<p>@AllyJay Thank you for your response! It’s very stressful. The kids who have graduated have gotten into amazing schools of course there are always the select few that stick around and go to the local community college but most grads get into great schools. </p>
<p>You’re offered honors religion classes? That’s awesome, we’re not but we aren’t really offered any electives until senior year anyways. We don’t have any honors/AP courses that aren’t core classes so all of my classes are honors/AP besides religion (and algebra 2 this year but I’m totally rocking the college-prep level in it)</p>
<p>It’s good to here what your guidance counselor is saying, mine says the same too but it’s good to be reassured. I know that my guidance counselor feels like if she tells me SAT scores are really important I’ll just give up. </p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve cried as much as I have these past couple months. I just feel like I’ve worked so hard my whole high school career and my dreams are going to be crushed because I can’t do great on a test, I mean I guess we’ll see how I do the next couple times I take it but still. It just really stinks that college admissions is so competitive that it doesn’t matter how great your grades are if you can’t take a standardized test. At least in college when you have a big exam you can study for what’s on it. You can’t study for the SAT, you can prep but you can’t study. And trust me I’ve been doing a whole lot of prepping.</p>
<p>@DrGoogle I actually haven’t. I’m super swamped this week with SAT’s and my AP exams next week but hopefully if I can get an extra hour I can do some practice ACT questions. That’s really interesting. I’m obviously nervous because there is a science section on it but I’ll definitely try a practice ACT and see how I do. I don’t plan on taking the ACT more than once.</p>
<p>@Etuck24 Exactly, you can study for a college exam. You’ve taken a class with the material, you have no idea what’s going to appear on the SAT. You can do practice problems and such but they don’t tell you to know this vocabulary, or these exact math topics it’s all really broad like ‘Geometry’. My friend made a great comparison that the College Board is like the Capital (in the Hunger Games trilogy), we are the tributes and the SAT’s are the Hunger Games, they’re just going to test us until our death.</p>
<p>Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t taken the former. </p>
<p>These entrance exams are so broad and NOT DIFFICULT that you shouldn’t need to study to do well. Basic math and prompt based reading are not hard; you’ve “practiced” the material for 16 years.</p>
<p>Don’t study for a college exam and you will pay for it.</p>
<p>Yes the SAT does make a lot of difference. I applied to a lot of similar schools in acceptance </p>
<p>Bentley University, Syracuse University, University of Richmond, and American University. AU allowed me to apply test optional - which I did and it made a huge difference. I got into AU and wait listed to the rest of the other schools. All four of these schools are similar or at least somewhat close in the average GPA and SAT and EC’s scale. </p>
<p>I honestly applied thinking that I would definitely get into all of these schools because of my essays and high GPA and good EC’s, but my SAT scores definitely kept me down. </p>
<p>Even if you apply to privates that supposedly don’t take SAT’s into that large into account… they definitely do and it does make a difference and DEFINITELY can make the difference in getting accepted and wait listed. Even with your good GPA and EC’s, your sat scores will reflect poorly. </p>
<p>SAT scores definitely make a difference in USC and UCLA and BU (bc it requires subject tests) so you really need to get your scores up.</p>
<p>@lakeawead I don’t understand why you would tell someone who is struggling with their SAT scores that they’re extremely easy. I’m glad you did well on them, but no need to brag about it.</p>
<p>@redscarlett11 Thank you for your response. Great… I am really interested in Syracuse too. I guess I should probably try and find an SAT tutor for the summer, I just wish I didn’t have to. It really stinks that college admissions are seriously so cut throat. I always was told you have to do well in school and you can go wherever you want. Well I’ve done exceedingly well through school and excelled in high school (and it isn’t easy!) but because of one test I’m done for. The system’s seriously messed up.</p>
<p>But congratulations on your acceptance to AU! It is an awesome school!</p>
<p>@hpyscm I suck at math aha. Im great at everything else but math I go for extra help and study extremely hard to keep my a in the class. You can’t go for extra help and study the topics that are going to be on a quiz/test for the sat</p>
<p>I’ve never really heard about grade inflatation which sorta scares me now aha but kids from my school have gone to really good schools all over the country so I’d assume it’s pretty rigorous. I mean i don’t breeze through I work my butt off to get the grades I do</p>
<p>It was your first shot right?
Relax, just study more and do more practice tests.
I recieved a 1690 the first time I took the SAT,
but I was able to raise that to a 2000 the 3rd time.</p>
<p>Find out why your math scores are so low,
is it because you didn’t review/learn the material?
Didn’t have enough time?
Or did you misunderstand the question?
Do more practice tests and try to see what type of questions you get wrong the most.</p>
<p>Hey, don’t stress about it too much! They REALLY do care more than just your SAT scores. I was in the same boat as you, a few months ago. I got 1800 on the SATs and I was super worried that I wouldn’t get into any of the UC’s I applied to (I’ll be going to UCLA in the fall). My EC’s weren’t that great, either… Well compared to most people. I played volleyball, was part of student council, joined some clubs, volunteered at my local library, and participated in a study abroad program. My volunteer hours totaled to somewhere around 50-70 hours, I don’t remember. It was definitely my essays and class rank that saved me (at the time I applied, I was class rank #2).</p>
<p>also, my friend (she’s our valedictorian) got into UC Berkeley with a really low SAT score. It was somewhere between 1200-1400…</p>