<p>My D’s dream school was Vanderbilt. Once she saw the scores and that girls and applicants from in-state had a statistically lower chance of getting in, then she switched dream school. And… her dream school waitlisted her. She’s happy with the other choices, all are liberal arts colleges and all are a great fit. On the scores, her composite was 31 on her last test and from junior to senior year, she raised it by 4 points. Her SAT CR+M was 1460 which was also higher than her junior year score. Taking the tests again made senior fall stressful but she’s tenacious. Although it didn’t get her into her “dream school” it did get her some very nice merit scholarships so it was worth it.</p>
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<p>Don’t give up hope on that, I had a 27, went to Michigan, did fine. I don’t know where it ranks in your mind, but I’m guessing somewhere in that top 50.</p>
<p>My S2 took it once, got a 27, and then refused to study and take it again. He was swamped with school/sports team/school play and strongly believed that “it is what it is.” I was really frustrated and wanted to nag him; husband agreed with S2. But it worked out for the best, I do believe. He is attending a college that is a perfect fit for him.</p>
<p>@lowdogsrule
This website has good tips for ACT prep.
<a href=“http://bestactprep.org/free-act-prep/”>http://bestactprep.org/free-act-prep/</a></p>
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<p>Thanks for the word of encouragement. Yes, Michigan is probably top 50. </p>
<p>I’m actually not so sure about the top 50 but the gist is no Penn (legacy), no Swarthmore, not even Reed. Instead, we found good schools that will meet my daughter’s needs and fit without being an elite, top 20 school. Actually once out of that elitist mindset, I found an amazing number of amazing schools I would like to attend. It was very freeing to research schools in ranks, let’s say, 51-200.</p>
<p>I suspect the OP’s daughter can get into some very good test optional schools, such as Bowdoin, Bates, Wake Forest, Colorado College, Middlebury (with AP or SAT Subject tests instead), Pitzer.</p>
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<p>■■■■■■■■. First of all, test scores are a bad predictor of college performance, certainly worse than grades; whatever aspect of one’s ‘intelligence’ standardized testing measures, it is not responsible for college performance beyond a certain threshold. Harvard’s website states, or at least stated until a couple of years ago, that anyone with an SAT score above 1800 is capable of handling the work. Would such a student be likely to earn straight As there? Not particularly, but it’s not impossible. Even if that student wouldn’t get stellar grades, however, it’s ridiculous to assume she’d be so unhappy at Harvard she shouldn’t apply at all, not even if she manages to raise her score to Harvard’s admission standard through studying.</p>
<p>Secondly, the overwhelming majority of SAT scores over 2200 are achieved with the aid of intensive prep. If you think the average overachiever at MIT or Columbia or Berkeley got 2320 on the SAT without studying and that feat of natural ‘intelligence’ is what enables him/her to get good grades in college–and, indeed, that seems to be what you think–you are delusional.</p>
<p>In cases like this, I wonder if it is the student’s dream school or the parents. If she cared about it she would be willing to put the time in to improve her score. It is classic “avoidance” behavior and probably a signal that she really doesn’t care about going to the dream school.</p>
<p>^^^^this, coupled with immaturity. In my boys’ cases, it was the latter more than the former.^^^</p>
<p>“Secondly, the overwhelming majority of SAT scores over 2200 are achieved with the aid of intensive prep.”</p>
<p>I sell intensive prep, and I don’t see any evidence for this statement. Or do you consider taking a course to be “intensive”? (I used to teach the courses at a big national company, and I don’t consider them intensive.) Most high scorers do some prep, but a lot of it is self-study. If you start out at 2100, you likely have the academic skills to teach yourself; the hard part is the discipline.</p>
<p>In my experience as a teacher, it is quite rare for students to reach the 2200+ range unless they start out within 100 points or so of that range. Bringing a score up by one standard deviation (100 points) in a single section is considered a superb result in the test prep community. There just isn’t any product offered on a mass scale that brings middling scores into the elite range. Truly intensive prep – one-on-one work with a real expert, multiple hours per week for months – has better odds, but improving by a standard deviation on each section is still a really good outcome.</p>
<p>Depends on your definition of intensive. I would guess many students in the 2200+ range are high achievers who wouldn’t walk in to such an important test without doing some prep, perhaps working through a test prep book. Is that “intensive”? I would also guess that many of the 2300+ students would have been able to score 2200 with nothing more than 2-3 practice tests to learn the format.</p>
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<p>I am not disputing the truism that most people who score 2250+ on the SAT would probably score above 2000 without any preparation. However, it is equally true that most of those people take the test after familiarizing themselves with the format extensively. That is a kind of preparation, and the most useful one at that, in my experience. Moreover, many high scorers are ‘naturally’ weak in one or more areas of the test and need targeted revision and practice in order to improve their score. (That was the case for me, for example; I went from scoring 2260 without any preparation to scoring 2350 after a week of solving practice math problems exclusively–for which, by the way, I did not pay anyone a single cent. I really don’t think tutors or prep programs are an indispensable part of test preparation, no offense.)</p>
