<p>OK, I've seen this thread a couple of times in the past couple of months so I wanted to know if it really is imperative to retake the SAT I if you didn't do so well the first time around.
I sat down and had an hour long meeting with the president of my community college to discuss my future and this was one topic that was brought up.
I've decided that I'm going to retake the SAT in June, because I'm determined to return to my community college for another year, take challenging courses and try my luck again applying to Penn, Northwestern, Chicago, Cornell and Columbia.</p>
<p>But some people have told me that, because I go to a community college, even though I did spend a year at a great tier 1 LAC, that my SAT scores are going to be a key factor in transferring even if I did manage to maintain a 3.8-4.0 GPA. </p>
<p>So what do you think about retaking the SATs and aiming for a 2200-2400?? Is it really necessary when applying to an elite school and you only have an "above average" SAT score?</p>
<p>I would retake the SAT because it certainly can’t hurt you in the transfer admissions process if you have a high SAT score. Plus it’s a sign of your dedication and willingness to achieve.</p>
<p>I honestly never seen the purpose. I took the SAT twice in 2008 and I dreaded it. I hate to be the one to throw this out there but the test is very biased. For one, I attended an alternative HS that didn’t have AP or Honors classes and didn’t have a variety of classes. So I lost the oppourtunity to score relatively higher then what I did. On top of that I graduated a year early, so now that am in community college, you can pretty much say that am playing catch up. Thats why I think my college work is more important then some standardized test. It really shows whether am capable of doing the work even if am ill prepared.</p>
<p>my HS didn’t offer too many AP courses either, only about 5. If I could do things over I wouldn’t have just taken Government and English, I’d definitely have added History and Biology. </p>
<p>As for the SAT, I don’t think it’s biased, I’m looking forward to retaking it after 3 years; I wish I had focused for it back then, I don’t think a 2100 will be too difficult if I put in the right amount of time to not screw up the Math section again lol</p>
<p>Atleast your school offered some AP’s. My school offered 0 AP courses plus like I mentioned its an Alternative HS. Its not a like a regular public school. It’s very small and tight knit. It’s less then 200 students and the school is predominately black. You pretty much did your requirements and you get your HS dipolma. Yes you were advised for college and they made sure that alot of the students atleast went to community college.</p>
<p>In this case the SAT is very biased because half of the work on the test, I have never seen before. So how in the hell am I suppose to score high if I have never even been taught the course work??? That is clearly not fair to me and screwed me up when I was applying to colleges because I had the GPA but my SAT scores seriously lacked.</p>
<p>That is why SAT prep exists. While I understand that you say you are disadvantaged because the material was not taught to you in HS, you had every opportunity to go ahead and learn the material by yourself. There are many free, cheap and of course expensive resources available to you to become familiar with and ace the SAT. </p>
<p>Of course, standardized testing is a load of BS, but if DreamingBig is looking to transfer to a top school such as Columbia, retaking and totally acing the SAT will never hurt you as opposed to having old SAT scores that may not reflect you too well.</p>
<p>^^Well said mgm. The SAT is just one of many hurdles that you will face in reaching your goals, and it isn’t going to be the toughest one either. </p>
<p>Fair? Fair is what I take my kids to in the summer.</p>
<p>I did do SAT prep. Matter fact I went to SAT classes at my local community college which my parents paid for but it wasn’t helpful. I also study the Barons SAT book I got from my brother. I even decided to try my luck at the ACT but I still wasn’t successful. My score was about the same as my SAT score. My counselor and I concluded that I wasn’t a good test taker. So don’t assume that because you study the whole SAT book or all the material, you’ll do good. You may know the material, but when they put the test in front of you, you blank out or get nervous and screw up the whole test. It happens even to people who are good test takers.</p>
<p>At this stage my course work is more important then my SAT scores, period. It doesn’t matter if they are old, I don’t have to submit them. In my case am not interested into getting into in an IVY so that whole retaking the test does not apply to me.</p>
<p>Kelly, every single questions in the blue book is the same or similar content as being added on the real test day. If one can grasp the logic and know what to expect from all the practice, then one shouldn’t have a problem consulting his way to a good score (but yeah, unless if the person seems to panic or get nervous afterwards).</p>
<p>Let’s not turn this thread into how and why we study the SAT. BigDreaming wanted advice as to how to make his/her application the best it can when being presented to tops school so lets leave it to that.</p>
<p>But I think that is what happened to me. I frozed up and then screwed up.</p>
<p>@mgm</p>
<p>Umm, what advice did you have for DreamingBig??
