Hi everyone,
I am an incoming senior who took the SAT Math Level 2 Test in June and I am a bit concerned with my score of 760, since I hear that a LOT of students get an 800. I am even more concerned with the corresponding 65th percentile. Honestly, I don’t think I’m a bad math student as I got an A in AP Calculus BC as a junior and am going to take Multivariable Calculus at the nearby college this coming year.
I want to major in something along the lines of Civil Engineering and Urban Planning, which is an amalgam of math, physics, human geography, and economics, so I don’t think I would be considered a hardcore STEM student who’s college life will solely revolve around numbers.
I am shooting for pretty challenging schools such as Northwestern, Cornell, U of Michigan, UIUC, and Brown, but nothing at the top like Harvard or MIT (I’m being realistic, despite this being CC 
)
I predict (and hope) that my personal essays will be quite unique since I went to four different high schools due to all the moving from my dad’s work reasons, which involved an international move across the Pacific and an “inter-statal” move from the West Coast to the Midwest. Therefore, I think the main attraction of my college apps will be my personal story more than any test scores.
So what do you guys think? Is it worth retaking the math level 2 subject test? Thank you so much!!!
I think this score is definitely fine! It definitely won’t hurt your application at all.
I think a 760 is perfectly fine for the schools that you are applying to. Most likely, it is within their middle 50% for math subject test scores, since the 25th percentile for MIT was 770 (http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats). Even if it’s just below the middle 50% I wouldn’t suggest you retake unless you want to give up another Saturday. A 760 definitely demonstrates you are academically strong in that subject, and schools often don’t take the percentages into account so you will be fine. GL on your apps!
The 760 is a great score! Most colleges don’t look at the percentiles, seriously- each test date has different percentile charts, so admissions officers are not cross-referencing these. They just look at the number.
I am going to offer advice, which I think runs counter to the conventional wisdom that of course a high score like 760 is fine.
You say you are being realistic, and yet you are applying to schools that accept about 9% of their applicants (as opposed to 5%). That is still not exactly realistic. So you are going to have to have an extremely competitive applications to be accepted.
For the high school Class of 2015, here are the numbers that scored 800 on each subject test (excluding language, which are kind of screwy, based on the number of native speakers that take them):
Lit: 566 (1% of 56,594)
Bio E: 620 (2% of 31,027)
Math 1: 653 (1% of 65,319)
World: 666 (4% of 16,657)
Bio M: 1,690 (2% of 31,027)
USH: 2,109 (3% of 70,298)
Chem: 6,620 (9% of 73,551)
Physics: 7,071 (12% of 58,921)
Math 2: 27,507 (19% of 144,772)
There were 27,000+ 800s on the Math 2! - more than on all other SAT II Subject Tests combined. More people scored 800 on the Chemistry SAT II and on the Physics SAT II than scored 800 on the Lit, US History, and World History tests combined.
As you say, a 760 on the Math 2 is 65th percentile. Don’t kid yourself that Admissions offices don’t know these stats, especially at schools that accept 9% of their applicants.
I agree with the post above. People who don’t know better will hear a 760 and think, “wow”…but the Math II is taken by a subset of test-taking students and an 800 is common amongst top students.
Kind of like the old GRE…where an 800 in quantitative became the standard for students applying to better STEM grad schools.
And, yes, Admins know these stats, particularly for math 2.
Now that you’ve taken it and maybe practice a little, you will be better prepared to score higher the next time.
At schools that accept 9% of their applicants one SAT II score is a blip compared to all the other holistic info they look at.
I think the question is whether retaking it would (a) interfere with other things you need to be doing as a senior, like working on your apps, essays and LOR’s and getting A’s in your senior year classes, and (b) whether retaking will get you an 800. If the answers are (a) no and (b) yes, then retake. Otherwise don’t do it and move on to something else. My D got a 770 when she took Math 2 but that was as a sophomore and she took it again a year later as a junior and got an 800. She also prepped hard the second time and took as many practice tests as she could find. But you’re a senior and you need to prioritize many tasks over the next several months. For you, this should not be a top priority but something that would be helpful if it doesn’t interfere with other important stuff.
I wouldn’t bother unless you are interested in Cal Tech.