August 24 SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My junior took it for the first time yesterday.

He was scoring high 1400s to low 1500s on recent practices - Bluebooks.

He said Math II starting around question 16 was harder than anything he had seen on practices.

His prep was Khan, Bluebooks, Question Bank (did all of the medium and hards, tracked wrongs and re-did the wrongs every other until he had learned)

It's a 2 hr 20 min test so his plan is to take repeatedly until he feels he can't improve his score further. that's up to him entirely

Yesterday felt tough enough that he will be taking October. And he's signed up for November too though he can cancel that one.

History w/ my older kids tells me that max score comes summer after junior or fall senior.

same boat here with my DC, scoring mid 1400s and not too confident about yesterday. Difference is he’s got zero time for continued prep, he’s borderline D1 potential cross country and junior season starts tomorrow, as well as challenging course load, pretty serious girlfriend, and his mates. Tough to
combine it all - as older siblings tell him, welcome to hell, meaning junior year stress

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior took it for the first time yesterday.

He was scoring high 1400s to low 1500s on recent practices - Bluebooks.

He said Math II starting around question 16 was harder than anything he had seen on practices.

His prep was Khan, Bluebooks, Question Bank (did all of the medium and hards, tracked wrongs and re-did the wrongs every other until he had learned)

It's a 2 hr 20 min test so his plan is to take repeatedly until he feels he can't improve his score further. that's up to him entirely

Yesterday felt tough enough that he will be taking October. And he's signed up for November too though he can cancel that one.

History w/ my older kids tells me that max score comes summer after junior or fall senior.

same boat here with my DC, scoring mid 1400s and not too confident about yesterday. Difference is he’s got zero time for continued prep, he’s borderline D1 potential cross country and junior season starts tomorrow, as well as challenging course load, pretty serious girlfriend, and his mates. Tough to
combine it all - as older siblings tell him, welcome to hell, meaning junior year stress

Doesn't he have a full year to take this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it is not the test getting more difficult. Maybe it's the students. This year's students went through covid, around the time they were studying algebra. It shows in the sat test how much they have learnt.

Many, many students who have taken multiple SATs the first half year with the new adaptive digital test, say the March and August tests had very hard second math parts, while the other ones were a tad easier.

Also, pretty much unanimous that widely available practice test are easier than the actual tests, and very much so for the March and August tests. That's a bit frustrating of course. My DC decided tutoring would be good, and just a few sessions made a big difference. Of course don't know the results until 9/6 but DC really felt good about the most difficult math problems. (English part always went very well for whatever reason).

Indeed, it is frustrating that the practice material is so limited and is easier than the actual test. It sounds like - albeit anecdotally, from reddit etc - March scores were lower than May/June too, which would call into question the standardization process. There is a sense that CB has never fully gotten back to the test writing and equating quality from the days when those tasks were outsourced to ETS. I haven't looked lately to see how much of that is in-house now at CB, but the current variations in test difficulty and complete opacity of adaptive scoring do not inspire confidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior took it for the first time yesterday.

He was scoring high 1400s to low 1500s on recent practices - Bluebooks.

He said Math II starting around question 16 was harder than anything he had seen on practices.

His prep was Khan, Bluebooks, Question Bank (did all of the medium and hards, tracked wrongs and re-did the wrongs every other until he had learned)

It's a 2 hr 20 min test so his plan is to take repeatedly until he feels he can't improve his score further. that's up to him entirely

Yesterday felt tough enough that he will be taking October. And he's signed up for November too though he can cancel that one.

History w/ my older kids tells me that max score comes summer after junior or fall senior.

same boat here with my DC, scoring mid 1400s and not too confident about yesterday. Difference is he’s got zero time for continued prep, he’s borderline D1 potential cross country and junior season starts tomorrow, as well as challenging course load, pretty serious girlfriend, and his mates. Tough to
combine it all - as older siblings tell him, welcome to hell, meaning junior year stress

He doesn't need continued prep. He can do a one meeting refresher wtih the tutor next summer for the Aug 2025 test date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it is not the test getting more difficult. Maybe it's the students. This year's students went through covid, around the time they were studying algebra. It shows in the sat test how much they have learnt.

Many, many students who have taken multiple SATs the first half year with the new adaptive digital test, say the March and August tests had very hard second math parts, while the other ones were a tad easier.

Also, pretty much unanimous that widely available practice test are easier than the actual tests, and very much so for the March and August tests. That's a bit frustrating of course. My DC decided tutoring would be good, and just a few sessions made a big difference. Of course don't know the results until 9/6 but DC really felt good about the most difficult math problems. (English part always went very well for whatever reason).

Did your child think yesterday’s math was not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MY DD wanted to cancel her very first SAT scores, she is in 10th grade. Any ideas....she is worrying she will get very bad scores.... because some universities ask for all scores....

Why is a kid that is in the first month of 10th grade taking the SAT at all? Wait until next summer before 11th or fall of 11th for her first attempt, PP.

Agreed. No wonder your kid struggled. Poor kid. You need to majorly chill out.

