A Full IB Senior~ Weak Leadership Positions

woogzmama
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 13:17:14 +0000

nuimancel (re:#4) - The College Board has a vested interest in encouraging students to take the SAT repeatedly, and their own figures reveal that it is statistically very rare for students to achieve that sort of increase in a single seating. Of course it happens, but this is a senior who needs to be finalizing college applications now. The OP should concentrate on colleges where he or she can get in with existing stats. According to the College Board, the majority of students (55%) will increase their scores on a second try. Approximately 35% will see a decline, and 10% will remain the same. The majority of score increases are less than 50 points across three sections. That means that roughly one quarter of repeat testers will increase their 3-test scores by more than 50 points. The odds of any greater increase decline steadily. It is likelier, therefore, that the OP’s scores will decrease than that they will improve by more than 50 points. No student ever re-takes a test because it’s a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, and there’s no better way to spend the money than on a registration fee. Every student who sits for a second testing does so hoping for a significant improvement.

The students who will get into Stanford are not dedicating all their time in the fall of senior year to prepping for tests. They already have competitive scores. They are fine-tuning their essays, participating in extracurricular activities at a very high level, doing rigorous course-work (which the OP is, as an IB diplomate), etc.

If the OP’s scores increase by 250+ points, then he or she has the same chance as most other applicants to Stanford: about 5%. As of now, I’d place the OP’s chances below that.