<p>I realize that I screwed up big time on spanish, I got some pretty bad advice when I was a sophomore. If it makes any difference, I only reported the first 3 scores on the common app, even though i realize they will see spanish if they look at the official CB report. I am a big math/science person, and want to major in some sort of biology. I took 5 years of spanish throughout middle/high school, and dropped it after 10th grade because it was so horrible at my school. Anyways, my question is will they just look at my top 2 (or 3), or will they look at all of them and take my spanish score into account?</p>
<p>Thanks, Ailey. Thats what I was hoping to hear. Does anyone disagree? Also, does anyone know how the adcom reading my app sees the scores? Does a computer program sort out the highest 2 scores and only show those, or does the adcom look at the complete report and look at the highest 2 scores. Becasue even if they are not technically looking at anything below the first 2, they will still see the 560 and it might detract from my application, even if it is not officially counted in the decision.</p>
<p>Oh, and another thing. Does Stanford (and any other top colleges for that matter) take into account the curve/distribution of the test? Like for Math2 I am only in the 90th %ile, but for BioE, which has the second hardest distribution after MathI, I am at the 99th %ile. So would they think that my BioE 800 was better than someone else’s 800 in another subject? Because if they don’t that seems unfair. I mean, an 800 in Chinese is 57th %ile for crying out loud.</p>
<p>jackberm, I am sure they do know the curves to some degree, but I don’t think it follows that it’s more meaningful if the percentile is higher, because some tests are pretty self-selecting. Only strong Math students take the Math IIC, so the curve is tougher and more concentrated at the top, and also falls off very rapidly, while a LOT of students take US history, so there is a more ‘normal’ distribution. But I am quite sure they understand these nuances, because it is intrinsic to highly selective admissions.</p>
<p>And yes, I always have a little laugh over the chinese curve - it is quite staggering!</p>
<p>they will see all your SAT IIs, in general, but I really don’t think you need to worry about the 560, because it’s in such a different subject area from your focus area.</p>