My daughter has much more confidence in Math than she does in Reading or Writing. I think she actively avoided prepping for the PSAT because she finds the Reading and Writing sections so demoralizing.
When I told her about Superscoring, she sounded very relieved. She likes the idea of focusing on Math and putting off the “scary sections” until later. She’s a very good student, but she’s never been great at standardized tests. I think she gets stressed out and tends to obsess as well, which affects her timing. I was the same way.
I think her best approach would be to focus on Math first, and then once her confidence is up, tackle the other two sections. I think that would be the best approach to optimize her Superscore, but I’m wondering if this could adversely affect the impression she makes on colleges. Specifically, if she bombs the EBRW section on her first SAT, because she puts all of her energy into Math, will that look bad even if she’s able to bring the EBRW score up on a subsequent sitting?
I realize that some schools don’t Superscore, but what do you all think of the strategy in general, if you’re focusing on schools that do?
If the school superscores, then its OK to go in with that strategy, however at some point she will have to prep for EBRW.
I’m not that familiar with the new SAT super scoring rules do they superscore by section or by ebrw total? Is her weakness the reading section or the English section or both? She should practice at home the English section which is generally easier and see how she does. It’s like 35 minutes to 40 minutes max.
All of the testing counselors suggest that working on improving a test takers weakest section is the best investment of time. The OP’s strategy is counter to this notion. I would go with the experts opinion and work on reading and writing.
If the school did superscore, there will be a noticeable gap between the math and reading/writing sections, and schools dislike that. Prep for the weak sections like the posters above me said. Personally, I struggled with CR/W and practiced a lot and was able to score above a 700. It takes time, it takes courage, but it’s so damn worth it.
This is the exact strategy that I imposed and it worked tremendously (albeit, not exactly how it was supposed to). I had gotten a 750 on my Math SAT without even studying for it and was now planning to study for Math very strongly, get an 800, and move onto studying for my Writing/Reading score which was not nearly as good. Somehow I only improved 10 on Math but then improved by 110 points on Writing/Reading. I think the strategy works very well though.
@Zinhead This strategy does include working on your weaker section, but it simply puts it off and tries to get your stronger section up to its highest and then you can solely focus on your weakest section.
If she really is very strong at Math there is also a possibility that all that Math studying could stick with her and she could score her highest on the one she prepared for Writing/Reading without even preparing for Math. Everyone is different but I really liked this strategy. There is a point where she will have to focus on this “scary section” though, and she will have to be truly committed to improving if she is going to see some improvements.
@Zinhead, like @IN4655 said, she is planning to work on EBRW, but she feels more confident in Math so she wants to see if she can get that up first. I think she has a good amount of room for improvement on both sections.
@IN4655, I was thinking the same thing about her math score possibly sticking even after she switches gears. I’m glad the strategy worked for you. She’s really having trouble getting into prep mode, so I think it’s psychological more than anything else. She needs to get going and it’s going to be hard for me to get her going if she has to deal with the harder material first.
@penngirlpending, the surprising thing is that she got the exact same score on EBRW as she did on Math on the PSAT, so it might not look too out of whack if she boosts her Math score up first. She made a lot of stupid mistakes on the Math section. I’m hoping that with practice, she can bring the number of those mistakes down. Her mistakes on the Writing section are clearly the result of not knowing certain rules of sentence structure. It seems like these can be easily and quickly corrected, so I’ll definitely try to get her to spend some time on this, even before her first attempt at the SAT.
That’s awesome that you were able to get your CR/W score above a 700. Did you do a lot of full practice tests, or individual questions?
@suzyQ7, I think they Superscore by total EBRW, not by the broken down scores. Her lowest score was on the Writing section, but she made the same exact type of error on several questions, so I think she has a good chance of improving her score there. Her mistakes on the Reading section seemed more scattered, and I think they’re related to reading speed. I think it will be harder to improve there, but I’ll definitely encourage her to try.
@“Erin’s Dad”, do you know if some of the schools that Superscore also fall into this category of schools that want to see all scores, so they can identify big swings? Do you know how to figure out which schools want to see all scores - do the CDS’s have that?
May or not be helpful, but thought I would throw Ds story in–
I just saw this post and wanted to throw in that some schools change their policies from year to year. D started off testing last fall with a goal ACT score in mind for merit aid at one particular school. Their policy was that they superscored ACT math + E. So that is what she focused on and pretty much let science drift down and it showed.
I started to get a little uneasy when an AO mentioned merit qualifications may be changing and I encouraged her to also prep for the science section. She is really glad she did because the policy did change and they no longer superscore and they take best cumulative score!!
Don’t overthink this. Have her study more for her weaker sections before testing at all. Sounds like she already just skipped it altogether for PSAT prep, which was honestly foolish. She needs MORE prep on her weaknesses, not procrastination.
For me, I told myself that if I didn’t start studying, then I won’t get higher scores (causation, not correlation). I even had to write a motivational letter to myself to get myself going. I worked on my homework every night to make sure I allot 30-60 minutes to work on a section. This was before the redesigned test. But the method is the same—if your daughter doesn’t practice, she won’t be able to improve. She’s has to realize that her scores are dependent on her familiarity with the type of questions SAT asks, or else it may be too late.
It’s hard to sit down and start studying–I had to struggle through that as well–so maybe try a motivational/pep talk later that stresses the importance of practice and the consequences that stem from not practicing.
I would also make sure that even after you take a test section, make sure to REVIEW. Reviewing the mistakes, even the ones she guesses on, are important. Then she’ll understand what went wrong and to not bother with that again. Otherwise, she’s not learning from her mistakes to correct them later on.
After many practice tests, she’ll gain confidence and on test day, it’ll be much easier.
Thanks for the responses everyone. I disappeared for a little while.
@“Erin’s Dad”. thanks for that link. That’s a ton of great info on Score Choice. I had never heard any of that.
Thanks to @drusba too, for writing that up.
@carachel2, interesting. I’ll keep that in mind as she focuses in on specific schools. I didn’t realize they change these things so often. That’s great that she brought up her Science section. I looked at that section and it freaked me out. I don’t know how kids finish that thing. I think my daughter would have an easier time on the other ACT sections than she would on the corresponding SAT sections, but that Science section is brutal.
@intparent, I am going to have her try to improve all sections before taking the SAT. I found a tutor who I’m hoping will be able to motivate her.
@penngirlpending, I agree that practice and review are the two key things. I’ve finally gotten her to agree to spend time with me every weekend. We’re going to start seeing this tutor, but I’m going to try to get her to do practice tests with me during the weekends.