<p>I've taken the SAT's twice now, and my highest scores are CR 640, M 800, W 720. Obviously, the reading section is my struggling point.</p>
<p>I'm a junior, and my GPA is 4.0 UW, I have a rigorous schedule, I'm currently first in my class, and I have several leadership positions and EC's.</p>
<p>I am also taking 3 SAT II's in May. Should I suffer through taking another SAT to try to improve my CR subscore? Or do you think I can make up for that with high SAT II scores and other aspects of my application to even have a chance at Columbia?</p>
<p>Consider taking the ACT w/ Writing… it’s a little different from the SAT (only one section each, but with a science section), but it’s also very similar.</p>
<p>You should be able to get a decent score on it, and if you don’t do so well, so what? Good thing about the ACT is that you can choose which score to send in and colleges will have no way of knowing (or they just dont care) if you took it more than once, versus how I think some colleges will ask that you send in all of your SAT scores, even with the new score choice option.</p>
<p>The thing with the ACT is that generally… colleges are more lenient with ACT scores (from looking at the mid-50 ACT scores for top colleges & the ACT/SAT conversion charts) and if you do very good with your ACT, well, you’re set. If you do poorly, well, you always have the option of retaking the SAT and you of course don’t need to send in your ACT score.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I agree, you should try the ACT if you can.</p>
<p>If you retake the SAT be realistic about how much effort you’d actually put into getting a better score. If you don’t have the time to study then it’s pretty much pointless unless you really were off your game/didn’t feel well when you took the last one.</p>
<p>Obviously better scores help you out, but if you show passion through your EC’s and you have unique essays then I would say that’s more important.</p>
<p>retake it definitely. But also try the ACT. I scored well on the ACT and then was able to forget all about the SAT. not that I did horribly, but about your scores.</p>
<p>^^^ only for reading. If I were you, I’d sign up for the first SAT given next school year and study the whole summer for the reading part. Studying vocab words, though boring, helps A LOT.</p>
<p>Apterthetic, I agree…let me tell you my story.</p>
<p>I took the SAT for the first time in March of 2008, got a 2100 (750 Writing, 730 Reading, 620 Math). I studied over the summer to try to boost my math score because 620 was way, way below the 25th percentile. Anyway, I was getting between 650-720 on practice tests (which to me at the time seemed kind of erratic). </p>
<p>I retook in October and got a 2150 (760 Writing, 730 Reading, 660 Math). The Math score was still slightly below the 25th percentile, but I figured I’d be around the 20th – it’s fine, not all applicants are perfect…I just really talked up my strong points and my passions (which are not mathematical) and was accepted – they’re not expecting you to be perfect on all accounts, they’re just expecting you to try your hardest with your given capabilities.</p>
Not so; the 25th percentile according to Columbia is 2090 - the OP has a 2160 as it stands.</p>
<p>@aperthetic</p>
<p>You should take the ACT, or retake the SATs if you are confident that your M and W scores won’t drop significantly and that your CR will increase.</p>