Oh the horror, I Lowered my subject test score a LOT!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Just got my scores from the Jan test in Math II, Chem, Phys, which have been automatically sent to MIT.</p>

<p>Now, I knew that I pretty much screwed up my Math II score since I had slept way to little before the test and the stupid test official forced me to take the Math II first (I had planned on sacrificing the Chem test in order to properly wake up). I was so slow this time that i did not even finish half the questions before the time ran out. What can I say, every once in a while one has a really bad day.</p>

<p>The score I got in Math II was.... 580 (!), which is hundreds of points lower than my previous score! The MIT website states that they use the highest scores only, is this really true? Would they not see a drastic decrease in score and think that I have become bad at math? Or, would they understand that every once in a while people have bad mornings?</p>

<p>Also, I did pretty good on the other tests (I was more awake when I did them).</p>

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<p>I am mad as well. I got a 650 for Math II, but didn’t make the previous test. May I know your previous score? If MIT states they will use the highest score, they probably do, and if they don’t they lie. (lol)</p>

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<p>I understand this is stressful, but calm down and think for a minute. Suppose you are a reasonable person, and you are told that someone did well on a particular math test one day, in addition to have good math grades for 3 straight years in school. A few months later they take the same test again, and do much worse than the first time. Would you think they just had a bad day, or would you actually think that they someone became BAD at math in the space of a couple of months? I mean, that doesn’t even make any sense! Thankfully, you can become better at a subject in a short period of time relatively easily (with hard work and studying), but becoming bad at it in a short period of time is tremendously difficult. </p>

<p>Now let me get off my common sense soapbox (sorry, but it really is important to keep track of logic when applying to college, or you’ll lose your mind) and assure you in that MIT does really only consider your highest score, and that they are also reasonable people who will understand you had a bad day and not spend another second thinking about it.</p>

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<p>Omggg was there something horribly wrong with the curve this time?</p>

<p>I got a 670 in Chemistryy…and thought I would actually do …well, a bit better. </p>

<p>Now I’m seriously scaredd. Like my other SAT grades are all cool, but the 670 is like omgg bad. What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>Maybe write to MIT and explain what happened?</p>

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<p>@agrinn: I think LauraN is right. Just that you have a bad score doesn’t show that you have bad ability. I guess the test score is just a way they use to compare your ability to other applicants’ and avoid grade inflation. It seems that your previous score is good, so no need to worry.</p>

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<p>Thank you all, I really needed to hear (read?) that. It’s so nice to have the nice people of CC, especially in times like these! :)</p>

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<p>@hghschoolgirl
The thing is I don’t want to blame this score on something other than me, I’m afraid I might sound like someone trying to hide bad sides of themselves (if that makes sence?).</p>

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<p>

You will never go wrong if you assume everything on the MIT website is true.</p>

<p>MIT will look at your highest score in each category only. They will not consider lower scores in your evaluation.</p>

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<p>In MIT we trust.</p>