“My kid is not an ORM (she is white)”
To clarify, I included white in the ORM percentages above, white and Asian actually. URM would be everybody else.
“All 5s on his APs to date. 10 on the AIME”
The 10 on the AIME means he’s done with testing of any kind. That’s a superb score.
My DS was in a similar situation. He missed only one question on the Aug 2019 SAT, resulting in a 1570. He scored an 800 in EBRW and missed one question on the Math section, which dropped his math score 30 points to a 770. He took it during the summer after sophomore year in order to not have to worry about testing during his junior year.
Even though it was frustrating to get a 1570 for only missing one (easy!) math question, we concluded it would be a waste of time to retake for this reason: 1570 is at or above the 75%ile for all of the top schools. If that benchmark has been reached, then the time should be spent on growing in other areas.
I am optimistically hopeful that college admission’s officers do not admit or deny based on the difference between a 1570 and 1600- which can often be a single test question! My DS is one and done- time to move on to other pursuits.
Typically you don’t retake a 1570, however it was the GCs comment that led OP and student to consider retaking. Only if the GC knows that it will help the student from that particular hs, should someone even retake with that score.
Retaking a 1570 is an abject waste of time and effort and may even hamper your application should a college require all scores - they’ll likely see you as someone who didn’t spend his/her time wisely in pursuing extracurriculars and literally everything else that matter on your apps.
Well she ended up not retaking… the guidance counselor at her school however seemed to think that a retake was not a bad idea!
Eh I understand if her math score was like a 790 but 10 points wouldn’t make or break the entire application
Yes her math score was 790 (she made a careless mistake). Had COVID not happened she probably would have retaken. She never really did too much prep to begin with so it wasn’t a big deal. In fact she now works as a tutor for a SAT prep place!
Just closing this out. Yes, she retook it, got her 800 in Math and increased her overall score to 1580.
As I mentioned, it was more a personal satisfaction thing than a need to improve an application. Though we did note CMU’s idiotic “you might get dumber so we discount scores achieved before Sophomore year” policy.
It’s a bad idea to retake the test, even if she scores higher in the retake. A score of 1570 in a single take is better than a slightly better score with multiple tries.
Also, I have heard from people that if students try to retake for just 20, 30 points, the admission committee might think that students are so obsessed with numbers.
With Score Choice, I don’t see either of these as an issue outside of the schools requiring all scores - I only know two of these. (which doesn’t include Yale. I don’t know why that’s often used as the example. “Applicants who opt to include scores may choose to report scores from one exam date or multiple exam dates”. Georgetown and CMU are the ones I know of that require all test dates)
@RichInPitt my daughter took her first and only SAT October 2019. She was very busy in November and December 2019 (ballet rehearsals and performances on Saturday mornings!) and didn’t have time to retake. She was probably going to retake in June 2020 to hopefully get that 800 in math but it wasn’t meant to be with COVID. She applied to competitive engineering programs and hoping that 790 isn’t going to be a problem!
No, it certainly won’t be a problem. If it had required any more than time taken away from video games/TV, my D would have skipped it.
Hi Rich! How did your daughter fare in engineering applications with a 790 math? My son finds himself in the same situation where he took the SAT for the first time, got a 1570 (790 math/780reading). He plans to apply to competitive engineering schools this fall. GC wants him to take the SAT again to raise his score. His other stats are solid (all A’s, 9 AP classes by senior year, strong ECs, etc). What would you advise in retrospect?
@zutenten Hi… Not Rich, but OP here. My daughter’s GC suggested she retake but she never got around to it with Covid. So far she was admitted to Georgia Tech, UVA, and Johns Hopkins (also Boston U and Pitt, but those aren’t considered competitive). She was rejected from MIT, but I doubt her 790 in SAT math was the reason for that. She applied to Michigan EA, was deferred and refused to write the LOCI so was waitlisted there. Also waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon SCS. Not sure if an 800 would have helped improve her prospects, to be honest, but with that said, she would have probably retested if Covid had not happened. Good luck!
Thanks for the quick reply. My feeling is that if he gets rejected from MIT or the others, it won’t be because of his 790 in math. Best wishes to you and your daughter.
@zutenten there is no harm in retaking, so if he feels strongly about it I would have him retest! We are still waiting on the Ivies and Duke. This year with test optional, SAT scores seem to be less important.
I’d be quite interested in a link to this “hard data”, as everything I’ve seen out of the data from their lawsuit indicates it’s much, much lower than that.
Are you referring to the published 2000-2002 data?
As mentioned in my follow-up in February, she re-took and got her 800 math and 1580 total.
She’s only a Junior, so no applications yet.