p>I just prepped for SAT using the Princeton Review book - I got the official online SAT prep, but it wasn’t THAT helpful…I found just doing the practice tests out of the Princeton Review book and then going over what I got wrong more helpful than the lessons online. Part of the problem was that I don’t think that I focus as well when I’m doing something like that on the computer as opposed to on paper. I took the SAT yesterday, and I really only did this the two weeks before the test, which I think helped me more, having it fresh in my mind. Hope this helped and good luck with the SAT (:</p>
<p>gtrkman: Thanks for the great reply, I actually took honors chem sophomore year (taking AP next year my senior). I know that wasn’t smart but at the time i wasn’t ready for ap chem (one of the hardest courses at my school with a horrible teacher at the time, luckily now my honors chem teacher is teaching it whose great because the other is leaving). This summer I’m going to prestudy ap chem, then starting august prepare for that SAT2 with an actual specific review book. I’ll be doing the same thing with math2. In july ill probably be hitting up the common app hard. See, the Chem SAT2 and Math2 Sat2 are required for an accelerated medical program that im really interested in with boston university. I’ll link you to a chance thread that i made so you can find out more about me at the end. Anyway, I would love to have a private tutor and I even asked my parents if i could get one - but they said they didn’t want to spend the extra money. They told me they would have paid for one of the classroom sessions with kaplan/princeton review though. Knowing how big of a waste those are, I told my parents to save the thousand or so dollars. That’s when I took the SATs relatively blind, getting my 1960 in march (see thread for breakup). If you’ll look at my chance thread, you’d see that I have the GPA, extra curriculars, and what not to get into some of the great schools that I want and the only thing that is holding me back are the SATs - that’s why i’ve decided i want to take them again. Thanks for the great advice for summer study, got any more?</p>
<p>Today I actually set up a prelim thing…on July 28, the Gruber’s 2010 prep book comes out, and on July 21 the new College board official study guide 2010 edition comes out. What if I get the Gruber’s when it comes out, study out of it consistently, and then when I finish that work out of the official study guide up until the exam in november? Or would you recommend straight out of the official study guide and no gruber’s? I wish I were as lucky as you…my parent’s aren’t really caught up to date with how important SATs are now. I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and I hate to say this, but the truth is im not THAT important so i pretty much have to do everything on my own, with everything. </p>
<p>Also, do you think it’s right to be waiting for the new versions to come out? I thought it would be…if so, what should I do until they do? I bought the collegeboard online course - but it turned out to be a HUGE waste…</p>
<p>I second your apology to the long post haha.</p>
<p>EDIT: here’s my thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/725251-suggestions-chance-average-smart-guy.html?highlight=Suggestions+CHance+average[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/725251-suggestions-chance-average-smart-guy.html?highlight=Suggestions+CHance+average</a></p>
<p>davematthewsxvii: That’s fine, buy the Gruber’s book if you know it can be helpful, i dont really know about it. The main thing with the official guide is the practice tests, because the questions are most like the actual SAT questions because the practice tests were made by the maker of the SAT, and they definitely help if you practice diligently. Sorry to hear that your parents won’t pay for a tutor (maybe they’ll pay for a few lessons, not like 10? so you can learn some of the most important things and learn some other stuff on your own? If not, just use Gruber’s and the official guide…as for waiting for the 2010 version, you can wait if you want to, but if you can get the old one earlier too then thats even better, the more practice the better, and you get to start reviewing earlier with the official guide instead of waiting until july (you could use more practice tests from the old book to do separate sections instead of the whole thing, and then use more of the practice tests from the 2010 version to take them as whole tests). I’ll check out your chance thread later, cuz my dad’s yelling at me to get off the computer. But good luck with whatever you can do.</p>