Improved Scores on SAT/ACT

srobin
Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:09:32 +0000

My DS has taken the SAT twice.

The first time he scored 1210 using the CR and Math only sections.

The second time he scored a 680 CR and 620 in Math for a total of 1300.
He was quite disappointed with his SAT math score. He has always made A’s in math and is very bored with his math class Alg 2 with Trig. He thinks he probably made careless mistakes or was in too big of a hurry.

He has taken the ACT three times. The first time was in his sophomore year and his composite score was 24. The second time was in the fall of his junior year and the composite score increased to 28. The scores from the January ACT are back and his composite score increased to a 32. We were pretty excited over this because we thought it would only increase a point or two.

He wants to apply at Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, Tulane, UAB (for safety school) and is still trying to come up with a few more choices.

In previous posts some have said that most of these schools would be a
reach. Will these new higher scores realistically improve his chances at
Rice, Vanderbilt and Duke? He understands that Harvard and Stanford are very long shots and that most people are denied. He has a few EC’s but not alot and he is vice president of the chess club.

We would appreciate any advice or suggestions.