SAT II .... Help In Choice?

<p>Questions:</p>

<p>Do colleges weigh some SAT IIs over others? Which are most/least impressive?</p>

<p>What are some good books/websites to study from?</p>

<p>I plan on taking Math IIC, US Hist, and Bio....would anyone say that those are the right or wrong choices?</p>

<p>Should Math IIC be taken after Trig/Pre Calc or after Calculus?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>That’s exactly what my son took in May. The usual recommendation is to take Math2 after precalc, which is what my son did, but he knew he was in trouble when he saw all sorts of problems in the prep book that weren’t familiar to him. He got a 610 which was considerably lower than his other two scores. He’s going to take the SAT2 again in June, but Lit this time which in retrospect is what he should have done before. He’s pretty good at math, but not a genius and tends to be slow. </p>

<p>Most colleges say that they don’t care which ones you take, and except for engineering type schools, often say explicitly you don’t get extra credit for doing Math2 instead of Math1. </p>

<p>Your choices sound fine. Make sure you figure out whether you want to do the E or M option on the bio.</p>

<p>Engineering schools usually want to see Math Level 2 and at least one science. Some schools prefer at least one math/science and at least one social science/humanities. Many schools say they don’t care what you take, but I’ve always been a bit suspicious as to how much they’d credit a high score in Chinese if you’re a native Chinese speaker, Korean if you’re a native Korean speaker, Spanish if you’re a native Spanish speaker, etc. Not to say mastery of those languages is unimportant, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect academic achievement per se if you’re a native speaker. </p>

<p>Statistically, the hardest SAT II to get a high score in is Lit: only 6% of the 119,000 SAT II Lit test-takers among 2008 graduating seniors scored in the 750-800 range, and only 17% scored 700 or higher. Compare that with:
– 9% scoring 750+ and 22% 700+ for U.S. History (123,000 test-takers);
–23% scoring 750+ and 36% 700+ for Math Level 2 (150,000 test-takers);
–77% scoring 750+ and 88% 700+ for Chinese (<7,000 test-takers).<br>
But whether college adcoms pay any attention to the rarity of the achievement is unclear.</p>