Retake the SAT? My parents don't want me to.

Test Preparation
21

<p>from my88keys’ previous post (#7 in this thread):

To be honest, your question is consistent with the pervasive high school mentality of wanting to do the minimum amount of work to get an “A.” If you’re asking this sort of question…and it’s an attitude that you’ve had for the past few years, there’s a good chance that you won’t be one of the top high school students in the applicant pool this coming fall.</p>

<p>Among the most competitive applicants to the top-tier schools, posting "800"s on the Math Level 2 and U.S. History Subject tests really isn’t that extraordinary. For example, roughly 15% of the Math Level 2 test-takers earn an 800. It’s quite common. Off the top of my head, I don’t know the numbers of students earning a 2300+ on the SAT or 35+ on the ACT…but I suspect that such scores are fairly common as well.</p>

<p>If you want to be really competitive at the top-tier colleges and you are “unhooked” (not an accomplished scientist/musician/athlete/mathematician, underrepresented minority, first generation in your family to attend college, done something truly noteworthy for someone of your age, etc.), you are going to be competing with all of the other “all-arounders.” You need to “check all of the numerical boxes.” Earn top grades in the most difficult classes at your high school. Achieve excellent scores on all of your standardized tests…including the Subject tests. But don’t stop there. Strive for excellence in your extracurricular activities as well. Be the individual that you are. (Translation: Participate in activities that interest you – not ones that you think admissions officers might find “impressive.”). If this sounds like too much work and isn’t something that you already do “naturally,” then perhaps you should revise your college application list.</p>

<p>Regardless of whether you choose to retake the SAT or achieve top scores on the Subject tests, I’m sure that things will work out for you. Things tend to work out…the way they were meant to work out. Don’t stress out about things. Enjoy the rest of high school. Have fun. Be happy. :-)</p>

22

<p>

People say this all the time, but I’m not at all convinced that it’s true. If it were true, I don’t think the average scores at the most selective schools would be as high as they are.</p>

<p>In your situation, I would probably take it again, but ONLY IF you didn’t have to do a huge amount of prep to get that 2260. If that score was the result of a lot of prep, you’d probably need even more prep to get much higher, and I don’t think it would be worth spending the time on prep. If you got that score without a ton of prep, though, you may well score higher, at least on some sections, by just taking it on a different day.</p>

23

<p>Unless it was an anomaly, your essay score tells me that you aren’t ready to write at the elite college level. (Take heart—there’s a strong chance that it IS an anomaly.)</p>

<p>The only reason I see for you to retake this thing would be to raise your essay score.</p>

<p>Even if you improved on that, your other scores might fall.</p>

24

<p>“To be honest, your question is consistent with the pervasive high school mentality of wanting to do the minimum amount of work to get an “A.””</p>

<p>I am not looking for the minimum amount of work. I would like to get a higher score, but my parents don’t really want me to retake; consequently, I was wondering if getting good scores on the subject test would cancel the need to retake and dissolve the problem.</p>

<p>Also, I am a URM, but I still want competitive scores, as college is getting more and more competitive even for URMs.</p>

<p>“Unless it was an anomaly, your essay score tells me that you aren’t ready to write at the elite college level. (Take heart—there’s a strong chance that it IS an anomaly.)”</p>

<p>I honestly didn’t do much prep for the essay. I did review over essay prompts in the blue book, however, and I did find this prompt more challenging than the majority of the ones there. I am a pretty good writer, and I do think I can do better.</p>

<p>In Math, I really just want to improve my speed so I can review more to avoid careless mistakes. I only missed one on my SAT, but the curve wasn’t that nice (770).</p>

<p>In CR, I want to improve my speed, because I ran out of time and had to guess. It didn’t hurt me too badly, as I only missed 4 (750).</p>

<p>In writing, I just need to practice so I can make sure I know the rules well. I missed one, and got an 8 on my essay (740). I do need to practice on the essay. Writing under time constraints is harder for me, but I think I can accomplish it. Plus, I’ll have to deal with it later, so I might as well. I just need to practice.</p>

<p>Also, can someone teach me how to make those box things around quotes? I just put quotes in quotation marks here.</p>

25

<p>As for whether you should retake, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Did I prep very much or very efficiently for the last test? If you didn’t prep enough, then it would be worth it to prep and retake since it may raise your score. If you prepped for many weeks and got that score, then the additional mega prep needed to raise your score by a few points would not be an efficient use of your time.
  2. What were your practice blue book scores like in comparison with your actual scores? If you were consistently scoring higher on BB than on your actual test, then consider retaking. If you scored similar or higher on the actual test compared with BB, then probably not worth retaking.</p>

<p>There is a good section on writing on this forum…how to write a 12 essay in 10 days. The essay on the SAT has nothing to do with good writing, but more with formulaic writing. Take a look at it.</p>