<p>Scores from testing in the junior year must be kept in a holding bin, waiting for an application to arrive. Colleges don’t seem to have a problem with this wrinkle in the admissions process.</p>
<p>In my experience, adm. offices have eventually been able to find the different parts of my S’s file that have been submitted separately. But sometimes it takes more than one phone call and looking in several different “places”. I would have thought that computers would have simplified this process.</p>
<p>bethievt-
Eventually?? Sheesh! You’d think the schools had it a bit more together than that! I suppose its a paperwork nightmare, but still…
At my older s’s school we go through the same thing with scholarship info in one office and billing in another. Its like the 2 dont speak to each other sometimes, and they make it my problem when they dont have their stuff organized. And this is a small school, with less than 4000 undergrads. Can you imagine if it was a large statU or something?? :eek:</p>
<p>With each submission, the scores are ALL sent for the SATs both 1 and 2. But there are problems with scores at times. I just found out that my sophomore needs to have 1 out of 6 AP scores resent to his college, as they somehow don’t have record of that one score when I know they were all sent at one time to them, as I got a copy of what was submitted. Doesn’t matter–have to get them resent if he wants the credit. Mistakes do occur, in any area of the admissions process. That is one problems with many applications; that there is more that you have to monitor. Statistically it becomes more probable that there will be problems if you do things more times or apply to many schools, and so it is with SAT submissions. Most of the kids in my son’s highschool, submitted Oct scores for consideration, some after taking a quick peek at them, for Early programs. The counselors said that it has not been a problem and is often less of a problem if you tell the school the scores are on their way–they will wait for them, and you can get them rushed next day. For RD, because of the volume, a lot of schools do not want rushed scores–they simply cannot cope with mail during that time, but the ED volume though increased is not yet at that level. As I said earlier, this situation has lots of personal elements to it that need dto be addressed, and all we are doing is coming up with options.</p>
<p>cpt-
I believe the strategy being suggested is to take the Oct SAT next yr AFTER all scores for this yr and next springs SATIIs are sent. That way, if new scores arent helpful, they dont get sent. We’ve got time to think about that, which is nice.</p>
<p>jym626,
my senior son had almost identical scores to your son’s when he took the SAT in Dec. of his junior year. After taking two SAT II’s in May and two more in June (with three 800’s and one 790 on those), he (and we) decided that he was done with testing. He had missed only one question on his SAT I math, and felt that, though he could certainly get all the questions right on the next go-around, he just as easily could miss one or two again. And, he really felt that his high critical reading score was sort of lucky, as this area is not his strength and he had “guessed right” on several vocabulary questions.</p>
<p>I actually thought, as several posters have suggested, that there would be no harm in his taking the SAT I again in Oct. or Nov. of this year after his scores had all been sent to the colleges to which he is applying. That way, if the scores were not any better, there would be no need to send them anywhere. Were he to score 2400 or close to it, perhaps he would have a better chance at some of the most elite scholarships, I thought. Also, there is the Presidential Scholar nomination, which requires at perfect score on the SAT I, at least in California. However, the bottom line is that my son has not wanted to do a retake. He said to me, “If YOU want me to retake, I will.” He is willing to do it, but not particularly anxious to do it, and he wouldn’t do much prep. Of course, since his initial test in Dec., 2005, he’s completed AP language and almost half of AP lit, so who knows? Maybe the critical reading would go up.</p>
<p>He could still retake in January, but I just can’t bring myself to encourage him to do so.</p>
<p>Filo, I was in the similar situation with my oldest, though his numbers were not as high as yours and Jym’s sons. I did not push it though I felt strongly that a retake would have brought up the numbers. Well, someone else advised it, and he decided to retake in January just from that. And he did go way up, much higher than his first retake. I found out later, that statistically the senior numbers do tend to spike up, something those of you who have merit pokers in the fire might want to mull over. My son first took his in March and then in May and it just was not enough time for much improvement to show, though we did get a tutor to hone in on problem areas. Since he was so done, and so busy the following fall, and HAD to retake the writing SAT2, I just dropped the idea of a retake, and felt that it was a done deal. The increased score did make him eligible for some merit numbers, and cleared the number hurdle for being an athletic recruit. Some schools have specific stats they have for their athletes that they do not advertise as they flux depending on the sport and the desireability of the student. Ours was not a big time sport, and the team tended to have high stats, so for him to get consideration, he needed to up the score ante. Aganin, because he was DONE, he did not prep between June and January, and still got a nice increase. Now, of course, he had more increase to get, whereas with you guys, there is a large luck element involved for an increase when the numbers are already so high.</p>
