<p>So essentially I am in a bit of a predicament, and would gladly appreciate any knowledge available. This post might be a bit lengthy, but here we go. </p>
<p>(EDIT: I went way too far with this post. The first half is just talking about why my GPA sucks and me just generally whining about why life isn't fair)</p>
<p>To say I have had no idea what I've been doing in regards to getting into college would be a VAST understatement. My obliviousness of the college admissions process over the last few year is staggering, and to be blunt, scares the living ***** out of me. Up until the end of last year, I figured I would get into pretty much whatever college I wanted. I didn't think my grades were too bad - usually a B without the 7 points my school adds for AP/IB and an A with -, my school-required standardized test scores (excluding the SAT, which I hadn't taken yet) such as the CRCT, High School Graduating Test, etc were generally 95th-99th percentile, all of my classes were AP/IB or with with upperclassmen, etc. And so, life was good. And life continued to be good until the middle/end of last year when I decided to start looking at colleges and realized I was pretty much f****d. After spending weeks over the summer before my senior year researching the colleges admissions process, I finally realized I had done, quite literally, everything single possible thing in relation to getting into college wrong. Like EVERYTHING. I had taken the wrong classes, focused on the wrong subjects, disregarded any school or otherwise academically related extracurriculars, kept my grades high enough to the point where they were above average for a particular class (eventually sealing my fate, more on this later), etc. Essentially, my priorities were more twisted than a bag of pretzels. It horrifies me today thinking about how incredibly stupid I have been over the last couple of years.</p>
<p>OK so here's the deal with my grades. Currently, I believe I have somewhere around a 3.1 or 3.2 UW GPA, and maybe a 3.7 or 3.8 W. This is primarily the result of 3 factors:</p>
<p>-1) My school is extremely competitive, and essentially achieves consistently high test scores by deflating the grades in many AP/IB classes to 'encourage' a student to work harder. During both Junior and the beginning of Senior year, I have had to work at least 3-4 hours a night just to maintain an 84UW/89W average. The amount of work I have for some classes is ridiculous, and in the majority of my IB HL's, the average test and quiz grades are well below failing. Because of these low test grades - which are scored in an obscenely stringent manner - the vast majority of my time is spent doing bullsh** essays, projects, etc to put more grades in the gradebook and hopefully even out the grades. This seemingly preposterous administrative method, however, seems to work as my school has some of the highest IB grades in the country (it's still bulls**t though). "But, InsaneBadger, if everyone in IB had low grades, than couldn't colleges just look at your class ranking to determine that your 3.1/3.2UW is actually the product of hard work?", you may be asking. Well, that is the TRULY wonderful part about my scenario. And by 'truly wonderful', I mean horribly awful and the biggest academic mistake (apart from not going to our "IB-certified" rival school, which is a joke) I have thus far made, which brings me to my next point...</p>
<p>2) My classes. Such a wonderfully researched and well thought out plan I had when picking my classes. Before I continue, here are the fundamental differences between IB Diploma Program and the IB Certificate Program, for those who don't know. IB Diploma is predominantly for those who plan on taking all college-level (IB) classes junior and senior year. Pretty much your entire junior and senior year schedule is chosen end of sophomore year, with several standard level (SL) and 4 higher level classes completed by the time your graduate.
IB Certificate, on the other hand, is for students who only want to take one or a couple of IB classes and instead of all IB. Most of these students only take 2 or 3 SL classes total; if they had planned to take anymore they probably would have just gone ahead and just done the entire IB Diploma program in the first place.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I was an idiot and decided against the IB Diploma program, as it seemed too class-restrictive (there was a particular AP class I wanted to take that you couldn't take if you were doing IB Diploma). This was a very stupid mistake for a number of reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I wound up taking almost the exact same classes as the IB Diploma kids did anyway, save for 3 AP's instead of IB's. But why is that necessarily bad? Well mostly because an IB Diploma seal on your college application/transcript makes your chances of acceptance go up significantly. You don't get the seal if your doing IB Certificate. So essentially I'm taking the same classes without the same recognition.</p></li>
<li><p>This was my biggest mistake: Referring back to my hypothetical question above regarding low IB grades and how it affects rank: Turns out, the IB Diploma kids also take a number of exclusive IB classes that IB Certificate kids can't. These Diploma-only classes, such as IB TOK, IB Math Studies, IB Communications, etc act as fluff grades to help balance out the other horrendous IB grades received in the GPA-killing IB classes earlier mentioned. And, of course, these same classes are the ones that I decided to take. Except I have nothing to balance them out with. Instead, my other classes are all AP's - not as hard as the IB's but definitely not a fluff grade. So while the IB Diploma kids' UW grades look a little something like: 81, 94, 80, 98, 75, 96, mine look a little more something like: 81, 88, 80, 89, 75, 87. I am the only one in my entire grade stupid enough to have chosen a schedule that is both more difficult and more time-consuming than the supposed "crown-jewel' of academics (IB Diploma), and yet looks less prestigious on paper.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>So that is part of the story behind how I have made nothing but misinformed, idiotic academic decisions since I entered high school.</h2>
<p>Idk why I just wrote all of that...</p>
<p>Anywaysssss, on to my actual question. I will try to make this not quite as long.</p>
<p>I have taken the SAT 3 times so far:
- 2 at the end of last year
- 1 this morning</p>
<p>Why I took the SAT the first two times I couldn't tell you. They were a complete an absolute waste of time, money, and opportunity. I didn't study for them, and I definitely didn't take them seriously. In fact, the first time I took it I was significantly hungover from the night before. But if you read anything I posted above, you will have realized I make pretty awful decisions when it comes to academics. PRIORITIES, INSANE BADGER, PRIORITIES! All I knew was that I had until December of my Senior year to take them and it wasn't a big deal if I did bad as I would just retake them. The first one I got a 1900, the second one a 1980. I should have canceled my score, but I had no idea that that was even an option. Like I said earlier, I've been oblivious to everything college-related. I don't remember the CR+M breakdowns.</p>
