<p>Just take it again. Schools expect kids to take it at least twice and won’t penalize you for a third. Best of luck!</p>
<p>MomofNEA, anyone can have a bad day, be sick etc. I think admissions counselors are smart enough to figure that out if they even see all the scores - and often they don’t. They often only see the top score in each section.</p>
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<p>ANYthing is possible, of course. A few mis-bubbles by accident can easily kill a good score.</p>
<p>But the vocab is vocab, and Collegeboard has spent a gazillion dollars and years of on research to make it consistent from test to test. And once one learns the vocab, and concepts, most of that knowledge will be retained a few months later.</p>
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<p>Even with zero test prep, just typical HS lit reading improves one’s vocabulary.</p>
<p>I really appreciate everyone’s contributions here. It is great to experience the collective wisdom. </p>
<p>mathmom, that is good to know that the majority of schools do superscore. My son does have the smarts to score over 700 (and that’s not just mom speaking). But he is careless. It’s not uncommon for the majority of problems he gets wrong to be the easier ones. When he looks at the missed problems later, he usually can get all but one or two right immediately. He probably needs to slow down. And Xiggi, I thank you for your informed perspective. Your assertion that adcoms likely see only the superscore makes sense. I just hope it’s true :)</p>
<p>Settled. He’ll retake in October. Time to focus on taxes, instead.</p>
<p>Lakemom and glido, thanks for your good wishes!</p>
<p>mommeleh, you are describing my older son. He could easily have gotten an 800 on the math SAT, he never did and the questions he got wrong were always the easiest one.</p>
<p>I also agree with xiggi, and just want to add that it’s in the best interests of the colleges to superscore because in the end that gives them higher stats for entering freshmen, which translates to higher rankings – something that (understandably) the colleges care about deeply.</p>
<p>I wonder then why do some colleges want to see all the scores for scoring history. See the following from Penn.
<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/applying/testing.php[/url]”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/applying/testing.php</a></p>
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<p>In the real world, those scores are excellent. I don’t know where your son wants to apply, but unless he’s interested in the most stratospherically competitive schools, you can congratulate him and stop worrying.</p>
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<p>To minimize cheating, which is rather easy to do with score choice, particularly on subject tests. (I’ll refrain from describing how.)</p>
<p>Thank you, seren50. I was very happy with my son’s scores, but always feel a bit deflated after coming on cc. My son is not intending to apply to the most highly selective schools. Even if he achieved scores that might allow for a chance of admission at such schools, I probably would not encourage him to apply. After all, it’s not about getting in to school, but being able to get out the other end. i wouldn’t want him to be miserable, competing with kids who are far better equipped to handle the load.</p>
<p>Dr. Google, your example is like a few others I have seen. I worry about the comment regarding consistency as i am concerned that my son will not be able to come near to matching his current CR score on future tests. I can’t imagine that schools can totally ignore all but the highest section across multiple tests. Why? Imagine the most extreme abuse of score choice: This is a 4 hr test. It is absolutely exhausting and difficult to maintain focus for that amount of time. More so for some kids than others. What if a kid just did one part (CR,W or M) for a test, and napped during the other parts? After three tests, each devoted to one section, that would be some superscore!</p>
<p>justwonderful is right that it is in the interest of the college to superscore. But, at the highest echelons (or maybe even in schools with so many applicants that it would be nice to have another means of weeding out some kids), they have more kids than they need with excellent scores. Given two applicants with comparable superscores, i think the kid who consistently scores near the superscore in a single sitting will win out. </p>
<p>bluebayou, I couldn’t figure out what you were getting at for a while there about the subject test. I think I understand what you are saying. Not sure. Sad.</p>
<p>You can easily find out the admitted students score range for any school you might be interested in, and I think it will make you (and your son, if he’s even thinking about this at all) feel much better. I’m sure all his scores are far above the 90th percentile. He doesn’t need to be an off-the-charts superhuman to get a good education and have a constructive life. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Yes, thank you, seren50.</p>
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I actually heard a couple of teachers gossiping about a very similar occurance when I was chaperoning at a math contest my son was involved in. Apparently the kid was only unhappy with his math score. So he only answered the math sections of the SAT. The SAT people flagged his test and there was all sorts of brouhaha about it. I don’t know how it was ultimately resolved though. Personally I don’t see the need for the SAT to be a test of stamina which particularly with the addition of the writing section, it has become.</p>
<p>Interesting bit of info, mathmom. Of course, I was listing the extreme example. One can imagine that many kids do go into a test prepared to give extra effort to one section or another.
And I absolutely agree, mathmom. I once read a wikipedia article about the SAT. At one point in history, I think, the test consisted of just two one-hr sections (reading and math). Seems far more humane. How often in life would one need to maintain that level of speed, accuracy and focus for 4 hours without real breaks? It’s silly. Never mind the inclusion of an experimental section, to boot!</p>
<p>^Good extreme example. I would do that too if I were to retake the SAT today. I agree the SAT is an endurance test. I had to make sure D2’s blood sugar was constant. I know at home she slacked off toward the end of the test and that’s where she was starting to make lots of mistakes.</p>
<p>Oh, yes. Sent my son with an assortment of protein bars. Then worried he would end up with stomach cramps :)</p>