<p>Maybe the phrase ‘intensive prep’ was misleading. What I meant was any kind of preparation to which the student is personally committed and which addresses his or her weaknesses productively. I don’t see why that can’t be self-directed, however.</p>
<p>I’m coming in late and have not read the 5 pages of responses so this post is directly to the OP. I just wanted to say that sometimes kids take the passive aggressive route with their parents on these things. If she understands that her current score won’t get her in but she’s still unwilling to do the work to improve then she may not be all that invested in the “dream school.” It may just sound good to her or gives her positive attention when she tells others she wants to apply there. Her reluctance to sit down and do the work might be a sign that deep down she doesn’t see it as a good fit.</p>
<p>As for improving the composite 5 points… that is very difficult… especially because very few colleges will “superscore” the ACT. My own daughter took the ACT twice. The first time she got a borderline score for those top 20 colleges and she wanted to improve. The second time she pulled up math, science and English 3 points each which sounds really great but the reading dropped 2 points and the composite only ended up increasing 1 point. Thankfully for her, that point was enough to make her a great candidate at the schools SHE was really interested in and get her strong merit aid. In the end, she didn’t even apply to many of the top picks on her list end of Junior year. She found schools that were a better fit for her stats and a better fit for the type of environment she was looking for.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d drop the pressure on her to study. She will likely do a little better just based on having taken it before. I’d start looking at schools where her current stats are strong so she has good options Spring of her Senior year!</p>
<p>“We have a similar dilemma w/math SAT score…need 100 points. Here is what we are doing…SAT Blue book is sitting at the table in the kitchen. Son has his choice of when to do the 20-25 min timed session, but it must be done daily, before dinner. (He gets out early, so this is very generous timing). Then, dad corrects after dinner, and every couple of days they sit down and rework missed problems. Non negotiable, and if he grouses he loses a privilege (video game/YouTube privilege or phone after school). So far so good…but if I give him an inch, he tries to take a mile, so I am kinda hard nosed. 20-25 min is not much time”</p>
<p>Here’s what worked for my kid, I realize this won’t work for everyone. First time he took the SAT, he really didn’t do very well. Didn’t want to take practice tests, because his theory was, why not just take it as often as possible, when it actually counts? Seeing as now they usually just take the top score from each section. He took that dang test 5 times, not including the subject tests, and improved 50-100 points each time he took it. His first math score was 660 (I think), he ended up with a 790.</p>
<p>We did help motivate him by promising him a nice gaming laptop if he reached a certain score. When he got over that score, he stopped taking the test…I guess we should have made it higher! Never did tell him we were going to buy him another laptop for college anyways, so he thought it was much better of a bribe than it actually was.</p>
<p>SlackerMomMD-- I can’t really speak to the other schools, and I really admire the test optional policy, but I think it’s a mistake to think Bowdoin’s test optional policy is a “backdoor” way to get in for those with test scores below Bowdoin’s averages. This is a college that admitted only 12% of regular decision applicants, and 14% overall. It’s a relatively small percentage of the class that is admitted without scores, and those who are so admitted I’m certain have something “magic” in their application, or a “hook”, that makes it standout in a big way. </p>
<p>I have one kid who went from 181 on the PSAT freshman year to 203 soph, 218 junior year and 2200 and 2290 SATs. He did no additional studying between the March and June SATs junior year – AP and IB exams wiped him out. </p>
<p>We attributed a lot of the overall increase to what he learned in his IB program, because he took the 9th and 10th grade PSATs stone cold. He did some work on math with DH and some grammar review with me junior year, and he practiced pacing and timing because he has unaccommodated LD issues. He used an SAT Blue Book and didn’t come close to taking all the tests. We did not pay for prep. What DH did do was to go over the questions and analyze S’s responses.</p>
<p>I agree with others that the OP’s D may be trying to say that she is comfortable with where and who she is, and if she’s happy with her scores, then she should turn her focus to schools or programs that will be happy to have her. </p>
<p>busdriver: Why pay $255 for 5 “real” tests–when you can get a book of 10 “real” tests for only $20? (My kids did books of tests at home before taking the real test–only paid for it once for each of four kids. Prep well at home and no retakes needed.)</p>
<p>@alum88, I agree with you. I just wanted to point out that there are “dream” level schools that are test optional. </p>
<p>Or you can encourage your kids to read books and magazines and get them “free” test prep that way.</p>
<p>A kid who reads an article in the Economist or FT on… I don’t know- climate change or cell phone usage in Africa or wind farms or the wage gap between men and women in the industrialized world and can understand both the text and the accompanying graphs and charts is likely a kid who won’t need to pay for test prep.</p>
<p>@blossom - great approach for someone with 2 years to prepare. Minimal value for someone with 6 weeks to prepare. </p>
<p>Usually, one would choose the schools to apply according to one’s academic achievement and the strength of the application. While the OP and OP’s daughter has set the target and try to reach the requirement for the target schools. It is not very practical when time is limited and the gap is wide. It may just lead to frustration. I would suggest to invest more time on identifying match schools.</p>