<p>AP score report is completely separate from SATs. (And even if it wasn't, you only send it to the school where you are already accepted.)</p>
<p>"The language SATIIs are considered very easy tests."</p>
<p>That is not true. It is very hard to get a high score on language tests because all the native speakers take them, and drive the curve very high. In fact, a 630 on almost any language test satisfies the foreign language requirement at Stanford for that reason...</p>
<p>I think this is true of Chinese and Spanish, but not French. At my daughter's school which has a strong foreign language program, more kids get 800 on language tests including French than any other SATII. Also, the fact that native speakers take these tests doesn't make a high score hard to get, it just lowers the percentile for those scores.</p>
<p>What would you consider a reasonable score for someone who didn't take any courses in a language in high school, but studied it independently junior and senior year?</p>
<p>"What would you consider a reasonable score for someone who didn't take any courses in a language in high school, but studied it independently junior and senior year?"</p>
<p>Unless it's a language spoken in your family, or you had some "immersion" experience, or you are a language genius, I'd suggest to pick a different subject. A score is a score. You get no brownie points for studying for the test on your own.</p>
<p>I already took it, so it's probably too late to second-guess... ;)</p>
<p>First language: Swedish (no Subject Test available...)
Second language: French (800)
Third language: English (800 CR, 710 W, 750 Literature)
Fourth language: Spanish (700)</p>
<p>I'm only asking because everyone on this site seems to think that a 700 in Spanish isn't very impressive for the category of schools I'm applying to, and I'm wondering if colleges will acknowledge the fact that I have virtually no background in Spanish when they consider my scores.</p>
<p>Well, you obviously are exceptionally good at languages, and 700 in Spanish is a good score for a non-native speaker. Most schools, however, don't "consider" all that much - they just average the highest numbers for the required number of tests. With your scores I doubt you have much to worry about.</p>
<p>Cripey, camelia. I know I'm supposed to be old and mature, and you're not, but it's awfully depressing to have kids who are extraordinary and have everything going for them come in and, effectively, obsess about dandruff. I'm betting that those weren't even your only SAT IIs -- I thought most of the schools wanted to see a math test. Even if that 700 in Spanish gets averaged in somewhere, and reduces your composite score a hair, it's going to impress the heck out of anyone who notices that you never actually studied Spanish and it's your fourth language. (And the rest of your scores ensure that someone will at least be paying attention to your application.) I can't promise you that you'll get into Princeton, but if you don't I am morally certain that your Spanish SAT II will have nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>For the OP, I doubt those scores "doom" your daughter, but they can't help. If anything, they make me question her/your judgment: what was she doing taking the US History SAT II without taking US History? (Especially since there is apparently a HUGE overlap between that test and the US History AP, so essentially everyone who took AP History has been studying for it.) Also, since there is no US jurisdiction that doesn't require US history as part of a high school curriculum, I presume she has been educated outside the US, which makes that choice of test just crazy.</p>
<p>(Same with cameliasinesis -- out of all the tests in all the gin-joints in the world, why would you take Spanish after a couple of years of self-study? Obviously, you're great at stuff like this, but I imagine you're at your best when you've had some actual instruction.)</p>
<p>Back to the OP's concerns: Now I'm sure you see why she had such a tough time on the US HIstory, having never taken a course in it. It is ALL based on recall, comparison, manipulation of events, trends and personalities that she could have only known from a course or extensive reading. It's all short-answer, multiple choice. She must have felt awful during the test.
I can also guess how she might have chosen to take it. There are state-administered tests (in NY for Regents, and presumably elsewhere) that are for Social Studies, where all the info is presented to the student in the test question, in the form of a text passage, map or political cartoon. Then the test asks questions about the given material. If a student is generally good at interpreting her Social Studies textbook, she had every reason to believe she had a skill-set relevant to a US History test (although the SAT-II prep site might have warned her off of that). In a sense, the Lit test is more like that--if you're "good" at analyzing Lit, you can do that SAT-II, because they give you a strange new poem or play-scene and ask questions about how it works. THese are very different approaches, one SAT-II test to the other, and very different from a state-written Social Studies test.
However, you have NO WAY of knowing how the one college who received the 3 scores will handle them. I'm a wild optimist, but suppose they only take "best 2 of 3." Then, you're not in bad shape, espec. given what people are saying here about Language tests for non-native speakers.
What everyone's saying here about percentages is that in a few weeks, the SAT-II people will publish the meaning of the scores in terms of percentages. I didn't know what to think about my S's scores (he also took US Hist and Lit b/c one and only one college was requesting any 2 SAT-II's.) And you don't know how they'll weight those scores, relative to her SAT-I's.
Around here, although we try to be realistic, we also keep each others' hopes up a bit. Parenting is hard work. Being a student, even harder (they have to also deal with US :)
So, OP, how is that tea?</p>
<p>and thank you, JHS, for those fantastic new sound-bytes,
"obsessing about dandruff"
"out of all the tests in all the gin-joints in the world..."
