<p>Hi - new to posting, although have lurked for years. Hoping for some advice: Son's guidance counselor advised retaking the ACT (34) rather than the SAT (770 CR/730 M/640 W). Score comparisons show the ACT is a higher "converted" score, but the rationale was that it might be easier for him to get a "perfect" score on the ACT than pull up his writing. Does this sound like the right choice? He has 5 APs in May, 3 subject tests in June, so would have to take March or April or wait until next fall when he is a senior.</p>
<p>If he already has a 34 now, with some practice, he could easily get a 36 on the ACT. You should get him The Real ACT Prep Book.</p>
<p>Thanks for the rec! So it would be better to try to perfect the ACT than to try to bring up the SAT? </p>
<p>Both of his essays were "8"s, and clearly the weak link even though he’s usually a good writer. He followed the Silverturtle guide we found here for the SAT, but clearly needs additional help in writing on whichever one he retakes.</p>
<p>Well IMO, it would be easier to get a 36 on the ACT rather than a 2400 on the SAT, especially since the essay isn’t factored into your actual composite (Not that anyone can get a 36 on the ACT, but if you can already get in the 34 range as a Junior, it’s very possible).</p>
<p>And my suggestion for his writing is to tell him to use many specific examples in his essay. The first time I took writing I received an 8 (decent essay I suppose, but I didn’t use many examples). When I took it again with writing, while my essay was in no way stellar, since I used many examples to back up my argument I received a 10. The Real ACT Prep Book has a section on the writing portion and also gives examples of different essays which received different scores.</p>
<p>Tylertexan, I assume your son is applying to some pretty fancy colleges, or else you’d just be doing the Dance of Joy over the scores he already has.</p>
<p>I think everybody who aspires to highly selective colleges should read this thread from last summer: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1193457-esse-quam-videri-how-do-college-applications.html?highlight=esse+quam+videri[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1193457-esse-quam-videri-how-do-college-applications.html?highlight=esse+quam+videri</a>. With respect to test scores, see especially post #13. I think once you start trying to improve on a 34, unless you’re dissatisfied with the subscores, the returns on investment diminish pretty quickly. If the subscores are well enough balanced, there’s not a lot of difference among 34, 35 and 36. A lot of people will tell you otherwise, but I’m of the opinion that a lot of people will tell you a lot of things that aren’t necessarily true.</p>
<p>I agree with Sikorsky, because a 34 on the ACT is indeed excellent. A 36 is only really necessary for Top 20 schools, and maybe if his GPA isn’t as high as he’d like. But like I said earlier, getting a 36 would be doable if you’re already in the 34 range.</p>
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<p>I don’t quite agree with even this. You might or might not get into Harvard with a 34 on the ACT, but if you don’t get in, the 34 won’t be the reason why.</p>
<p>what does it take to get into ut austin? i have good recs, and i volunteer at a hospital(130 hours so far)my gpa is kinda low (3.2) but i got a 1920 SAT score (680 CR, 660 W, 580 M) and a 27 on the ACT. If i had actually studied at all i could have done much better, but im a senior and time is running out. any ideas?</p>
<p>@Sikorsky Well of course you won’t NEED a 36 for a Top 20 school, but it would help a little bit I’m sure. I’m just saying it would be more necessary to retake it if you’re trying to gain admission to a Top 20 school rather than other universities. But also, my brother’s good friend got a 34 on his ACT, had higher than a 4.0 unweighted at the #1 high school in TN, and he still didn’t even get into Vanderbilt. But also he’s Caucasian and Vandy is known to be very affirmative action.</p>
<p>He would love to attend Johns Hopkins as his “dream” school. I’d like to say he’s being realistic by having other schools on his preliminary list, but some of those are almost as much of a reach. </p>
<p>I did do the dance of joy 
when I saw his ACT scores, truthfully, but thought he should think about retaking the SAT because of his writing scores. He doesn’t think he can do as well on CR if he retakes the SAT, but he is also worried he won’t improve on his ACT if he retakes it and then that looks bad. His GPA is good but not perfect (2 Bs, mostly A-s and some As but the school uses a 100 point scale so it looks “less good” according to him), and his school doesn’t weight AP classes, which he is maxing out on.</p>
<p>He used the Real ACT Guide for the ACT and the Kaplan and Princeton books for the SAT, plus a handful of practice tests he got at the library. </p>
<p>Sikorsky - I read the posts you cited, and actually do agree with the seeming futility of trying to improve on a 34, which is why I initially thought he didn’t need to retake anything but if he was going to do one, he should take the SAT again since he could probably improve his writing score. BUT his advisor said if he didn’t take one/both tests again and didn’t get into Hopkins, he’d “always wonder”.</p>
<p>Is this just extra stress that he (and I) doesn’t/don’t need? Where do I draw the line between diligence and craziness?</p>
<p>I would let him decide whether or not he feels that his scores are good enough. Don’t be too hard on him; it sounds like he’s doing great academcally. Plus, he has plenty of time to retake it if he ends up deciding to do so. With a 34 ACT and all As with 2 Bs, I’d say he definitely has decent chances at many prestigious schools (does he have a lot of extra curriculars?). In the end there will be many factors in his admittance besides just test scores and GPA.</p>
<p>My parents were fine with whatever my ACT scores were (I got a 25 the first time), but I wanted to improve my score much more than my parents wanted me to. I did hours on end of practice and finally got the 30 that I wanted, because I knew if I didn’t, my chances of getting into UT Knoxville were scarce. It did put a lot of stress on me, but now I’m less worried about admissions since my ACT is much higher.</p>
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Lol, the difference between a 34 and a 36 is pretty big. An improvement to a 35 is quite plausible, but going from a 34 to a 36 is rare.</p>
<p>@blahblah9393 if he puts in a lot of effort it’s possible. But it also depends on which subtests he struggles more on. I feel like the Reading ACT would be really hard to get a 36 on if you struggle with reading, but getting a 36 on Math and English wouldn’t be too difficult since those 2 tests are very easy (especially math). If you continuously take practice tests, it’s possible; at the very least he could get a 35 with a sufficient amount of practice.</p>
<p>The ACT really isn’t as hard as everyone thinks, and the only thing that makes it difficult is the time restrictions. But also, you must be very alert and focused at the time of taking it, because careless mistakes can cause a huge difference in your scores (on my practice math tests, I would miss 1-3 problems and they would always be the easiest questions that I didn’t read correctly).</p>
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A 36 is more about intelligence than effort.</p>
<p>I disagree. People who get a 36 the first time without practice are obviously very intelligent, but several people that end up getting a 36 don’t attain it the first time they take it. Sometimes they have to do extra practice to achieve it. Most people in the 34-36 range are around the same intelligence level, and just because one person gets a 36 and another person gets a 34, it doesn’t mean that the person who got a 36 is more intelligent.</p>
<p>I have a 2140 SAT as well! What coincidence! :)</p>
<p>The ACT is really impressive. He’s obviously very strong in that as opposed to the SAT, so I’d have him focus on the ACT…</p>
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Sure, a person might not completely familiar with the test format the first time and will do better the second time. However, studying isn’t going to make you naturally smarter, and the ACT has a moderate correlation with intelligence, so studying probably won’t get you from a 34 to a 36 in most cases.</p>
<p>Regarding the essays, I wouldn’t sweat it. I’m a pretty good essay writer (780 SAT, 5 on both AP English exams), but I couldn’t get past an 8 on the ACT. I think they just have some really weird guidelines for grading.</p>