<p>So I got a 690 on CR and took it again today but struggled quite a bit, I'm expecting maybe a 700. If I get a 780-800 on literature will that show that I am quite good at reading and sort of "make up" for the lackluster CR score?</p>
<p>90 views, 0 replies?</p>
<p>Help, yes, “make up”, probably not.</p>
<p>I don’t think it could necessarily “make up” for a mediocre CR score, but colleges have reason to be impressed by your reading skills if you get a top score for literature. You can certainly expect smaller, more personal schools to look into the literature score more carefully than big schools that might just want to push their admitted CR scores up.</p>
<p>Umm, I’m not sure who to attribute this description to, but literature is basically Critical Reading on steroids. I don’t know how you expect to do well on literature after a mediocre performance on CR. They’re very much related. But don’t let me dissuade you. Check out a literature practice test and see how you do!</p>
<p>690 isn’t “mediocre.” Yeah it’s not what the Ivy’s are looking for, but it’s in their middle 50%.</p>
<p>700 is not really a score that needs much improvement and I don’t really think you need to ‘make up’ for that. But given the SAT is usually out of 1600 or 2400, I don’t think a high lit score will ‘cover’ the low CR score.</p>
<p>Well I’m applying to Ivy’s (or schools as good as such as N’Western and UChicago), so I wish I had like 750ish. I didn’t really get serious about where I want to go to college until this year, so I didn’t study for SAT. I’m going to take a practice test right now and see what happens.</p>
<p>yes and no</p>
<p>CR and Subject Matter Lit. are two different animals. Any good scores that you get will help, but none really makes up for another.</p>
<p>I don’t really think the SAT Subject Test in Literature’s going to make up for a low CR score… And that’s cause (I may be wrong) colleges do view SAT I a lot more seriously than SAT IIs. If you do well in Literature it’ll definitely show that you’re good at reading, but that won’t necessarily make up for the low CR score (and CR btw is a LOT easier than Literature, so that could be confusing if anything to adcoms). If you’re planning on taking the test in Literature just to make up for CR, don’t, cause in all probability adcoms won’t view it the way you expect them to. Sorry if that sounded harsh! :$</p>
<p>Well the 690 is good for a lot of the schools I’m applying to (though not enough for Columbia and Northwestern), and I’m taking lit because aside from physics and math II (which I’m also taking) it’s what I’ll do best on.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about sounding harsh. I prefer brutal honesty to false hope.</p>