I just started my junior year of high school without having taken the PSAT, SAT, ACT, or prepping for any of them. I planned to take the PSAT in my sophomore year, but I never did because it was only offered in-person and my family was more worried about COVID-19 at the time.
I’ve started using Khan Academy to prep for the SAT, and I’ll be taking the PSAT for the first time next month. So far, I’m fairly confident in my math skills (other than needing to review a lot of geometry), but Writing & Language is less promising. Will this be a problem if I plan to apply to selective schools like Stanford and MIT?
To be clear, getting accepted for selective CS programs is a personal goal of mine, but it’s not something I’ll tear myself up over if I don’t get accepted.
If you’re asking whether a low EBRW score will impact admissions chances at MIT and Stanford, yes it will, if they are requiring standardized tests next year.
It’s only one part of an admissions package, and students certainly get admitted with lower scores, but there is also certainly a positive correlation between score and admission probability. MIT publishes theirs at Admissions statistics | MIT Admissions
“High” and “low” are relative to the school. At MIT, “low” is below 700 for EBRW, where the 2021 admission rate was under 3%, vs 11% above 750.
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Sorry, I should’ve made my main question more clear. I intend to keep preparing for the exams in order to improve my language skills, but I’m worried that there isn’t enough time to do so at this point. As I’ve never taken the PSAT so far and will only get one chance to take it (next month), I’m not sure I’ll get many chances to practice and improve my scores.
I do understand that test scores will matter to an extent, so my intention is definitely not to leave it as-is. It’s also worth noting that I haven’t taken a full-length SAT practice yet; this is just going off of Khan Academy’s diagnostic quizzes.
It is not too late, but we have no context.
Take a full length practice test of both the SAT and ACT. See if you do better on one or the other. Use a timer. And come back and share your scores.
Take the PSAT practice test as well. That will help prepare you.
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@physicalchem - Try not to worry about things in the past or things you can’t control. Pick up a copy of The Princeton Review prep book that has a bunch of practice tests and try and sit and do a few to get comfortable with the timing.
Second is to start researching schools, there are 100s of schools out there that have outstanding CS programs. Your goal shouldn’t be getting into a selective school it should be getting into a school that is the right fit for you. The good news is whether you score a 1550, a 1350 or a 1050 there are great schools out there for you
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