LOL here.</p>
<p>clarification, end of my post #29,
"and you don't know how they'll weight those scores, relative to her SAT-I's."</p>
<p>By "they", I meant your destination college, not the SAT Boards. They just put out percentages, as in "this sitting, a score of 600 was exceeded by 28% of all who sat for this test."</p>
<p>You're right, I'm being neurotic. Reading the Princeton board and others (ohmygod, I got a 790 on Math II, am I doomed?) does that to you sometimes. Thanks for putting this into perspective. :)</p>
<p>Edit: And I took the test precisely because I never studied it, because I didn't want them to think I was lying when I wrote "Spanish independent study" on my activities list. My other tests were Math II (700), Chemistry (710), and Biology-M (not sure yet, because the College Board scored it as Bio-E and it had to be handscored).</p>
<p>Cameliasinensis,
That's why it's sometimes good to visit the Parents Forum. Here, we'll keep you honest....and sane.</p>
<p>To the OP--please don't put too much stock in the posts here telling you she is totally damaged at the school that wants these scores.</p>
<p>My S scored at the 40% on one SAT 2, about 70th at a couple others (can you tell he's not interested in studying for these kinds of tests? ) However, he had a high SAT 1, as your D does with the ACT. He's at an Ivy now, so, you never know what will hurt or not.</p>
<p>timely: Your son's score on Math Level 2 places him in the 24th percentile. It's true that most of the kids who take this test are strong math students:Ten percent of test takers get an 800. Check out <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SubjTestPercentileRanks.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SubjTestPercentileRanks.pdf</a></p>
<p>It is entirely possible that some of the schools your daughter applied to that do not ask for SAT II scores won't even consider them if submitted.</p>
<p>For example, when I visited the University of Maryland at College Park with my son, someone asked the admissions officer who was doing the information session whether or not UMCP, which does not require SAT II scores, looks at them if submitted. The admissions guy said, "Take them if you want to, but we won't look at them."</p>
<p>I suspect that other college have similar policies. Taking SAT II scores into account when you don't normally require them would just overcomplicate an already-difficult admissions process.</p>
<p>As for the SAT II U.S. History test, the kids who do well on it are primarily those who have taken AP U.S. History, which actually does cover all those silly nitpicking details. Unfortunately, high school guidance departments are often sadly lacking when it comes to advising kids about SAT II tests, and students who think that their general background in and enthusiasm for social studies will be enough to get them through this test don't find out the truth. And, on the other end of the spectrum, quite a lot of kids who take AP U.S. History in 10th or 11th grade never find out that they could do really well on this SAT II, and therefore they don't take it. There is a real communications problem here.</p>
<h2>"My son did, because the material was fresh. He'd done plenty of review for the ones covered by APs. He got three 800s - he was plenty happy to be done with SAT2s in one sitting. I think it really depends on the kid - for him taking SAT2s in easy subjects required less stamina than the new version of the SAT1."</h2>
<p>It certainly does and also the schedule and extracurriculars that are going on at the time. My d waited until the fall of her senior year for SAT IIs and took them all at once. She had yearbook editor duties, homecoming committee duties, 7 classes with one at zero hour (6:30 a.m.)...two AP/Honors sciences plus AP Calc BC and two other AP classes. She was happy with her Bio-M and Lit scores (low to mid 700s), but not her Math L2 which she retook and did very well on later. She kept asking me 'when is senior year gonna get fun Mom'?</p>
<p>I still think a better strategy would have been to take some of the tests in the summer between sophomore and junior year...and during her junior year. She had the appropriate course work completed by that time and as you said 'fresh in the mind' is best.</p>
<p>How does a HSer get away with no American History...is this student in a school outside the US? Edit: I see it is a midwest school...</p>
<p>I am not understanding the picking of that test...I ask because my D took APUSH , had a great teacher, loves the subject, and got 630...it a tough test</p>
<p>I am still floored that she never took any American History....how does that happen??</p>
<p>Even in middle school, no American History?</p>
<p>That part bothers me, too. I didn't think there was any state that let you graduate from high school without an American History course.</p>
<p>To the OP - Were the schools specific about the type of SAT IIs they wanted to see? Most of my d's schools wanted to see a math or science and two 'other than math or science'; and one was specific about the Math L2, if I recall correctly. </p>
<p>It's a shame it's too late for a re-take for admissions purposes. A low score and subsequent respectable score would have told the story...that your d's original sitting was without preparation or prior coursework and basically 'out of level' testing. Imho, in the past when you could select your test scores for reporting, there would have been nothing wrong with taking a test unprepared and in fact, there would have been an advantage in doing this. Now, you really have to be strategic about timing of test taking and reporting. (BTW...I wonder if College Board realizes they practically killed a profit center, the unprepared/out-of level testing profit center, when they changed their rules about reporting.)</p>
<p>Do any other posters think the OP's d's situation merits a letter to the school explaining that at least one of the tests were taken without formal coursework? This should be obvious from her transcript, but maybe it should be highlighted? Just grasping at ways to spin this for the better.</p>
<p>Btw...that Lit score is so good...and colleges do place a lot of stock in a respectable Lit score. No need to lose hope.</p>