Hello, I’d like some of the wisdom of the group on de-stressing my child regarding SATs. My D is beginning to show signs of stress with 2 weeks of summer left. She has a lot on her plate and the only thing I can think of that she can de-stress about are her upcoming SATs in Oct.
She is rising senior. She just finished her AP summer work (she is taking 5 APs this year). She has just turned her attention to studying for SATs and working on early application essays. Complicating her life at the moment is that she is training for an international athletic competition 3 to 4 hours a day, and will continue to do so until the competition in early November (just when early apps are due). The competition is a world championship event in Spain - so it is a big deal to her.
Her sport (kickboxing) is not a scholarship sport, so there are no colleges beating our door down. So, she has to apply to a bunch of schools like everyone else.
She is in top 10% of her class in a decent public HS. GPA is 4.2 and super-scored SATs are 2030. She has taken them twice without any prep. Interestingly, she took 3 SAT subject tests without preparing and scored 750 - 760 on all of them. She wants to take the SATs again because she has some very high reach schools (Princeton and Brown are her top choices). Her grades and her SAT is low for those schools. Can’t do anything about the GPA, so only thing she can work on is the SAT score.
She is beginning to freak out about what her life will be like in 2 weeks when school starts.
What I have done, and what I would like some opinions on, is tell her to work as hard as she can on SAT prep and the early app essays for the next two weeks. Once school starts, I don’t want her touching an SAT review book, and just minor editing to her essays. All I want her to do once school starts is her homework and train.
Any other tips to help take the stress down a notch or two? The above helped, but I will need more tools over the coming weeks.
Her grades don’t appear low for those schools. The SATs are low. That said, if her SATs were tippy top, it wouldn’t make admission to those schools more than a single digit probability.
Has she taken the ACT? Sometimes students do markedly better on that than the SAT.
The only thing I can recommend is difficult to put into words. De-stress yourself and she might de-stress. Kids pick up on parental stress effectively, even when it’s not in their best interests. She sounds like a wonderful kid, and wherever she winds up, she will thrive and have a gratifying college experience.
One phrase that might help is “You got a good score without preparing at all. It will probably be even better now you’ve studied!” For most of my HS classmates, any score above 2000 was considered uber smart, even though that seems to be the minimum cutoff for a lot of colleges. A 2030 is nothing to sniff at, and a lot of schools, especially state schools, would accept her with that and her stats and activities right off the bat.
Also, it would seem that your D excels in areas other than academics. Make sure she keeps her enthusiasm for those up, as they can provide stress release. Even though kickboxing is hard work and she is probably really anxious about the upcoming competition, the non school activity is good for her (plus, an international competition of any sort looks great on applications).
Your actions so far are very wise. Good luck!
Other than her busy schedule, it seems she is poorly planned for college application. Why would she take SAT twice without any preparation? The stress can be totally avoided. As she is running out of time, just try her best in doing practice tests. Focus more on the match schools rather than the obvious reaches. If she really want to improve her chance for reach schools, improve her scores and grade then apply RD to the reach schools. Many of those reach schools have high rejection rate from EA/ED. It would be much better to wait for RD and submit a much better application than rush in for ED/EA with the current score.
Thanks for the kind words! Billscho, you are correct, the SATs were poorly planned. Her best friend took them fall of last year without studying and got 2300. I believe she thought she could do the same thing.
Honestly with just 2 weeks left she will not be able to cram much new knowledge for SAT. So she should concentrate on test approach / pacing. Maybe a few practice tests. The key thing is to be well rested and relaxed on test day. Parent job - cook a good breakfast (if that’s her kind of thing …or other food / juice /whatever). And Smile.
The tippy top schools are a reach for all, even those with 2400 SAT. So make sure she is preparing a good mix of school, beyond just “lottery” ones.
Take a deep breath. I agree with @colorado_mom. Not much is going to be gained in two weeks time. And for ED applications, generally the October test date is the last testing date.
First of all she has already done well on the SATs. It is important to acknowledge that she has already done well and let her know that that anything else is a plus, but she is already in great shape for a ton of wonderful schools. Perfect SATs do not come close to guaranteeing admission to a super-competitive school – they are crapshoots at best. A school could easily be more intrigued by her kickboxing, an unusual sport, than they will be by higher SATs. I would not have her knocking herself out with SAT prep over the next two weeks. More important to relax a bit.
With my D I went through the names of some schools that were right in her wheelhouse (ex. the type of school she was looking for, her grades made her a good candidate) that were SAT optional. Knowing she would have good choices even if the SATs went badly helped her to keep her nerves in check. http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional/state
I was going to post the fairtest link above, which includes some top schools (though if you need merit aid, scores are sometimes required). The thing is, your daughter’s scores are pretty good anyway, but she can certainly apply to test optional schools without them if she wants.
I second the opinion that the kickboxing, done at that level, will intrigue admissions officers, as will her work ethic and dedication. I think the most helpful thing perhaps is to tell your daughter she is a top candidate with her current scores, given her commitment to kickboxing on an international level. Please read the thread on “ands” in admission
Thank you all for your comments…the consistent message is “Don’t stress about the test. You have good scores already.” Even I can’t mess that up (though with a 17 year old, anything is possible). Best regards!
I don’t know if you will be able to convince her to put down the books completely. My kids did a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons during busy times. Also, make sure her studying is productive. Having someone who can go over missed problems to make sure she is getting it is helpful.
