Retake High SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this gets discussed on dcum, but I really do not understand how so many posters seem to have kids who scored 1500 and above. I wonder if the percentiles of students with those scores have skyrocketed and the percentiles one reads on rhe acollege Board site are just out of date. (and yes I realize this is an educated area but no more so than nyc, boston, san fran, etc and most of the state of nj, haha).

True, but also more parents from the DMV area here than any other cities you mention....the concentration of 99th percentile kids in this area is high but probably equal to other highly educated pockets of the country as you noted.

[Anonymous]

It is a fantastic score (higher than my DD’s) and there certainly is no need to retake it. However, it’s possible a higher score could help (assuming your DC is applying to top schools). It’s just one Saturday morning. I don’t see the harm in retaking, but wouldn’t waste any time prepping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid has told his/her friends his SAT score? And these kids have told your child to retake? This post cannot be real. If it is real, talk to the guidance counselor, not some 17 year olds.

Nothing unreal or abnormal about kids sharing their SAT scores with each other and discussing admission strategies. My DC with similar score (1540/780E/760M) has done that and contemplating retaking SAT.

Yes, there is something wrong with it. These kids are under too much pressure and sharing their high SAT scores is for one reason only--to humble brag and in most instances make others around them feel bad. Teach them to do better. None of my kids or their friends talk about grades or SAT scores. But, they're normal and not super nerds, so maybe that's why.

They talk about it with their close friends because they’re genuinely friends! Also the whole group shares so it would be strange for one kid not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this gets discussed on dcum, but I really do not understand how so many posters seem to have kids who scored 1500 and above. I wonder if the percentiles of students with those scores have skyrocketed and the percentiles one reads on rhe acollege Board site are just out of date. (and yes I realize this is an educated area but no more so than nyc, boston, san fran, etc and most of the state of nj, haha).

I think a couple of things are at play: 1) Yes, DMV is a highly educated population so the kids around here are likely to do better than average; 2) Posters on DCUM are a self selected groups...and those who post their kids scores are a sub-self-selected group; and 3) I'm guessing that--most of the time--these scores are "superscores"--whereas the percentiles that are posted are one-sitting percentiles. So, while 1500 is the 99th percentile for one sitting, more kids are able to achieve it if they can combine their best scores from 3-4 sittings, which many kids around here do.

FWIW, my DC did not quite hit the magic 34/1500 threshold on their first attempt but they were close and did not need the added stress of chasing a score so they were "one and done." Will they get screened out from some schools because they missed that number? Perhaps. But they made the decision to value mental health over obsessing over a number, even if their chances at some set of schools may be decreased or eliminated. We were 100% behind that decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this gets discussed on dcum, but I really do not understand how so many posters seem to have kids who scored 1500 and above. I wonder if the percentiles of students with those scores have skyrocketed and the percentiles one reads on rhe acollege Board site are just out of date. (and yes I realize this is an educated area but no more so than nyc, boston, san fran, etc and most of the state of nj, haha).

A quibble but “this area” in fact IS more educated than any the cities you mention. The US census American Community Survey proves this (as measured by percentage of the population with graduate degrees and percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees. No question that there’s big money to be made in NYC, SF, LA but that =/= educated. Boston is a smart place but the DMV surpasses it in education attainment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He think he should be able to do better at verbal, is 730 low score for him?

It’s possible. The conventional wisdom is that the verbal section is harder to improve on with tutoring than math, because it’s hard to teach reading comprehension over a short period of time. However — the SAT is set up differently than the ACT, but my kid (who took the ACT) was able to make a considerable improvement on the English (grammar) portion (he brought it up from a 30 to a 35). He already had a 36 on reading, and he can write well, but the format of the grammar questions tripped him up somehow the first time around. He was being tutored to bring his math score up (which also worked), but I think they spent one session on grammar and it made a dramatic difference. He also spent part of one or two sessions with the tutor on Science, and brought his score up from a 33 to a 35. I would look at the details of the questions he missed and see if they are the type that would lend themselves to some “tips and tricks” from a tutor (e.g., grammar vs. reading comprehension”).

How many tutoring sessions your child had? Can you also let us know who the tutor was?

He was scheduled for 12 hours (ended up being 11 after a cancellation on our end) with the tutor, plus a few hours a week of practice tests. It was two one hour sessions twice a week, mostly over the summer. He did it with Arborbridge (via Zoom). I overheard a few sessions, and was very impressed with the professionalism of the tutor and the Admin I dealt with.

I’m not an expert, but after doing some research on this, it seems that tutoring can be really helpful if you have a kid that has scores that are unbalanced (high in one area and low in another), because the higher the score is, the harder it is to improve (the difference may be just a couple of questions). My kid needed to bring up his math score, so if you just had one area (e.g., grammar) that you need to focus on, you would probably be able to get by with just a few sessions or working with Khan Academy, if your kid is motivated. One thing that Arborbridge did that was helpful was have DC take a practice test before we signed up (which was free) and then analyze exactly what types of questions he missed. You could do that and see if your kid’s “misses” were in a specific area. If so, some concentrated study could probably improve his score. If they’re sort of spread randomly across the entire section, then it’s probably less likely.

TBH, my kid could have taken it more seriously than he did, but he raised his composite from a 31 to a 34 by working about 4 hours a week for six weeks, which seemed a good investment of time. My DC isn’t interested in Ivies, and a 34 is probably sufficient for the colleges he is applying to, so we didn’t even discuss taking the test again.

