Need a little advice + support.

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hey guys,
I'm freaking out over the SAT I took yesterday. As soon as I opened the book and saw the essay question, I knew I was screwed. I was hoping for a 2250-2300 but my chances were destroyed by the essay and the CR (I'm not the best reader; also, quick q--can being born out of the country [immigrant here] and learning English as a second language [but not being 'ESL'] alleviate the effect(s) of a not-so-perfect reading comprehension score?).</p>

<p>Anyway, I've been religiously browsing the forum since yesterday and have figured out how many questions I got wrong.</p>

<p>CR - 9 wrong (Vocabulary was tough.)
Math - 1 wrong (That stupid cumulative question!)
Writing - 1 wrong (I still don't see a difference between despite and although) with a 9 essay</p>

<p>Where does that put me? I'm praying for a miracle on the Math. I'm a perfectionist and really want an 800 in that section. The rest? I'm praying for above a 670 on the CR which is about 100 points beneath my projected score. My essay was pretty bad, but I am confident in my sentence corrections, etc. </p>

<p>If I were to apply to a school like University of Pennsylvania, would they be more forgiving about a below average score if I took the test again in October and got a 2300+? I know they do not honor Score Choice, but I'm enamored by Wharton and would be heartbroken if I did not get in. </p>

<p>Hopefully somebody can help? And please, don't be sarcastic and rude. I'm in a major slump right now because of a terrible, terrible week.</p>

2

<p>I think you need to get your scores back first before anything is predictable.</p>

<p>UPenn also needs 2 SAT II scores or one ACT score instead of SAT I&II scores.</p>

<p>Ivies are a crapshoot. You probably have 8% chance, same as everyone else, if you have a comparable GPA, good scores, essays, recommendations + interesting ECs. So without knowing anything else, it is ill advised to seek advice about whether you take SAT again or not, with zero information at this point. SAT is one attribute of about 7 or 8 different things colleges look for and so it truly makes no difference if you have a score of 2200 or so as a baseline (so I have read elsewhere before people start questioning it).</p>

3

<p>Hey I’m in pretty much the same situation!
I was hoping for a 2300 but that essay was disgusting.
Can’t say anything about CR and Math though, because it is really tricky and you never know if you’ll have 1 or 10 mistakes.</p>

<p>In any case, you should stay calm until scores are out - you never know how much you’ll actually have.
In the meantime, research universities. My advice is to apply to at least 4-5 colleges. After all, as texaspg said, Ivies are totally unpredictable and the chances are scanty.
Good luck!</p>