<p>I’ve always wanted to go to Caltech, but I took a practice SAT yesterday and got a 1980. Will this ruin my chances?</p>
<p>yes, because admission wants to kno the score of every single practice SAT you’ve taken?? But if you got 1980 on real SAT, i highly doubt you’d get accepted</p>
<p>And there is the problem of admits posting SAT scores since none of them have taken the new SAT.</p>
<p>my first practice test two weeks before my june test was like a 1900…i hadnt taken any sat stuff since the november before…</p>
<p>anyway two weeks and 20+ practice tests later, i got a 2340 on my june sat…so dont worry about it and practice more</p>
<p>How about… Admits, please post your activities, awards, and other non-quantitative qualifications!</p>
<p>hmm 1980?
I assume you excel at mathematics, but not english or the other new one…writing is it?</p>
<p>(I took the SAT in 2003, so it was the old one. I’m unsure what the new SAT is like…)</p>
<p>We’ve switched to a new admissions metric. You have to get a 2500 or better on the new scale to be admitted.</p>
<p>Are you taking about the SAT? The highest score you can get on the new SAT is 2400. </p>
<p>You’d have to be d*m smart to get a 2500! Hehe</p>
<p>Grade inflation.</p>
<p>Zipzoop, yes my math score is much higher than my verbal score.</p>
<p>BTW, what is Caltech’s policy with the TOFEL?</p>
<p>We do not require the Test Of French as an Extra Language.</p>
<p>mathwhiz…your verbal should naturally increase (even without practice) as you continue throughout high school, maybe 80 points or so without any work. As long as you get an 800 in mathematics (which looks really good), I’m sure you will be fine. </p>
<p>As for your writing, well essays are just touch and go really. I don’t think you can really practice writing essays for the SAT. It depends on the topic and your mood.</p>
<p>
Nonsense! It is easy to train yourself to score perfect by writing standard, formulaic essays in the five-paragraph format. The SAT II guides are rather good at explaining this all. Length correlates extraordinarily well with score, too!</p>
<p>As does handwriting. <em>bitter</em></p>
<p>Hmm really? I took writing twice without studying. (This was the old version.) My score went from a 700 to an 800 and I hadn’t practiced at all. I think the way they score writing is just a fluke. </p>
<p>I mean how can it differ by 100 points if I didn’t do anything in between the tests/ before the tests? Honestly, the way they score the SATs is obviously messed up.</p>
<p>Bogus I tell ye, bogus. </p>
<p>And haha…handwriting eh…So you’re saying if you make your handwriting messy, then maybe they can’t read it, and then they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt eh…or they could just fail you.</p>
<p>You guys are being ridiculous. The essay should be your chance to rack up some easy points if you paid attention in history class and prepare a bit (eg. brainstorm around 10 events that would apply to most topics the night before the test, so that you should have at least three events, one per body paragraph, for almost any topic). Just follow the 5-paragraph format and remember that Ben Golub’s recommendation of longer essays is a good one.</p>
<p>hey guys I scored a 2600, on my ACTs what are my chances at MIT???</p>
<p>what about the TOEFL?</p>
<p>You only take the TOEFL if your SAT verbal/writing is pretty abysmal and you learned English late. Much better to just take the SAT and do well on it. </p>
<p>A high TOEFL score is like a high grade in a special education class. </p>
<p>galen</p>
<p>The SAT essay does not measure writing skill at all. It looks at how many complex sentence structures and big words one uses.</p>