<p>Anyways, it wasn't until about a month ago that I realized I only had one more shot at the SAT and I freaked. So I was just about to get to work studying when, of course, I am handed the largest set of assignments I have ever faced at one time in my life. This may sound like bs, but let me assure you, it is no joke. For the last 4 weeks I have worked AT LEAST and average of 7 hrs a night on homework, projects, essays, etc. Up until last week I had been pulling an all-nighter every 3 days or so. I don't think I got to bed earlier than 2 a single night last month. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but unfortunately I am not. The largest assignment was due 4 days ago, and since then I have pretty much been in the clear. Except for 1 problem: I only had 3 days to study for my last shot at the SAT. Good news is my parents let me skip school for those 3 days and study at home - which I did. </p>
<p>I have heard people say countless times that there is no way to substantially increase your SAT scores in such a small time period as 3 days. However, after spending 7 hours a day on SAT work for 3 days, I saw significant improvement. I tested myself cold-turkey beforehand and received a 670M + 670W + 650CR. This pretty much scared the crap out of me, as I knew I was capable of higher. And when I went back to check on what I missed in each section, I realized the majority of my errors were not from a lack comprehension, but rather errors of 'strategy'.</p>
<p>Most of my math errors were nothing but careless mistakes - plugging in the wrong # into my calculator, misreading the question, stupid stuff. And so I worked on improving these careless mistakes for about 3 hrs, retook the math section and got a 730. Still not content, as my errors were once again careless, I continued to complete practice tests until my scores were consistently 740-800. For the most part I eliminated most of the careless mistakes, and usually missed or left blank 1 or 2 problems. There was only about 1 question every other test that I actually didn't know how to do or thought I knew how to do but did it wrong. The other 75% of mistakes were still careless errors, but whatever.<br>
So next I worked on Critical Reading. My main problem with CR was vocab and over-interpreting the stories without textual evidence. I didn't get too far with vocab - I guess there's only so much you can learn in a day - but significantly improved on reading comprehension. At the end of the day I was able to consistently score around 720-740 on average, which I thought of as a great success considering. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I didn't get too far on writing the third day. On my 1980 SAT I had scored a 12 on my essay so I felt I didn't need to work on that part (boy was I wrong). I spent an hour or so going over grammatical rules for the Writing MC section, which I considered the toughest part of the SAT - and significantly improved on that as well. I then took a practice Writing section and assuming I scored an 11 on the essay, I received a 740. I only took this section once.</p>
<h2>I ended my final day of studying by taking an entire practice SAT and achieved similar results as those detailed above with a 2190. MY only problem at this point was time. I barely finished any section with enough time to go back over it, usually completing the last problem just as the timer ended. Also, all of these practice tests were directly from the CollegeBoard website (the free practice exam they offer every year), so I assume they should have reflected scores similar to those I should receive on the the real SAT.</h2>
<p>So I woke up this morning ready to take the real thing, and was pretty confident with myself even though I had only studied for 3 days. I am just now realizing how much I've typed so I'll try to make this short. Essentially, I bombed it. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>I should have written a practice essay or something because I absolutely flunked it this time around. Didn't even finish half of it. I got wayyyy to involved and descriptive, and just as I was finishing support for my 1st example the proctor gave alerted us we had 5 minutes remaining. I quickly ended my first example, and was a third way done with my second when the time was called. It literally just stops mid sentence.</p></li>
<li><p>I had similar problems the next 9 sections. Difficulty-wise, the real SAT was no harder than the practice ones I had taken. There was no math problems I couldn't solve, I just didn't get to them all. Writing and CR I can't be sure (since of course they are not math), but they did not seem any harder or give me any more trouble than the ones I had taken only days before. Nevertheless, I always had around 2 or 3 problems left to complete on each section by the time time was called. Some I just quickly filled in my best guess, others I left empty (which kills me).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Obviously, I will not find out my score for another couple of weeks. I really can't even guess. Regardless, I know for a fact I scored substantially lower than what I am capable of. I feel that if I had a month or so more to simply practice and increase my speed, I could realistically score somewhere around a 2200+. </p>
<p>Now, here is the problem. The majority of the colleges I am applying to require either 2 SAT II's or an ACT with writing. I haven't taken the SAT II's yet, and planned on taking them in January (all colleges said I could send January SAT II's). But if I do this, then I cannot retake the SAT I - which I know for a fact I could do better on. My only possible option would be to take the ACT instead, and retake the SAT in January. But it would be my FOURTH time. How do colleges view this? I feel as if a college would find this excessive and look upon my score as if it took me 4 truly legitimate efforts to get there, when the first 2 I pretty much took as a joke. At the same time, I really need a high SAT score to somewhat counteract my terrible GPA. I realize a 2200 will in no way makeup for my 3.2U/3.7W GPA, but a 2200 it well above the average for an applicant to the schools I'm applying to and I think it would probably help to some degree</p>
<p>I also read on another thread about Score Choice, and how technically you could take the SAT 100 times without the college your applying to knowing.</p>
<p>What does CC feel I should do?</p>
<p>PS; I just realized how long this thread is. Just looked at the clock and it's been an hour. Holy ****. </p>
<p>TL;DR-Took the SAT 3 times, know I can do significantly better. GPA sucks and I need a good SAT to help me out. What to do?</p>