<p>D is a junior and is a bit disappointed with her test scores so far since she wants to try for Brown & Cornell. Her Soph PSAT was 202 but her Jr PSAT was 213 and she felt bad because NMSF in our state (NY) is 215 minimum. Her Jan SAT was 2080 which also disappointed her since it's below the PSAT to SAT score conversion of 2200. </p>
<p>She took a Kaplan test that compares SAT vs ACT potential and it said that she would probably score better on the ACT but she took the SAT first since she had done PSAT prep already and hoping she would get a 2200 or higher. </p>
<p>So now she's signed up for the April ACT (we're in NY so there was no Feb. ACT) and trying to decide if she should also go for the May or June SAT. She has 2 SAT Subject tests already, Bio and World History, with a 730 and 760 and isn't planning to apply to Georgetown which AFAIK is the only school which requires 3 but OTOH she was planning to take Math 2 in June--which means that she would have to take the SAT in May or in October., And October is a bit late if she wants to get applications in relatively early--she has a couple of matches & safeties with honors colleges that encourage students to have apps in by November,</p>
<p>I know I'm too worried about this but our GC is not too helpful (she encourages students to wait til June or October to take the SAT) and really am not sure where to turn. Is there a piece of the picture I'm missing here? WWYD?</p>
<p>She can take the ACT this spring and still have a chance to retake either or both in the early fall, right? Presumably, if she is not satisfied with her ACT score this spring, she will retake whichever one is initially higher, or both.</p>
<p>Her SAT is still pretty good. And her achievement tests are fine. Any chance she could take the math subject test in May, (does she really need it?), and then have her take the SAT or ACT in June once she knows her score on the April ACT?</p>
<p>Her PSAT/SAT seems pretty stable. It didn’t change much from Oct to Jan. I would try the ACT and have her retake whichever test she scored higher on the first time. </p>
<p>My oldest scored around 2000 on the SAT. He scored 30 on his first ACT and 33 on his second ACT. My middle son scored around 1900 on the SAT and 32 on his only ACT. We felt 32 was high enough and he did not retake the ACT.</p>
<p>Your daughter should have time to retake the tests in the fall in time for her applications.</p>
<p>She took the SAT fairly early in her Junior Year. I would say take the ACT like you have planned, but then have her study more for the SAT over the summer and take an early fall SAT . She will have had half a year more schooling and should do better just because of that.</p>
<p>I agree with Mathmom. Take the April ACT and re-take either the ACT or SAT in June while testing is still in her head. Sometimes, unless you’re really studying during the Summer, the fall tests aren’t as fresh and, therefore, aren’t as effective. If she can be done in June, (which I always recommend) she can concentrate on applications and, hopefully, enjoying her last year of High School in the Fall.</p>
<p>I would suggest she take a practice ACT at her convenience but try to take it under conditions similar to the ‘real’ one-- maybe you can help, use a timer, etc. Once she scores it, she will have a rough idea whether it’s worth her time to pursue it. One of my D’s tried this and her score was much lower than her SAT so she let it go. A second D tried it and her scores were comparable. Ultimately, she elected to stick with the SAT but it did provide her with enough feedback that she could have decided to prep a bit for the ACT and take it. I actually with we’d tried this earlier in the process with all my kids. We happen to live in an area where the majority of kids take the SAT and, somehow, the ACT comes up only when kids aren’t as happy with their test scores as they’d like.</p>
<p>@tooanxious:
I don’t think your daughter’s expectations were realistic. In my experience, a PSAT score of 213 does not automatically convert to an SAT score of 2200. Adding a zero to the PSAT would be a better estimate, but it’s not perfect. For the most part, it assumes that the student will post an essay score consistent with the multiple-choice grammar question score, and that’s not always true. Moreover, the PSAT is a much shorter test. If a student has not worked on his/her stamina and is not adequately prepared for the essay, it’s easy to see how the SAT score could end up lower.</p>
<p>I have no idea how Kaplan makes the determination between the ACT and SAT for a given student, but why not have your daughter take a full-length ACT practice test? There’s no substitute for that. Then simply convert to an SAT-equivalent score using the conversion table on the ACT website. That should reveal whether the ACT is a better fit for her natural abilities…and then she can focus on the one test that’s better for her. Taking a full-length practice test will provide her with immediate feedback and show her exactly what she missed. She’ll be able to see very clearly how her approach to incorrectly answered questions was flawed. This information will be helpful should she choose to focus her efforts on the ACT.</p>
