<p>My Daughters just got their Jan SAT scores and the math was lower than either of them were hoping for. For those of you who took it more than once how much did your scores increase with subsequent sessions? Also if you could tell me how you prepped for it between testing sessions I would really appreciate it.</p>
<p>My son got a 690 on the math section the first time he took it. He is a good math student and that score was frustrating to him, so he decided to take it a second time just to focus on the math score. His reading was 760, and the writing was... don't recall exactly... I think somewhere around 700, but he was okay with both those scores.</p>
<p>So he spent all his prep time on the math section, and he was scoring well on the practice tests. (He just prepped using common SAT prep books; Barrons, Princeton Review, the CB blue book, etc.)</p>
<p>His scores from the second sitting came back with a much <em>lower</em> math score, much to his dismay (650 that time), but with no additional prep at all on the other two sections, the reading went up to 790 and the WR to 720.</p>
<p>He was totally mystified, but he'd had enough of the SAT by that time and just settled for super-scoring with that first 690 in math. He did well on the SAT Subject test Math2, and he has great grades in alg 1&2, geo, pre-calc, and calc, so he just assumed his competence in math would be otherwise apparent. He did include a note saying those SAT math scores didn't represent his ability, and he didn't know why they weren't higher.</p>
<p>He's a humanities kid anyway, and it didn't hurt him in admissions as it turned out.</p>
<p>It was weird though how that math score actually went down significantly on the second pass, but the other sections went up.</p>
<p>Wow. That's the same thing that happened with me in math! I got a 690 the first time, felt I could do better, but then got a 650.</p>
<p>Anyway, my score went up a lot over time. My Junior year PSAT score was 169. My best test score (ACT) was a 32 composite</p>
<p>Overall, a 2030(mar) to a 2110(may). And I did absolutely NO studying for the second test!</p>
<p>First Test --> 590 Math 700 Reading 740 Writing
Second Test --> 620 Math 730 Reading 760 Writing</p>
<p>Luck of the draw... </p>
<p>I refused to retake the SATs after I got a 2200 on them, but I did take the ACTs a few months later (without ever having taken a practice test) and got a 33, which translates to slightly higher than my SAT score.</p>
<p>Colleges know SAT scores are an inexact science and your best best is to have them simply take plenty of practice tests. If their scores still don't go up, take SAT IIs to show that they are competent.</p>
<p>First:
690 CR
650 Math</p>
<p>Second:
770 CR
710 Math</p>
<p>I did a few extra full practice tests (maybe 2) and I studied SparkNotes English Vocab (for extra CR)... I mostly focused on writing, which I still did badly on (10 points higher second try). Practice tests are the way to go.</p>
<p>I think my attitude during the retake was a lot better- I was TONS less nervous, etc. And I took the retake at my school instead of an unfamilar place, so maybe that also was a factor. I don't know, my preparation probably wasn't the only cause of the 150 point jump... I think I'm a weird case.</p>
<p>My total on the PSAT went up over 25 points (i.e. over 250 of 2400).</p>
<p>It seems to depend on the person, lol. With no prep, mine went:</p>
<p>FIRST
760W
730CR
630M</p>
<p>SECOND
730W (-30 from 1)
760CR (+30 from 1)
710M (+80 from 1)</p>
<p>THIRD
730W (-30 from 1, 0 from 2)
700CR (-30 from 1, -60 from 2)
740M (+110 from 1, +30 from 2)</p>
<p>I was a totally random case. I think taking them within a year (e.g. winter of junior year, fall of senior) will probably lead to some sort of an increase, even w/o studying. Once you max out, though, you...max out. I think overstudying can hurt too, when it comes to ~thinking critically~.</p>
<p>My son did the SAT for the first time on January 26th. He did the actual SAT after a total of 10 hours of practice from the BB and PR. He did adequately although a better writing score would have been nice.</p>
<p>However, the SATs dont matter too much for him, since he is mainly interested in the UK (Oxford) and the US is a safety for him. Oxford are primarily interested in his Australian UAI percentile. We expect a reasonable UAI.</p>
<p>First TRIAL run from the blue book:
CR 750,
M 760
W 760
CR + M = 1510
CR + M + W = 2270</p>
<p>FIRST REAL EXAM
CR 800
M 790
W 750
CR + M = 1590 ( ie increased by 80 )
CR + M + W = 2340 ( Increased by 70)</p>
<p>So the increase was not huge, but doing the practice exams increased his confidence.</p>
<p>I've heard people say that according to statistics, people usually do the best on their second time taking the test. Of course, this varies depending on preparation and such. For me, my score went up 90 points from March to November, with no prep.</p>
<p>March
Cr 720
M 690
W 700</p>
<p>November
Cr 690
M 720
W 790</p>
<p>It's weird because I thought I totally aced the reading the second time. I think a bg factor is that people have become more accustomed to the testing environment and stress from time constraints the second time.</p>
<p>I went from 195 PSAT to 2230 SAT.</p>
<p>Apparently, I'm an anomaly- a very consistent standardized test taker. 2300 twice on the SAT and 35 twice on the ACT. Different sections moved up and down so they both looked better superscored, but the overall score didn't change. For the record, I never studied for either of them, first or second time.</p>
<p>Somedumbnoob, we are actually really close, I went from 195 - 2240.</p>
<p>I took it April 2006 - 1640 (530cr, 600m, 510w 8 essay)
November 2007- 2240 (710cr, 780m, 750w 12 essay)</p>
<p>There is a natural progression though high school that comes without studying. Either way, it took me a long time, and a lot of work.</p>
<p>The College Board has a table here showing the average score increase by section for students taking the test various times. <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/AverageScores.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/AverageScores.pdf</a>
Obviously, the averages don't let you know how much, if any, effort students put into studying before a retake. They do show students' scores improve on average the more times they take the test.</p>
<p>My daughter took the ACT in April and got a 31 - took it again in June with absolutely no prep in between and got a 34, which is a big jump (although one section went down a point.) My sons each took the SAT twice with no significant overall changes. My daughter tried to retake her SATII's to improve them and saw no significant changes there either. I'm not all that convinced of the value of any sort of preparation other than taking practice tests. If you go to the "SAT preparation" forum here on CC and check out the "Xiggi method" you'll do about as well as possible, I think.</p>
<p>1850 first time, no prep
No time to prep again, mother made me take it again a month later and got a 1790 -_-
Decided to take it again four months later, and prepped for a week. Got a 1940. Good enough.</p>
<p>I went from 590 in math to a 720 and and 590 in CR to 660 (5/07, 10/07, 12/07, 3 different dates) by using grubers, princeton review 11 sats and psat, and official blue book. I rarely did an entire test in one sitting. Rather I did all of one type (for example all math) one day and all reading another day. I never really prepped for the writing section though, but my top choice colleges don't care about that section anyway. It was in the mid 600s though.</p>
<p>1960 to 2080 for SAT. All sections improved, greatest by +60. I spent 1 hour looking through "Underground guide to the SAT."</p>
<p>I did my first SAT junior year Jan for M660, CR460, W520.
I was pretty confident about the math, but oh well. Then I took it a second time senior year Oct and surprisingly got M710, CR570, W640. Between those tests, all I did over the summer was reading a couple vocabs a day. I couldn't believe that I got that much higher.</p>
<p>Obviously there is no hard and fast rule. It is good to see that many of you had a significant jump because one of the schools on my daughter's list expect math scores at least 60 points higher than she got. Thanks for the responses and keep em coming!</p>