Hi, I’m a junior who attends a rigorous college prep high school, and I have a weighted 4.37 GPA and an unweighted 4.15 GPA. I have done well on the PSAT (226) and I have done well on the ACT (35), but my SAT score just wasn’t that good (2070). My individual scores were 660 in CR, 740 in M and 670 in W. I was just shocked by these scores, considering I did fine on the PSAT and that I felt confident when I left the test center. Additionally, I have SAT 2 scores of 800 in Math 2, 770 in Literature, and 790 in World History. What gives for the low SAT score? I didn’t take any prep class or practice tests for the SAT, if that’s relevant information. Would taking a practice test or prep class improve my score to at least 2250? Thanks!
Also, is it common to do significantly better on one standardized test than on another? What do top universities think of students with inconsistent scores? Any relevant experiences?
You are done with that ACT score. Yeah, it’s common some people perform better on the ACT and others on the SAT. If you are looking for National Merit Scholarship, then you will need to take the SAT. There are some schools that ask to send all your tests score(ACT and SAT).
I think the ACT score is high enough to apply to any school in the country. I know that Yale and Stanford want to see ALL scores, including BOTH SAT and ACT but I don’t know of other schools who have the same policy. http://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/testing.html http://admissions.yale.edu/standardized-testing I don’t know of other schools, top or otherwise, with that policy so you might be fine. However, given your performance on PSAT and ACT, I think you could get to 2250 by October with some practice. Buy the big blue SAT book with official practice tests and take them preferably under timed, test like conditions. For CR, get one of the vocabulary books like Direct Hits (both volumes) and learn some words.