Today’s SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College board has watered down the test in the past five years. Nonetheless, without a certain level of intelligence, no way one can achieve 1580+. 1500 is easier, it’s a combination of intelligence and work ethic.

Merit or not, like it or not, the test is back to many elite colleges. It makes it more difficult for rich families to get in, an equalizer for legacy, athletes, and donors. They too have to achieve certain test scores now to be accepted.

It is not common to get above a 1500. It is actually only a small percent. I know of many strong students (4.0, great ECs, awards) who can’t even break 1400.

People don’t realize what scores their peers get. You’d be surprised how low they are!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College board has watered down the test in the past five years. Nonetheless, without a certain level of intelligence, no way one can achieve 1580+. 1500 is easier, it’s a combination of intelligence and work ethic.

Merit or not, like it or not, the test is back to many elite colleges. It makes it more difficult for rich families to get in, an equalizer for legacy, athletes, and donors. They too have to achieve certain test scores now to be accepted.

It is not common to get above a 1500. It is actually only a small percent. I know of many strong students (4.0, great ECs, awards) who can’t even break 1400.

People don’t realize what scores their peers get. You’d be surprised how low they are!

Correct. 1500 is the 99th percentile so only 1% of all test takers get that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It makes it more difficult for rich families to get in, an equalizer for legacy, athletes, and donors. They too have to achieve certain test scores now to be accepted.

I don't think that is quite true. I paid $5000 for a private tutor to help DS improve his score. It wouldn't have improved if he didn't have some basic level of intelligence, but he's in a better position than someone whose parents could not hire a tutor and had his same basic level of intelligence. The test is still slanted towards the rich, which is unfortunate.

Affluent students who can afford private tutoring/prep do have some advantage for standardized tests, but the money, time, and parental availability necessary to become a recruitable athlete or rack up impressive sounding extracurriculars or internships for “holistic review” favors the wealthy even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD feels so defeated. After waiting 30 minutes extra to be checked in due to long lines she had a WIFI outtage towards the end of the 2nd harder math section and half way through the wifi never returned and after all that she was told she had no recourse except to have the test cancelled!

There are no September seats left in our region and now she's scrambling to find a seat for October or November.

I am soo frustrated with the College Board and this whole rat race! There is no SAT at her school so we were counting on this.

That’s so frustrating - and doesn’t seem right! When DD was doing the computer set up on Thursday or Friday, the info specifically said that WiFi was only needed to start and complete the test, and that if there was a failure, students have up to 24 hours to get back on WiFi and have their tests submitted. I wonder why the testing site gave her different information??

Here’s the FAQ for it - have her try this!

https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/help-center/what-happens-if-students-issue-device-connectivity-test-day

“At the end of the test, if a student is still offline and their answer submission fails, they'll have until 11:59 p.m. local time the next day to get back online and submit their answers. They'll need to go to their My SAT page and sign in to Bluebook™ to submit their answers.”

Just boosting this for the parent whose daughter lost internet during the test - in case it got lost in the clutter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College board has watered down the test in the past five years. Nonetheless, without a certain level of intelligence, no way one can achieve 1580+. 1500 is easier, it’s a combination of intelligence and work ethic.

Merit or not, like it or not, the test is back to many elite colleges. It makes it more difficult for rich families to get in, an equalizer for legacy, athletes, and donors. They too have to achieve certain test scores now to be accepted.

That’s right. And some kids are willing to study their tails off, and take the SAT five, six, seven times, until they get the scores they want.

Shows grit, which is what colleges are want

No, it doesn’t. With very few exceptions, schools don’t know the number of times or variations of the tests taken. And no kid is saying I took it 10 times.

Super scoring has changed this. Kids take it multiple times, focusing on English at one testing and math the next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College board has watered down the test in the past five years. Nonetheless, without a certain level of intelligence, no way one can achieve 1580+. 1500 is easier, it’s a combination of intelligence and work ethic.

Merit or not, like it or not, the test is back to many elite colleges. It makes it more difficult for rich families to get in, an equalizer for legacy, athletes, and donors. They too have to achieve certain test scores now to be accepted.

That’s right. And some kids are willing to study their tails off, and take the SAT five, six, seven times, until they get the scores they want.

