niightingale

My standards of good have always been a 770+ for biology, chemistry, pretty much everything except MathII. I've been told that unless you score a 790+, you shouldn't send in the score since MathII is fairly straightforward and a lot easier than the SAT math.

Anyways, what do you guys think?
I just don't understand why people who score below a 750 would even consider sending in their scores since SATIIs are supposed to showcase their specialization/comprehension of a certain subject. Anything below that has a fairly low percentile, and not exactly flattering for top notch colleges.

advantagious

I think you have overly exacting standards. By a lot. I'm not sure which math you are talking about--Math Level II really isn't that straightforward and absolutely is not easier than the SAT Math. Although many people do very well on Math II due to the self-selecting nature of the test-taking pool, my score of 770 was in the 87th percentile--hardly anything to be ashamed of, even if it weren't such a skewed group of test-takers. If you are talking about Math Level I, I agree that it is not an especially rigorous test, but I certainly don't think anyone should be ashamed to turn in a less than perfect score. I hail from the time of no score choice, and so my Math Level 1 score of 730 showed up as my fourth SAT II score (so they saw it, but it wasn't counted) and I sincerely doubt anyone was like "Oh my god! We can't accept this girl now!" Furthermore, I can't currently check my percentile and I don't remember it off the top of my head, but I know that it wasn't anything awful.

Overall, as with the regular SAT, in my opinion any score over 700 is a great score and should absolutely be reported. As I alluded to earlier, fewer and more qualified people take the SAT II's, and so a lower percentile is not worrisome. Wellesley gives language requirement credit for 690s and above on the language SAT II, so that alone tells you that 750+ is not required. Undoubtedly, the higher your score, the more impressive. But I think you've been spending too much time on CC is you really think that scoring less than 750 is anything to hide.

Edit: So my SAT II scores were 780 US History, 770 Literature, 770 Math Level 2, and 730 Math Level 1 (there is more leeway in terms of grading on Math Level 2 than Level 1, and Math Level 1 covered material that I hadn't seen in a long time, versus material that was far more fresh for Level 2). I realize that my scores validate the over 750 rule, but I stick by my conviction that scoring a mere 50 or 80 points lower than this would not be anything to be ashamed of.

welles10

700+ is nothing to be ashamed of, and is generally used as a good marker. 750+ will definitely put you in a more selective pool for the top schools. It's all about where you want to go.

On the MathII topic, I will agree that you should do well on the test, but that also depends on your skill set and what schools you're looking at. For schools like Caltech and MIT, anything less than an 800 won't make you competitive compared to the rest of the applicant pool. (....for disclosure's sake, I got a 790. and yes, I'm still sort of ticked about not getting an 800.....)