<p>I kind of already made a similar thread in another forum, but I am specifically curious about how it applies to MIT. People are saying that MIT will only consider your best science score, but I would like them to consider two scores, and both will have a different reason. I'm taking the SAT Physics test in June, and I expect to do really well, most likely 800 (I intend to be a Physics major also). However, I might be taking the Bio E/M test, in either May or October or November, and I am doing this because I did very poorly in Biology Honors sophomore year (80, or B minus). If I practice really hard for the Biology SAT Subject test and score a 750+, would MIT ignore my bad Biology grade even though it is a science course? Bio was the crux of my sophomore year and I really don't want it to hurt me that much. Thank you for any information.</p>
<p>They’ll see all the tests – the “take the best one” refers to stacking your application against the application checklist. The idea is that they won’t hold lower scores against you.</p>
<p>That said, a 750 and an 800 mean the same thing to MIT admissions, as far as the science SAT II is concerned.</p>
<p>Yes, but if I do well on the Bio E/M test, will my mediocre Biology H grade be seen in a better (Or perhaps dimmer, less focused on) light?</p>
<p>I have another idea. This is just my way of looking at things. I am hoping maybe you can see things from a different light or give an argument why I should return to looking at it in the light you are.</p>
<p>If you are upset that you didn’t really understand biology then read a textbook on the subject or work through MIT OCW’s biology course. If you believe that you already did understand biology and for some reason or other you got a “bad” grade (80 isn’t really that bad) then don’t worry about it, just do what you love. If you didn’t understand biology and you don’t care to understand, first try to find the beauty in biology and then go back to doing what you love to do. </p>
<p>I would say that working with the bio SAT 2 in mind for MIT would be a waste and would be analogous to this. Say you are trying to impress a football coach. So you go to the gym and do bicep curls. You keep working on bicep curls like a bodybuilder just to make the muscle bigger. Yes you did get stronger but that was a side effect and it wasn’t nearly as much as you could have gained if you were trying to gain strength. So you then go and wear a sleeveless shirt and go talk to the coach about something that is irrelevant just so you can show off your biceps. Say the coach notices your arms and thinks that you are actually very strong when you aren’t. He recruits you to play. Now you aren’t very strong and don’t succeed at tackling or holding on to the ball after being hit. All this time you really enjoyed soccer but you choose football only because you though you could go to all the parties or whatever (I play football, just because you play football doesn’t make you into a certain kind of person socially, but non-football players sometimes believe that it could make them “cool”. I have often found that “cool” people’s lives tend to be very stressful, superficial, and sometimes downright fake) So you play football but aren’t very good, you are good at soccer but don’t play. In the process of trying to impress the coach you squandered both opportunities and you did it all for a reason that, even if it had existed, would mean nothing after high school. </p>
<p>Moral of the story is do what you love and you will end up with like-minded people and never do something just to impress somebody. (If you are trying to impress a girl/guy, well, do it because you really care about her/him, not to make her/him think you are a hero)</p>
<p>“Don’t chase success, chase excellence, then success will chase you pants down” - 3 idiots</p>
<p>Like I said this is just the light that I see that world in.</p>
<p>Good Luck</p>
<p>With my heart on my sleeve,
-ManWithHeart</p>
<p>That actually makes a lot more sense. But about Biology, I actually was interested in Biology, especially Evolution and other areas of Ecology. However, and I will be making excuses that seem very petty, my teacher did not teach well, barely gave us any notes, and a couple times tested us on things we weren’t even taught. I was just worried about my Bio grade, but I guess I shouldn’t waste so much time trying to mitigate it and just move on, if that is what you are trying to say. I hope you don’t think that my intent in taking any class is just to do well without showing some passion for it, but I did have some worries, being Biology is a science and MIT is my favorite school as of now. I will try to remind myself of what you said from now on so I can more efficiently pursue the things I actually want to do. Thank you.</p>
<p>Mhmm that is what I meant to say.</p>
<p>Also people assume that excellence is shown through grades. I don’t neccisarily believe that, that is true. It seems that you have been trying to chase excellence. I thought I was to in 8th grade. I was a straight A student and I thought I was doing great. Looking back I was just very good at being obedient and following orders. That is what a lot of high school classes have become. Right now I have a 2.96 GPA but I have never been sharper, more intelligent, or have worked harder in my life. I will explain why at the end.</p>
<p>So I will give you two scenarios.</p>
<p>1) A in a class but didn’t really learn
If you just did what you were told and just crammed your way to get a good grade.</p>
<p>2) D in a class but know the subject inside out.
Often times teachers have their hands tied. They have to make sure even the students who don’t care about the subject learn something. (I refrain from saying dumber because (I say this in the least corny way possible) we are all geniuses at something, a goal is to find in what) They have to simplify the class enough that everyone can do it. Now in that case, which is almost always in high school(even in my Honors Multivariable Calculus class) a lot of the assignments are redundant and well just boring. </p>
<p>For example, I will give you two riddles.</p>
<p>a)If you are given 9 rocks and all of them are the same weight except for one which is heavier than all the other rocks. All the rocks look indentical and you can’t tell which is the heaviest by just holding them. You are given a scale. Using the scale only twice, how do you determine which rock is the heavier one.</p>
<p>b)If you are given 12 rocks and all of them are the same weight except for one which is EITHER heavier or lighter than all the other rocks. All the rocks look indentical and you can’t tell which is the heaviest by just holding them. You are given a scale. Using the scale only three times, how do you determine which rock is the odd one and if it is either heavier or lighter.</p>
<p>Chances are you will be given a lot more problems at the difficulty of a) rather than the difficulty of b). This is for two reasons. The fact that teachers have to get everyone to succeed and the second one takes a while and a teacher in high school can’t assign such a long assignment to such a small topic.</p>
<p>The pace of a course isn’t based on the induvidual and that creates problems but there is no real way to fix that. Either people are very far behind or are bored out of their mind while still not fully comprehending the subject. Also when you are excited about something you tend to work faster and vice versa. So doing the boring assignments, which chances are there will be numerically more of, could take as long as the exciting assignments. </p>
<h2>Often times you can’t do the exciting assignments because the boring ones take up your time. So the best option to really understand something can sometimes be stop doing the work the teacher gives you and find a strong textbook on the matter and work through that. So you get a D but you really understood it.</h2>
<p>So the point of the two example are to show that a grade doesn’t neccisarily reflect your understanding. Now you come across as someone who cares about understanding, so I thought I might just put that out there.</p>
<p>Another problem that occurs is that you don’t really learn how to learn things on your own which is such an important life skill.</p>
<p>Also if you are interested, I also want to be a physics major. I have created and am excuting a plan and to really get a good grasp of Classical Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Vibrations and Waves, Calculus(SV and MV), Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, and just problem solving on your own.</p>
<p>The way that I am doing it is, I dropped out of my “prestigous” magnet program and am only taking the essential classes. When done I spend the rest of the day working on Math and Physics. Frankly, I have never been happier in my life.</p>
<p>If you are thinking about trying something like that, I would love to help out.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>With my heart on my sleeve,
ManWithHeart</p>
<p>Certainly they’ll look at the score and see that your grade doesn’t necessarily reflect your work, though a B- won’t hurt an otherwise strong application anyway.</p>