Shows grit, which is what colleges are want

No, it doesn’t. With very few exceptions, schools don’t know the number of times or variations of the tests taken. And no kid is saying I took it 10 times.

Super scoring has changed this. Kids take it multiple times, focusing on English at one testing and math the next.

Super scoring has been around forever - at least since the 80s. It’s nothing new.

[Anonymous]

For those taking 3 or more times, what is timing you did that was most helpful to try and increase score? Do you sign up for some tests just in case need it or how do you make sure slots are open if need to do again(seeing some say here kids would like to take again but slots full)?

1st time August junior year
2nd time sprint junior year
3rd time August senior
4th time Sept or Oct?

Or Aug, Sept, Oct all senior year?

What is most typical (and most helpful) when know will take multiple times?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those taking 3 or more times, what is timing you did that was most helpful to try and increase score? Do you sign up for some tests just in case need it or how do you make sure slots are open if need to do again(seeing some say here kids would like to take again but slots full)?

1st time August junior year
2nd time sprint junior year
3rd time August senior
4th time Sept or Oct?

Or Aug, Sept, Oct all senior year?

What is most typical (and most helpful) when know will take multiple times?

Any pattern can work. It just depends when your kid is best able to fit in prep and study time. Work backwards and figure that the last opportunity is October senior year. Plan on taking it 4 times and then throw in an extra just in case.

[Anonymous]

Here is what my DC did:

Self studied Khan Academy and took the test June of sophomore year (this was DC’s idea to get a feel for the test). Got a 1440.

Took a prep course fall of junior year timed to the November test. This was due to summer activity that DC was away from home most of the summer. Goal was to align prepping for the test with the PSAT.

Signed up for the December test because we know that some students just do better the second time taking it back to back.

NMSF score on PSAT
1490 SAT in November
1540 SAT in December (770 M and V)
35 ACT in December (only specific prep for the ACT was a book and onetime tests)

DC worked hard studying for the test.

Done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD feels so defeated. After waiting 30 minutes extra to be checked in due to long lines she had a WIFI outtage towards the end of the 2nd harder math section and half way through the wifi never returned and after all that she was told she had no recourse except to have the test cancelled!

There are no September seats left in our region and now she's scrambling to find a seat for October or November.

I am soo frustrated with the College Board[b] and this whole rat race! There is no SAT at her school so we were counting on this.

Ugh!!!! That’s awful!! Keep checking for September seats - kids really do cancel and spots open up.

We’ll get one of the families cancelling for September (I think they give a full refund for cancellations by 9/2?) We only booked September as a backup in case College Board screwed up the August test. (DC has a friend who was “kicked out” of a spring test midway to a glitch. Beyond frustrating.)

Anyway, hugs to your DC and good luck finding a spot for September so they can get this over with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

No. I asked my teen and the only one she was unfamiliar with was foment. And now she knows that one too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, here are some of the vocal words kids on reddit say were super hard: foment, attrition, sporadic, pervade, supersede, pretext, conjecture

We did a ton of vocab, focusing on words that websites said were critical for the SAT. None of those were on it! Hopefully my kid knew them!

Other than foment (maybe) does anyone else think these wards are tough for college-bound teens? (Serious question - not being snarky.)

No.

Only foment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those taking 3 or more times, what is timing you did that was most helpful to try and increase score? Do you sign up for some tests just in case need it or how do you make sure slots are open if need to do again(seeing some say here kids would like to take again but slots full)?

1st time August junior year
2nd time sprint junior year
3rd time August senior
4th time Sept or Oct?

Or Aug, Sept, Oct all senior year?

What is most typical (and most helpful) when know will take multiple times?

Our DC took it twice junior year: August and October. Got the same total score, but the verbal and math scores flipped, so they got a nice bump in the Superscore)

DC planned to take it a third time in March of junior year but didn’t feel they made enough time to study, so we cancelled it early for a refund and DC took it again in August (yesterday) instead. Felt good about it, but we’ll see …

[Anonymous]

My kid took August, October, and December last year. October test was difficult and score went down on both sections, so that was a waste. Math went up in December, which was goal. Took yesterday to see if having another semester of high school under the belt would help. No plans to take again.