<p>Paying for and taking the official ACT to determine “fit” is not the best way to go about things, in my opinion. I realize that lots of guidance counselors recommend that. I see lots of kids who follow this sort of advice (take the SAT and ACT tests “cold”), are very disappointed with their scores, and lose quite a bit of motivation to study for standardized tests.</p>
<p>I agree completely with @Bartleby007 about sitting for simulated test condition practice test. I agree that too many people use the real exam as their practice test. In addition to being a waste of time, the student is then further behind while he awaits the release of the score.</p>
<p>There are plenty of time apps that allow a five minute warning and a final pencil down at 25 minutes. You or your D can use one of these to ensure compliance.</p>
<p>Was her score significantly lower on one section of the test? My son didn’t prep for the W section at all the first time he took the test. Had one tutoring session focus on W before second SAT sitting, and increased W score by 100 points. Easiest section for quick improvement but the section the schools discount, so I am only mentioning that in case her essay score brought down her W score. Far too much weight is granted to that 25 min essay score, so I wouldn’t focus on W section unless that score was far below the M & CR.</p>
<p>Re: Subject tests at Cornell. The subject test requirements vary by college. Does she know which of the seven schools she wishes to pursue? Cornell is one of the schools that require submitting all test scores, but they do superscore and the highest scores are the only ones that appeared on the portal. (I have no idea if the Ad Coms see the other scores in the applicant’s file.)</p>
<p>While the Oct SAT score is released on time for Nov 1 ED apps, the timing is tight, and personally, I would prefer to know that the applicant already had the scores in hand by June. Perhaps focus on the SAT (or ACT) for the rest of this school year and then keep Oct in back pocket as last attempt, if needed. If retesting is not needed in fall, then take Math II subject test, if still desired. October gets hectic with the last minute interviews and info sessions, let alone filing the apps, etc.</p>
<p>Oh and by the way, my oldest never did score as well on the SAT as he did on the PSAT. He got an 80 on the PSAT writing section, but never got above 690 on the SAT. If the low score is the writing section, the SAT is just not equivalent, mostly because of that pesky essay.</p>
<p>Time to face facts and accept that these are her SAT scores. Between her PSAT and SAT scores, she has been pretty consistent. The SAT scores would be on the low end for Cornell and Brown.</p>
<p>I would suggest she focus on the ACT. Some students just naturally score better on one test or the other. The ACT may just be a better test for her. You could then chose to just submit her better ACT score and omit her SAT.</p>
<p>My son scored very high on his ACT and scored the same as your daughter on the PSAT. We elected to not have him even take the SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the advice. To add some more info, the PSAT 213 to SAT 2200 conversion is what’s displayed on her Naviance page when looking at her likelihood for college acceptances. </p>
<p>Her CR was 740 and Math was 660. She’s usually scored in the 740-800 range in the Writing MC but the real SAT essay brought her down (8) to a 680. She says she froze and couldn’t think of any examples for the topic–usually she does fine in English. Her UW GPA is 3.9.</p>
<p>The Kaplan test which predicted that she would do better on the ACT was a 3 1/2 hour test, a shortened SAT and shortened ACT (including writing for both)</p>
<p>For Cornell she’s thinking of CALS or HumEc. </p>
<p>So she’s taking a full-length practice ACT tomorrow–there’s a test prep place near us and for $30 they administer a recent actual test (not a Princeton review or Kaplan version), grade the writing, print out the score with breakdowns of weak areas and take 15 minutes to go over the test results a few days later. She’s been reviewing the ACT red book for a month now so hopefully will do reasonably well and not get discouraged.</p>
<p>Sounds like the essay writing woes of my older son. He just couldn’t think of examples in 25 minutes for the weird questions the SAT asked. He was fine with typical DBQ essays or research papers. I’d try the ACT the questions on their essays are much more straight forward. Good luck to her.</p>
<p>Did she do test prep for the January SAT? Since her CR is high, perhaps she can review the math and practice the essay and be better prepared for either May or June. Do those schools super-score? Does she need the math SAT2 and do you think she will do well enough to put that in place of the other SAT2 tests? On the Math2 subject test a score of 700 is only the 65th percentile. May not be worth the effort to take that and instead re-take the SAT. Good luck! I am sure this is stressful. </p>
<p>What were the individual test scores? For example, PSAT math only goes through Geom, but the SAT-M includes a handful of Alg II questions…did she drop in M?</p>