<p>Daughter is a junior in HS looking to study premed/predentistry or possibly biomedical engineering. Just got her first SAT back - 800 CR, 780 W, 690 M. Really nice overall score, but the math is obviously lower. She was actually surprised at how high CR was and how low M was.</p>
<p>Should she retake the SAT, or compensate for her math score by focusing on the math subject tests, which she has to take for a couple of her desired schools anyway?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Depends what she got on the Subject Tests. Math is RELATIVELY low, but still good. What did she get on Sat II’s already and what college does she want to go to?</p>
<p>She hasn’t taken any math SAT II’s yet. She took the US History last year as a sophomore after APUSH and got a 650 - didn’t really prepare for it. Her most competitive schools would be Penn, WashU, Northwestern, Tufts.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Well it seems to me she has to take the subject tests then, if I’m not missing something. There is only one test date left as far as I know.</p>
<p>My D3 got the identical score, same exact #s in same subjects, when she took the SAT late winter of her junior year. I was convinced she should retake it because she is also interested in sciences and potential pre-med, and the 690 seemed low and also lopsided. But her college counselor was adamant that she had better uses for her time and he discouraged her retaking, especially before taking some subject tests. (She also had six AP’s all 5’s but one, and was taking AP Calculus and five more AP classes as a senior.) She took the ACT shortly after that and got a 34 composite, including a 35 in science, so she stopped testing. </p>
<p>I don’t know if she would have retaken the SAT without that ACT score - to me it does seem so much stronger (even if only psychologically) to have all scores over 700. But I trust her counselor – he was an admissions rep at Hamilton for a decade before coming to this small private school about 15 years ago – so he’s very experienced. There are only 50-60 kids in each class at her school (yeah really small!) and there are 2 full time counselors so basically 1 counselor per 25-30 students. D’s CC personally knows the admissions staff at all the top tier schools in the Northeast, and many in the midwest and west, he is really plugged in and is constantly visiting colleges and attending conferences etc. He reiterates over and over again that the scores are there to demonstrate a student’s ability to do the caliber of work required at a college, and as a marker of appropriate intellectual aptitude, BUT the numerical differences in scores that we (some parents and lots of kids on CC ) fixate on are never the determining factor in an acceptance. Once your kid has hit a benchmark, they put the numbers aside and start digging into the application looking for the person under the numbers and trying to find reasons to admit her over the other qualified candidates. Reading the MIT admissions blog has been an edifying experience for me. The MIT bloggers stress that statistically a 750 really represents a range of scores (could be a 700 or an 800), so retaking a 750 is probably a waste of time. The time spent preparing for and retaking an already high SAT score would be much better spent on enriching the portfolio, writing essays or doing more of what distinguishes the student as an interesting exciting candidate. I’m blathering on about this because it was a lesson I really had to learn myself – more like a perspective I had to cultivate. It’s just easier and more comforting to focus on numbers because they are so, well, quantifiable 
and that gives us the illusion of control.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think that concentrating on the Math 2 (and maybe a science) SAT II is the way to go for your D right now. Once she has those scores she can decide what to do about the SAT I. Your D may decide to retake it but I hope that you can help her to present and represent herself during the admissions process in all her unique specific unmeasurable glory :). Anything we can do to make this insane process more sane right?..</p>
<p>OP- sorry that was so long and off topic lol. idk what i was thinking. hopefully you can extract the answer to your question!</p>
<p>Jpeeps - she is a junior! she has plenty of time to test and retest…</p>
<p>You are not off topic at all, what you are saying is at the heart of what we are really asking ourselves - how should she best use her time and what’s most important? I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.</p>
<p>Meh. Your daughter can choose to retake the SAT reasoning test…or not. Her strong composite score (2270) already places her in the “acceptable pool” of applicants at top-tier schools. Out of curiosity, how much time did she dedicate to SAT prep prior to the test? If it was fairly minimal, then it might mean that with a modest amount of effort she could increase her score into the 2300-2400 range…which would be nice.</p>
<p>If she wants to retake the test and is willing to put in the time to prep for it, then let her do it.</p>
<p>If she would rather spend her time doing other things (extracurricular activities, other academic-related pursuits), then that’s fine, too. I’d be willing to bet that, assuming holistic evaluation of the college app, her extracurricular activities will make more of a difference in the accept/reject/wait-list decision-making process than an extra 100 points on the SAT. For what it’s worth, the most competitive applicants to the top-tier schools somehow find a way to do it all – extremely high standardized test scores, perfect AP scores, very strong extracurricular activities, numerous awards/honors, etc.</p>
<p>If she plans to take the Math Level 2 Subject test, she should certainly prepare for it. She should purchase a good prep book and practice her pacing.</p>
<p>Hope this helps…</p>
<p>She did a fair amount of prep for the PSAT, as we thought she had a decent shot at NMF (we’ll find out, but the SAT score bodes well). She took the SAT just a few weeks after the PSAT, so that basically was her SAT prep.</p>
<p>She’s in precalc now, so she’ll take math 2 at the end of the year. And yes, she’ll definitely work the book. Her EC’s are really important to her, not to mention her actual coursework, so time is indeed the limiting factor.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>OP’s D is only in junior. She has plenty of time to take SAT2 and retake SAT1. SAT2270 is a great composite score, but she does want to get the Math score higher for these competitive schools. You don’t want any section score near the 25% or less on admission stat. She should take the SAT2 in June after corresponding AP, if any. Never take a test without preparation though. Get some practice tests to work on. She has great potetial. Don’t ruin it by poor preparation.</p>