<p>The SAT doesn't show the kind of student you are. I usually get at least strong B+ grades on everything (87-88) if not the occassional 90, but on the SAT i got absolutely slaughtered...I pulled a 1270 adding every section up from the new SAT including the essay and grammar. When I saw the average for this new SAT was around 1500, I freaked. I am frightened that if I don't get my SAT score up by at least 500-600 points that I will end up at a community college. It's terrible how much weight some schools put on this evil test...can anyone tell me if it is really THAT important to get in?</p>
<p>find your favorite schools and look at their common data set (if they disclose it--some hide it for whatever reason)</p>
<p>On the freshman admissions page of the common data set there will be a box of various factors marked as to what is very important, important, considered, not considered items.</p>
<p>even then a school can ignore a standardized test when they are building a community and see an aspect of what they like in your application--a passion evidenced in your app can clearly trump.</p>
<p>will you get in? that's the issue. very tough this year due to the echo baby boom at the most popular schools. media hype doesn't help.</p>
<p>sat/act is really a very narrow focus to determine who gets in and who doesn't. a four hour exam on a particular day when the red bull doesn't keep one awake should hardly be used as the sine qua non for admission. but you look at the standardized test whore schools (and they're easy to spot using scattergrams) and that's really all they want.</p>
<p>you'll have to find schools that either don't care about them (see fairtest.org) or those that look at them but really couldn't give a darn. they're out there and some are excellent but you have to do some work to find them.</p>
<p>good luck and emphasize your strengths, not your weaknesses.</p>
<p>Try the ACT -- some students do significantly better on it. You may be one of them, either because of the subject matters tested, how the questions are asked, or the lessened nerves factor (because the ACT has score choice).</p>
<p>Also look at one of those big thick college guides that lists all the thousands of colleges in the US. It doesn't come down to a choice between community college or a selective institution.</p>
<p>If you go to <a href="http://www.petersons.com%5B/url%5D">www.petersons.com</a>, you can input your GPA and ask for minimally difficult or open enrollment colleges. They have a middle 50% SAT range that includes where you are (those calculations are based on 1600, so you need to adjust). Also, check out the admission requirements for your state's schools. Your class rank may qualify you without worrying about the SAT.</p>
<p>Of course, there are the fairtest schools to consider also.</p>
<p>None of this is to denigrate community college -- many do this, get their distribution requirements/prerequisites out of the way cheaply, then transfer to a four-year program without worry about the SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>I can't really say more without knowing why you are having problems with the SAT -- running out of time, not knowing the material, missing the trick in the tricky questions, or what. Did you do any test prep? How did you do on practice tests? If you can manage to greatly increase your score, I think colleges would think that your first test was an aberration that didn't reflect your ability.</p>
<p>Still, given your feelings about the SAT, the ACT may prove to be the way to go for you.</p>
<p>get the Official Study Guide for the New SAT by collegeboard. Try Amazon.com, that might be the cheapest place u can get it from. They have 8 full practice tests. Take each one and review the wrong questions. Also review the right questions as well to see why u got them right.</p>
<p>Try the ACT!!!!!</p>
<p>Study!!!!!</p>
<p>We all hate the SAT unless you're someone who got a 2200+.</p>
<p>i got 2170 and im thrilled. but it might keep me out of Penn :-(</p>
<p>yea adidas but good luck!</p>
<p>anyways the SAT is a pretty good indicator on your chances of a good college but no always...i mean they created the test for a reason right?</p>
<p>anyways you should just study a little more and you should be able to improve you score much...</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>Well, I'm with you on the length; almost 4 hours is too much. As for difficulty, I think it's okay, considering that students all over the nation take it, it has to be difficult enough for not everyone to get a perfect score, but easy enough so that the average is at least 1/2 of the problems right.</p>
<p>if you score a 1270 and believe it is "ridiculously hard," then it does show the truth... Sorry for being harsh but don't overestimate yourself.</p>
<p>To NYker06
At least a low SAT score with good grades show that you're a hard worker. Don't worry about community colleges. You can always transfer. Practice and study hard and give it your best shot. =]
Also, if you do a lot better on the next one, they might just think you came down with an extremely bad case of the flu the first time. =P</p>
<p>Here are some great quotes from NYker directed to my first time essay.
