<p>My daughter took the SAT on March 9 , 2013. She had special accommodation in the sense she could take breaks when needed with the clock stop /clock start mechanism. That is, whenever she took a break, her clock would be stopped and then as soon as she got back, the clock was resumed so that in summary, she got the same amount of time as everybody else except with breaks as needed.</p>
<p>Now, she seems to have done very well in Writing and Reading and she said she could not even look at about 5 problems in the Math sections. And she was very much leaning towards cancelling her scores because of the Math section. She felt Math was kind of hard. In all her practice tests, she used to get in 700s for Math but she saw that her Math test this time was way different when compared to her practice tests. So, I am not even sure if the Math was generally hard in the test on March 9, 2013?</p>
<p>I prevented her from cancelling the scores since she had done pretty well in Writing and Reading. Here are my questions:
0) Do you think we did the right thing by not cancelling?
1) Does anyone know if the curve could work to her advantage if the Math section was hard overall for everyone?
2) Do children with accommodations get a different test when compared to normal kids? If yes, would the curves be different for different sets of students?</p>
<p>For #2:
Her test could have been taken over a period of 3 days: Mar 9 -12, but my daughter took the entire test on March 9.
Do you think there is a separate contact on CollegeBoard from where I can get this kind of info?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone at the College Board is going to tell a parent what the curve was on a specific exam-- but the students who frequent the CC Sat forum know what the usual range of curves are, can tell you whether they thought the math section of the specific administration was difficult and, once scores come out, will probably figure out the curve. </p>
<p>If she ends up retaking the SAT, she may want to use the accommodation of taking it on more than one day. If your daughter ends up having to stop the clock quite a few times, the test may be so long that it affects her concentration.</p>
<p>If she thinks she performed well on CR and W, it may be worth retaining those scores so that she can focus her prep on math for the next test. (Taking advantage of super scoring.) I realize that you said she had scored well on math during practice tests, so in theory, she should not have found math any more challenging on the real exam than on practice.</p>
<p>Don’t cancel scores, but sign-up for another SAT test and prep especially for Math section. Many schools “super score”, viewing students’ highest subscores rather than one individual seating. Curious that her accomodation was “stop clock” rather than “50% extended time”.</p>
<p>Higgins, I know of someone who had a “stop clock” accommodation on the SAT (not multiple days) because of illness. It was a very difficult accommodation because the test dragged on for many hours.</p>
<p>My son used accommodations for his SAT. I’m as certain as I can be that he took exactly the same test. His issue is reading so after the first time when he nailed the math we told him to not worry so much about doing well the next time on that part and really put his energy into the CR. </p>
<p>I don’t think many schools give a rip about the writing section.</p>
<p>I haven’t checked, but can’t you pay college board extra to superscore for you? In other words, let her just not do the writing or critical reading the next time, only do the math, and then pay to superscore it before it gets sent to schools.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for having advised us to not cancel the scores.
She got a 2180: Writing800, CR750 and Math630.
And now she really wants to take the SAT again to get better Math score.
But she had taken the SAT in her Sophomore year when she had got 1900.
So do you think retaking the SAT is advisable since it
would be her 3rd attempt? Or would the first one not be considered
since she was a sophomore then? </p>
<p>My idea was instead of retaking the SAT again, she could take up SAT subject test in Math and do well? Would that have kind of same effect as improving the
SAT math section score? Would she be able to explain that in her essay?</p>
<p>Has anyone else been through a similar situation and if so, how did you
attack the issue?</p>
<p>What field is your D interested in? If she wants to go into a math/science field and is strong on precalc, she should consider taking subject math 2. It has a more generous curve than math 1. Our S did much better in 2 than 1. </p>
<p>I don’t think kids are penalized for taking the SAT multiple times, but it IS tiring, especially when limited stamina is an issue. Speak with the HS GC.</p>
<p>My D is interested in pursuing a medical career. This being the case, do you think she can just take Subject SAT for Biology or no matter what science, Math score needs to be good too?</p>
<p>Since she’s interested in math/science, has she taken precalc? I believe that is much of what is on both the math SAT and math 2 subject test. You would need to ask her HS GC about pros and cons of retesting to bump the math section. Our S took the SAT 3 times. All scores were pretty high and comparable. He did well in the subject tests, especially when taking it just after the material had been covered or reviewed in class. </p>
<p>For us, it was always a balance between the score being good enough and the stamina it took for each exam. When stamina is an issue, choices need to be made. Our HS GC was helpful and hopefully yours is too.</p>
<p>I would also advise taking the SAT again. Although a 2180 is a great total, many schools do not really consider the writing test, and on the more traditional 1600 scale she has a 1380. This is not shabby, of course, but if she is aiming at top schools and is getting over 700 on the math section in practice tests I would advise taking the SAT again and concentrating on the math section. Most schools superscore, so it shouldn’t matter so much what she gets on the writing and critical reading this time around. If she is not aiming at the really top schools it may not be necessary, however.</p>
<p>She is aiming at the top UC schools (UCLA, UCB) and so I think like you all say, she may have to retake the SAT again then.</p>
<p>We have a wonderful HS GC and my D hesitates in asking her about this SAT retake because the GC might tell her to not retake based n her medical issues as she always thinks my D is doing great. But after talking to you all, I think she should go talk to her again.</p>
<p>Because of her surgery in the sophomore year and related issues, she dropped off from the High End math stream of classes and so she has not taken PreCalc yet.
She plans to take that during this summer to come back to her original Honors level of Math classes. So maybe she should take her SAT subject test after that PreCalc course then.</p>
<p>HImom: was your S asked in any of the colleges for the reason behind taking the SAT 3 times?</p>