New poster: i can see the appeal- good test taker overall, sophomore year not as stressful, already a high level math, took the psat 9 for some reason and did well, did well on a mock test, saw an older sibling regret waiting so long, etc.

she finished her algebra II already, some people said is good to take it after algebra II because fresh memory!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it is not the test getting more difficult. Maybe it's the students. This year's students went through covid, around the time they were studying algebra. It shows in the sat test how much they have learnt.

Many, many students who have taken multiple SATs the first half year with the new adaptive digital test, say the March and August tests had very hard second math parts, while the other ones were a tad easier.

Also, pretty much unanimous that widely available practice test are easier than the actual tests, and very much so for the March and August tests. That's a bit frustrating of course. My DC decided tutoring would be good, and just a few sessions made a big difference. Of course don't know the results until 9/6 but DC really felt good about the most difficult math problems. (English part always went very well for whatever reason).

Did your child think yesterday’s math was not that hard.

DP. Mine thought there were a few really odd questions on the math that were hard. It was not an easy test in math by any means, but there were really only those few questions that stood out. Here's hoping they were experimental, though we'll never know. He thought the verbal difficulty was more expected/similar to practice tests.

Different kids get different sets of questions, which makes it hard to truly compare difficulty among students who took the test on the same day.

[Anonymous]

My advice is to have your kid keep taking it month after month. Every test is different. Kids don't get the same problems. This is by design on the digital to prevent cheating which was mostly going on overseas (chin, etc)


It's a PITA and annoying (giving the college board all this money) but it seems to help kids get a high score. Eventually they'll get easier questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Me: “How was it?”
DC: “Good”

End of conversation

Lol, that’s how mine went also.

Same here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior took it for the first time yesterday.

He was scoring high 1400s to low 1500s on recent practices - Bluebooks.

He said Math II starting around question 16 was harder than anything he had seen on practices.

His prep was Khan, Bluebooks, Question Bank (did all of the medium and hards, tracked wrongs and re-did the wrongs every other until he had learned)

It's a 2 hr 20 min test so his plan is to take repeatedly until he feels he can't improve his score further. that's up to him entirely

Yesterday felt tough enough that he will be taking October. And he's signed up for November too though he can cancel that one.

History w/ my older kids tells me that max score comes summer after junior or fall senior.

same boat here with my DC, scoring mid 1400s and not too confident about yesterday. Difference is he’s got zero time for continued prep, he’s borderline D1 potential cross country and junior season starts tomorrow, as well as challenging course load, pretty serious girlfriend, and his mates. Tough to
combine it all - as older siblings tell him, welcome to hell, meaning junior year stress

He doesn't need continued prep. He can do a one meeting refresher wtih the tutor next summer for the Aug 2025 test date.

well he wanted scores to talk to coaches in November - he may just try to keep
prepping and take october - time for mom to limit time with girlfriend! geez does anyone really ever do one and done

[Anonymous]

Yes, two of mine did one and done. The third will take it twice. I find all the people advising kids to take it monthly shocking. Clearly you all have unlimited money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, two of mine did one and done. The third will take it twice. I find all the people advising kids to take it monthly shocking. Clearly you all have unlimited money.

It’s $68.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me: “How was it?”
DC: “Good”

End of conversation

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior took it for the first time yesterday.

He was scoring high 1400s to low 1500s on recent practices - Bluebooks.

He said Math II starting around question 16 was harder than anything he had seen on practices.

His prep was Khan, Bluebooks, Question Bank (did all of the medium and hards, tracked wrongs and re-did the wrongs every other until he had learned)

It's a 2 hr 20 min test so his plan is to take repeatedly until he feels he can't improve his score further. that's up to him entirely

Yesterday felt tough enough that he will be taking October. And he's signed up for November too though he can cancel that one.

History w/ my older kids tells me that max score comes summer after junior or fall senior.

same boat here with my DC, scoring mid 1400s and not too confident about yesterday. Difference is he’s got zero time for continued prep, he’s borderline D1 potential cross country and junior season starts tomorrow, as well as challenging course load, pretty serious girlfriend, and his mates. Tough to
combine it all - as older siblings tell him, welcome to hell, meaning junior year stress

He doesn't need continued prep. He can do a one meeting refresher wtih the tutor next summer for the Aug 2025 test date.

well he wanted scores to talk to coaches in November - he may just try to keep
prepping and take october - time for mom to limit time with girlfriend! geez does anyone really ever do one and done

Another one and done here. Taking standardized tests is one of their superpowers. DC2 will likely need two sittings.

[Anonymous]

well he wanted scores to talk to coaches in November - he may just try to keep
prepping and take october - time for mom to limit time with girlfriend! geez does anyone really ever do one and done

Cross country coaches are not going to seriously pursue a runner in fall of junior year, ESPECIALLY a boy. They may have conversations but serious interest indicators are not likely to come until the summer between junior and senior year at the earliest, with official visits and offers in the fall of senior year. Your kid still has plenty of time.