I just found out I got a 750 on Math2. I know this has been discussed before, and many say that I should submit it, according to CC’s Academic Index, without a 750 my Index is 233, and with it my index is 231. I may seem paranoid, but I come from a country where people score multiple 800s. Math is not my major, btw( although Yale doesnt consider this)
I have registered for Nov test already. Is it better to not send the oct score and send in my Nov later? Or will this not allow them enough time to thoroughly evaluate my app?
You’re misunderstanding the academic index. If you have an AI of 231 or 233 you are already within Yale’s upper range. Getting a better score on your Math 2 SAT Subject test, and increasing your Academic Index WILL NOT get you closer to acceptance. So, IMHO, you should cancel the November test and submit the October score, as a 750 is a wonderful score.
Your test scores prove you can do the work on campus, but they don’t attest to your character – and at a certain point, character is more important than test scores. So, the deciding factor in your acceptance, deferral or denial will be your teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), interview report and essays. Please watch this video from a Stanford Admissions Officer. It’s the same at Yale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UYhTylqC9o
@gibby, I disagree that a 750 is a “wonderful” score on Math2. It is an acceptable score, but because of self-selection, it is 62nd percentile. Heck, even an 800 is only 81st percentile for Math2 .
@Ixnaybob: College’s use a student’s top raw score regardless of the percentile. It doesn’t matter if the percentile is 62% or 81% – a 750 is a wonderful score. My son was accepted to Yale with 750’s on several of his SAT Subject Tests. A student does not have to have 800’s on their SAT Subject tests to be an attractive applicant. The OP should be focusing on his or her essays. I’ve posted this before, but here it is again for the OP
@gibby, I wasn’t disagreeing that OP should submit and not retake. DS had a non-800 on a Subject Test that he was happy to submit (and would have submitted even if it weren’t mandatory, as it was at the time).
My point was that it isn’t as “wonderful” as a 750 in Literature, for example.
In any case, the larger point, on which we are in complete agreement, is that establishing OP’s character and “nature” is much more important than focusing on a possible small improvement in test scores.
Wow, that seems like a screwed up scoring system when 38% are at 750 and above and 19% at 800. Even understanding it’s primarily students who are very good at math taking this particular test, it seems to me like the test would be more useful for admissions if scores followed more of a normal distribution and less of a heavily skewed one. Right now it doesn’t seem like it differentiates “very good” from “exceptional”.
@canoe2015, true, but at that level I’m not sure it’s the SAT’s job to differentiate beyond where it does. That’s for Intel, International Math Olympiads, etc. to do. It’s a bit like IQ tests; they’re not useful when you go out beyond a couple of SD. If Math2 were a required test, the percentiles would be more meaningful, but the test is taken by probably the top 5-10% of math kids (self selection).
I’ve been curious about why the curve on the Math 2 test is so forgiving, and I just found some interesting stats.
In 2013, the SAT I was taken by 1,660,047 seniors. Their mean Math score was 514.
That same year, the SAT II Math 2 was taken by 129,646 seniors. That’s 7.8% of all SAT takers. So you could make a reasonable case that Math 2 is only being taken by the top 8% of all math students.
The students who took the Math 2 test had a mean SAT I Math score of 689. Interestingly, a 690 score would have put a student in the 92nd percentile for the Math 1. There again, you could argue that the Math 2 is being taken by the top 8%.
This is why the raw score for Subject tests matter much more than the percentile. The tests are normed to an average high school population - and scoring in the top third of Math 2 test takers put you in the top few percentage points of students nationwide, which is why the College Board gives those students a 750 or whatever
Well, there’s a Math 1 on the SAT II and there’s the Math score on the SAT I. Different populations, different tests, etc. Its too late to edit, but I realize my statement wasn’t very clear either.
His statement is true for the Math Score on the SAT I (Reasoning) tests, and provides confirmation that the students taking Math 2 Subject Tests are the top 8% nationally in Math.
@mightyspongebob You’d be much better off not taking this test again in November and submitting a second (presumably higher) score. Doing so will make you look test-obsessed. Yale does not like that–we heard this in a Yale presentation last year.