What I have learned is that you can absolutely “buy” several points on the ACT. There’s no way my kid would have done it on his own (and he’s got a 3.9 UW gpa with no oversight from me).

As for the pressure to have a high score, I do think the DC area is in sort of an “arms race.” I have friends and family in another part of the country, and the kind of prep that kids do here, even the self-directed kind, is very rare. They *might* attend a weekend seminar. In an area with a lot of high-achieving kids, it’s harder to distinguish yourself, so it’s not surprising, but everyone just keeps pushing the bar up higher and higher. I honestly don’t know if ADs take that into account or not. Is a 34 from DC worth less than a 34 from a rural area? Do they assume that everyone from an affluent area of DC has been prepped within an inch of their life? Who knows?

[Anonymous]

It helps with prep, DS did khan, high 1500 first sitting.
Yes his close friends share scores and study together. Friends with low 1500 are retaking, I heard their parents are very disappointed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It helps with prep, DS did khan, high 1500 first sitting.
Yes his close friends share scores and study together. Friends with low 1500 are retaking, I heard their parents are very disappointed

There are certain cultures that focus more on test scores than others.

[Anonymous]

Our child is stopping with a 1500, she’s a little older than your child op as she just started junior year. She has adhd and is a good, but. not great test taker.
I think it would take a high 1500s for her to gain additional benefit on the score front. Instead, focusing energy on grades and extracurriculars,

[Anonymous]

Carnegie Mellon requires applicants to submit all SAT/ACT scores. I don't know how the school handles multiple scores (it may be that the school super scores or only considers the highest score). But, if your kid scores lower, the lower score needs to be submitted for consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It is totally insane. My kid is on the same math track. Took multi var and diff eq last year and taking linear algebra and complex analysis this year as a senior. Got 1530 on 1st sat and decided to take again for 2 reasons: 1, it was free (school announced free test after she had already signed up and paid for first one). 2. Applying to some tippy top schools for which it might make a difference. Also, 1530 had a high math, so retaking also seemed a good bet for raising verbal. Result was a 1570.

So, I guess it depends on where he is applying, really. 1530 is a great score, but it does affect the scattergram chances at some schools. It's all a matter of what matters more. Good luck@

He could improve verbal, would have to study a lot of grammar, will leave it up to him.

He will probably go back to HS (from CC) for math senior year and take AP Stats for several reasons. It's already hard to find small (only Williams and Harvey Mudd) and medium size schools which is his preference to meet math needs - not considering Cal Tech. Any safety has to be a large university. And HS has a very good Stats teacher who also sponsors math team and it will give him more time for applications. Where is your child applying?

some Ivies, Cambridge, Williams, Wesleyan, Vassar, Middlebury, Wheaton (IL), UMD, Muhlenberg. The 1570 could make a difference at the Ivies/Cambridge/Williams. She is applying in arts, even though she still loves math. She's essentially taken about 1/2 a math major of math in HS -- Calc BC (5 on AP), Multi Var, Diff Eq, Linear Alg, Complex, Stats, etc. Still loves math, but also arts and humanities. All over the place!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid has told his/her friends his SAT score? And these kids have told your child to retake? This post cannot be real. If it is real, talk to the guidance counselor, not some 17 year olds.

PP, do you have a 17 y.o. yet? (I'm just asking, not being snarky)

I'm the PP of the kid with same SAT score as OP, and her friends told her to retake. Yes this is totally a real thing. I said to my kid, you told Larla your test score? Why did you do that? "Well she kept bugging me, blah blah..." So we talked about that...keeping that stuff private, information as power, etc. Of course too late but like you, PP, I didn't forsee this situation.

The other thing that happens is even if your kid isn't telling, the other kids are like, "oh, I only got a 1580; my mom wants me to retake..."

Obviously this is a subset of kids and my kid is in this group. The other surprising thing was Halloween. She had two friends over and although the plan was to watch a movie, they did chemistry homework. They were having a great time, laughing etc, but clearly doing chemistry. I walked in at one point and was so surprised, "Guys, it's Halloween, what are you doing homework for? Can you just walk the dog around the block?"

[Anonymous]

whoops 11:52 again, just to clarify, no friends told my DD to retake, just commented how THEY were retaking even though they had similar but higher scores (which made my DD think she should retake)

[Anonymous]

Last year, my kid got a similar score after many canceled tests and having to drive hours out of state. Reading this thread, I'm realizing there was actually a silver lining in that absolutely nobody even hinted that he might retake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, your kid has told his/her friends his SAT score? And these kids have told your child to retake? This post cannot be real. If it is real, talk to the guidance counselor, not some 17 year olds.

Nothing unreal or abnormal about kids sharing their SAT scores with each other and discussing admission strategies. My DC with similar score (1540/780E/760M) has done that and contemplating retaking SAT.

Yes, there is something wrong with it. These kids are under too much pressure and sharing their high SAT scores is for one reason only--to humble brag and in most instances make others around them feel bad. Teach them to do better. None of my kids or their friends talk about grades or SAT scores. But, they're normal and not super nerds, so maybe that's why.

This is a ridiculous post. No kid posts to make others around them feel bad. My kid has a 1560 and a friend posted the friend's score, also a 1560, the day scores were released. The friend is a nice kid who was proud of his score. His other friend also announced his 1570 score in class. I told DC not to announce the scores because I found the posting/announcement tacky, not bc I think the other kids had mean motives. DC has been asked MANY times about DC's scores and not by nerds. It's, for some reason, acceptable with current kids to share scores.