O thats right, you responded to my comment and not the op. So please save it. If people want to reply they can, am not stopping them neither is anyone else that posted in here. If they wanted to reply they would have ignored my comment and posted their thought. Or commented on my post and then shared their thought.</p>
<p>@Kelly: I’d suggest you reread mgm’s first post, it looks like you could hone your skills in reading comprehension–it probably would’ve helped you on the SAT.</p>
<p>@DreamingBig: You can definitely hit above 2100 with lots of practice and focus. Just don’t let yourself slack off. I wish you the best!</p>
<p>Thanks dfa4ever, saved me from having to quote my first post.</p>
<p>And to bring this thread back to the topic, best of luck, DreamingBig! I think you will find the SAT a lot less miserable since its been 3 years. A lot of the concepts shouldn’t be too foreign, especially the math ones if you have been taking college math courses. A little bit of prep and a lot of commitment, you’re good!</p>
<p>@mgm91: Welcome =) I hate it when people don’t know what they are talking about, especially if they are trying to be insulting.</p>
<p>Oh useful trick: load up on energy bars/granola bars on the day of the test. It sucks trying to concentrate when your stomach is growling. And bring both orange juice and water to the test if you can. The OJ is good for giving you a bit of a lift when you get tired.</p>
<p>Dreamingbig, for reading passages, all you got to do is skim, underline, put positive or negative to the passage(s), and then answer questions that only pertain to that paragraph. Simple. :)</p>
<p>Yeah that’s a problem I had the last time I took the SAT, I took way too long on the Critical Reading section. I ended up with about 10 questions left with only a minute to go, it was terrible.
The Math section… I just didn’t have the same amount of focus. When I was 17, the SAT seemed like the be all, end all so I really nervous about it.
The ironic thing is that I deluded myself into thinking a 2200+ would mean I could apply and get accepted to schools like Columbia and UChicago, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because I wouldn’t have gotten in with my weak 3.4 GPA and lack of extracurriculars. (and the fact that I graduated 36th/278, in a class where none of the graduates are at a Top 50 school)
And the Writing Section, I’m not too worried about since I had a 700+ score last time around. Actually, I’m going to try for an 800 there, because I’m confident I can produce a much better essay now. </p>
<p>I just wanted to confirm with everyone that this is the right course of action if I’m applying to Penn, UChicago, Columbia and Cornell. I was getting inconsistent information before. The admissions director at my community college refused to give me a fee waiver when I wanted to take it back in January because he said that colleges don’t look at it once you’re in college. He tried to give his points a level of cogency by adding that he was on the admissions staff at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ and he’d never had a case of a person retaking the SAT to transfer from a community college. I knew he was wrong, but there was no way to convince him to give me a fee waiver, so now I’ve ended up having to pay out of pocket for this one, but $40 isn’t THAT much I suppose, even though I’m poor and currently unemployed.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Glad there’s such a knowledgeable community here willing to answer these kinds of questions.</p>
<p>That is why SAT prep exists. While I understand that you say you are disadvantaged because the material was not taught to you in HS, you had every opportunity to go ahead and learn the material by yourself. There are many free, cheap and of course expensive resources available to you to become familiar with and ace the SAT. </p>
<p>Of course, standardized testing is a load of BS, but if DreamingBig is looking to transfer to a top school such as Columbia, retaking and totally acing the SAT will never hurt you as opposed to having old SAT scores that may not reflect you too well.</p>
<p>In the second section of your comment you used “you” in reference to me twice. Now if you were referring to DreamingBig you would have used him or her, but you didn’t. You didn’t even use a generalization. You also shifted from talking about DreamingBig to me in the same sentence. Care to clarify???</p>
<p>@dfa4ever</p>
<p>What are you talking about??? O yeah, nothing. So get your facts straight before you put your two cents in.</p>