<p>Re retaking the test doesn’t make sense if you don’t prep… By doing 6 months to a year of schooling he IS preparing for the test; no special, extra sessions are needed to prepare for a retake. Given the increasing level of difficulty of his courses he will be improving his skills, especially since jr/sr courses usually are more focused on college preparation than the fr/so courses that tend to lump all students (non-college bound with college bound) together.</p>
<p>update-
We looked at the breakdown of the subtest scores on the CB website. With this additional info, would you vote to not retake (which is probably our inclination right now, looking at this data):</p>
<p>Cr. Reading : 62 right, 5 wrong , 0 omitted (raw score 61/67)
Math: 53 right , 1 wrong, 0 omitted (raw score 53/54) <<one wrong!!!=“”>>
Writing 47 right, 2 wrong, 0 omitted (raw score 47/49)
Essay 10/12</one></p>
<p>Is it worth the blood, sweat and tears to try to bring up the Cr reading to aim for possible scholarship $$? That is the golden ring…</p>
<p>I just looked at my son’s SAT score report (his one-and-only from December of junior year), and his raw scores were IDENTICAL to your son’s (5/1/2 wrong; 10 essay), though the actual section scores were a little different due to the curve. As a kid with primarily math/science interests, he was thrilled with the CR and W scores.</p>
<p>With 98/99/99 percentiles, I wasn’t going to push for a retake if he didn’t want to (and he didn’t). Furthermore, the report claims that of students with the same score who took it again, only 37% scored higher on CR, 21% on math, and 20% on W. </p>
<p>In my estimation, my kid wasn’t going to land any super-competetive scholarships or have a chance at HYP even if he rolled triple-800’s on a retake. Although he is a fabulous kid (in my opinion) with super courses and great test scores, he has merely <em>good</em> grades and ECs. He is not one of the knock-em-out super-applicants of the college-application universe, and I can live with that. Had his grades and ECs been spectacular instead of “good”, maybe I would have worried more about the last 100 points.</p>
<p>Was it the right decision for my son? I can say YES, even before the acceptances, rejections, and merit awards (or lack thereof) start rolling in. In the year since he took the SAT-I, he has done well on his remaining SAT-IIs and AP tests; has developed a passion for FIRST robotics competitions; had probably the most fun summer of his life; has thrived in his calculus and physics courses; is enjoying his senior year socially; and is ever-so-slowly getting his applications and essays done for a wide range of safety/match/reach schools. Several times, he remarked about how his friends couldn’t do one thing or another because they were studying for the SATs, and how glad he was to have them out of the way.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your son! Enjoy your son this next year–I’m starting to realize that mine will be gone all too soon (sniff).</p>
<p>Jym, it’s a tough decision to make since the outcome has a good deal of chance in it. I did not pay as much attention to SAT scores my last go around with colleges–it was the first one where it became a focus. Back then, most schools and programs just took the highest numbers. I saw my son’s file at one college, and the adcoms do not peruse the actual app but summarized notes which included the top scores for the SAT and no mention of how many times he took them or of any of the scores from other sittings. There are some admissions deans on this board, and you might want to ask them if they look at the numbers of multiple SAT sittings (in your son’s case, it’ll only be 2 sittings) I know that my sons’ good friend really went up in the verbal his second sitting to get a perfect 800 but did not do as well on the math as his first time around, something that really bothered him-the old downward trend you want to avoid. Didn’t hurt him a bit, I would say, as he got into his schools, all selective, and was award a prestigious and rare merit award from NYU. I have heard that there are program and/or schools that average testscores, but have no idea which ones they are. Check and see if any that you are eyeing have that procedure.</p>
<p>Thanks, dado’2 and cpt-
Very helpful. And I agree, dad o’2 – our boys sound like clones! I sent you an email. Mine, too is more of a math/sci guy-- so was quite pleased with the cr. reading and writing scores. I certainly do hope the schools pay a modicum of attention to the writing score…</p>
<p>Right now, with finals looming,rhe lst thing on his mind is the SATs. We are, of course, anxiously awaiting the PSAT scores…</p>