Daughter is a freshman, took Physics SAT in June and got 760. While she is really good in Physics and have A+ and A in her honors physics class at a a competitive school, she hardly practiced for standardized test…or did any prep for SAT. Does it make sense for her to take the test again with some more test practice? Tanks for any feedback!
no, unless she’s super confident she can get higher score, but still a waste of money cuz not many ppl will care if its 800 or 760
maybe schools like caltech and mit will care, but generally speaking, its not important
??
Great score. No reason to retest. Do not worry about the percentile; mostly top students take the test in the first place. To any college, 760 shows she is a strong physics student.
…Unless she takes AP Physics junior year. Then she will not have to do any special preparation for the subject test, but can just take it at the end of the year when she has studied for the AP test anyway. In that case, why not try for the 800, if she got a 760 as a freshman?
But studying as a freshman when she already has a high score seems a poor investment of time better spent on schoolwork and extracurriculars… and on just plain being a kid and having fun! Do not make her high school experience all about getting into college.
No. A 760 is a great score. She should spend her time on other activities to enhance her application.
DD, rising senior, took SAT math 2 on a whim (decided to add it on test day after she found out that she could do that instead of sitting for an hour waiting for her friend to finish and drive her home). She thought she didn’t do so well, so immediately signed up to retake the next round and began to study for it. Turns out she got the same score both times-780. So in this case, studying did not help her. She also took chem twice and raised marginally from 740 to 760.
So my personal take is that while studying makes a significant difference in SAT 1 and ACT, it didn’t seem to move the needle much in subject tests.
Thank you! She feels bad about the score though!
I’d wonder why a 14 or 15 year old is feeling bad about a 760 on an SAT2?
I think it is about not shining as much as she could in Physics…we don’t know relatively speaking does it say she idid well but not as well as someone with a score of 800 or 780?
She is quite rounded though…plays varsity sport, music…and is involved in other extra curriculars. So that’s not an issue…
This is the first SAT test she has taken. Thanks for all your inputs…would love to hear also from any one who may have taken an SAT test again…and if it actually changed the score by any significant margin (or not)
The statistical difference between a 760 and an 800 is akin to a pimple on an elephant’s butt.
The fact that she scored a 760 as a freshman is impressive. While it’s too early to think about it, I will tell you that IMO if a college rejects her with a 760, it would have rejected her with an 800. Most colleges who use Subject Tests (which are few in the grand scheme of things) evaluate applications holistically. Subject Test scores are but one part of the equation.
Advice has been to take subject tests soon after finishing the course- she did a fantastic job. No reason to waste time later repeating the test. She will have plenty of other impressive test scores for her college applications I’m sure.
btw- perfect scores will not mean a better chance at a college admission. Gifted son (was still 16 when started college) did not study for the math SAT as a HS senior “we’re reviewing precalc in AP calculus”. He was supposed to study and retake it but missed deadlines et al- but he ended up retaking the whole SAT and upped his score to 2400. Only meant bragging rights. His grades were not all A’s- where doing homework counted, sigh. He ended up with an Honors math major, added computer science and HS and college are both ancient history.
The best thing for your D to do is to take challenging HS courses and do her best, including that sometimes busywork homework. It is worthwhile to go over practice tests for the ACT/SAT but certainly do not obsess about them when the time comes. Top students do not need prep classes- they learned the material and skills with their HS work.
Looks like your D may share a typical gifted student trait- perfectionism. Be sure she learns how to handle imperfection along the way. Keep the joy in learning.
Thank you so much guys! I will advise her accordingly!!
No that was probably at most one or two wrong answers, it might even be just misreading a question. She has shown mastery of the material.
If she’s taking another subject test down the road, it may not be a bad idea to retake because stem applicants will have 800s on math 2 and a science, typically. I don’t want to revisit decisions but they typically don’t advise freshman to take sat 2 subject tests since juniors taking the ap classes will be taking the subject test.
There is this idea that applicants somehow have a better chance with an 800 than a 760 (your example) and it just isn’t true.Your daughter has more than met any benchmark for any school, and after that it is about other things. Spending time on raising the score is silly, but some people do it- maybe because they want to be able to say they got perfect scores. But for admissions, it really, at this point, with a 760 already, is better to spend time on extracurriculars.
Life is for living, not just preparing for a future. In the not too distant future her HS test scores will be ancient history. Hopefully she will have a lot more going on than past glories of uber test scores. A lesson she needs to learn is to get on with her life.
Just saw a You tube video H sent me- it was a 2014 lecture/talk given by then 95 year old physics Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman (heard him speak at an awards ceremony for a Midwest Talent Search years ago). In it he mentioned failing his qualifying exams twice- finally passed (barely). He obviously went on to great things. Your D needs to learn that life is full of failures/falling short of perfection. Move on. btw- Lederman said he mentioned to his wife while at the awards ceremony a line about did she ever in her wildest imagination dream they would be in Sweden for this. He said her reply was that he wasn’t in her wildest dreams!
“she feels bad about the score though!” - Oh dear. It’s a fine score. Perhaps the more important question today is whether she is getting to wrapped up with super competitive academic environment / peers. Do what you can to encourage her talents and keep her from getting stressed too soon about stats and college admission.
She did the exact right thing, taking the exam as soon as she finished the course. Her score is fine! Tell her to move on to the next subject!
@theloniusmonk please explain this
Her 760 is an excellent score.
In addition, there are TONS…and I mean TONS of STEM majors who never take a SAT subject test…at…all…because the vast majority of colleges do not require them…at all.
There are thousands upon thousands of successful STEM applicants who do not have 800 on all of the STEM related SAT 2 tests…or who never had to take them at all.