Just simply terrible...:/ absolute failure
You are doomed for life my brother.
Maybe not listening to Slipknot ever again is a start towards establishing an education.
I mean cmon man i got a 1300 on my first sat from 2000 edition princeton review and i got a 1290 with my friends dad just giving us an essay topic from the REA book for AP lit I think.</p>
<p>
[quote]
At least a low SAT score with good grades show that you're a hard worker.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You know who really likes hard workers who don't have the skills to back them up? McDonald's</p>
<p>Luckily for you, there's quite a few schools who don't think the SAT is fair or necessary. In your state, there's some GREAT schools that don't require (or in some cases, even want) the SAT- including Bard, Hamilton, and Sarah Lawrence. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm</a></p>
<p>boxes, what exactly do you mean by "skills"? McDonalds wouldn't let me apply a few years ago because I can't speak Spanish. Does that count? :p</p>
<p>1270 is significantly below average. You clearly didn't study. No one to blame but yourself.</p>
<p>"You know who really likes hard workers who don't have the skills to back them up? McDonald's"</p>
<p>ROFLMAO</p>
<p>so true though.</p>
<p>Imo some1 who works hard but doesnt get good grades might as well carry a sign around his neck saying "retard". :( That's like the definition of idiot... lol xD</p>
<p>Uh...well it's more of a sad truth. Really, really sad truth.</p>
<p>I hate the new SAT. It's horribly long, and just drains you. It repeats the same stupid sections over, and over. The only thing that's different is the essay, and you get that over with in the beginning.</p>
<p>I got a 2190 the first time I took it---no prep at all. I'm taking it again in October to get a score that matches more closely with my PSAT one (227).</p>
<p>I think it's an easy test. All it really is, is a test of endurance. How long can you read dull paragraphs, not get distracted by what the passages actually say, and answer reading questions? How many grammar mistakes can you correct before you keel over? How many math questions can you swallow whole before you puke?</p>
<p>Sorry that's my attitude towards it. It measures your knowledge to a degree, but in the end, it doesn't show much at all.</p>
<p>Still, I agree--if you got a 1270, it's not because of the test. Either you bubbled things in wrong, or you really need to brush up on your SAT skills. Buy a prep book, and just drill through the problems. The essay is a relatively small portion of the writing portion, so don't worry about it too much. Work on your speed, too, so that you can answer all the easy questions correctly and at least try all the hard one. Don't do the very hard questions where you can't eliminate any answer at all. It'll hurt you to guess on those.</p>
<p>FYI: ur probably not going to improve more than 100-200 points even studying your brain off.
However, you probably have a good chance at the ACT - take that test.</p>
<p>Getting a good score is not necessarily an indicator of intelligence, rather it is an indicator of how well you do on SAT questions (which moderately correlates, but by no means always cooresponds to college performance). Good work ethic, which you seem to have, is a better indicator, but is virtually impossible to definitively measure.</p>
<p>You did actually try on this test, didnt you? I know several friends who just decided to answer randomly for half the test (or fell asleep halfway through) and for some reason, scored lower than they expected (I cant understand why). If you did something like this, retake it and focus, focus, focus.</p>
<p>Whoa. 1270?? Study up. It's easy to get at least 1700 i'd say...</p>
<p>"It's easy to get at least 1700 i'd say..."</p>
<p>it depends. if english is not your first language,you're poor and those other factors that affect your score, it's not!
i scored a little higher than a 1700 but some of my friends didn't come close and they're smarter than a whole bunch of kids in my school that got 1800s.</p>
<p>ETS is stupid. they say they're non-profit but they make millions everyyear from killing unadvantaged students.</p>