<p>My son, who is very bright but very dyslexic, did pretty well on his first test attempt (800 M, 760 CR; 760 Writing). He will be taking the ACTs next week. He felt when practicing that if could keep up his energy, he could get an 800 on each section. Thus, on another test day, he could get a 2400, but this is by no means guaranteed as all the reading/writing tends to fatigue him.</p>
<p>Is there any practical difference even at the top schools between a 2320 and a 2400 in terms of its impact upon admissions? Do some schools really like kids with three 800’s?</p>
<p>I’m inclined to have him skip retaking the SATs, but I’d love to get a better understanding of whether an additional 40 to 80 points would help his prospects of admission. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>760 on both Writing and Reading but with severe dyslexia? I’d be impressed, and I hope the adcoms would be also. Is this without the SAT extended time?</p>
<p>In the end, a 2320 is a dream score for a lot of people - I suggest he use his limited time and energy for something else, as there is no guarantee for a 2400. The reason why is because there might be a question that he cannot answer, or the curve is unusual, conditions are off, etc etc. Please be glad for what you have.</p>
<p>Serafina, these scores result from extended time. He would do a lot worse without extended time. </p>
<p>He learned to read in middle school and reads very slowly but his reading comprehension is superb for about 20 minutes and then he becomes tired. He’s working with someone on reading fluency to see if he can change the way he reads so that it will be less tiring. He seems to do it all in one hemisphere of the brain – he can simultaneously read one book and listen to another at the same time with no interference – but automaticity appears to come from processing in the other hemisphere. </p>
<p>He’s worked incredibly hard on writing in high school. His basic writing skills in 8th grade including things like sentence structure were pretty weak. At the end of HS, he took the Harvard Summer School’s version of the expository writing class Harvard requires of its freshman and did extremely well.</p>
<p>His scores on the ERBs (independent middle school standardized tests) were in the 45 to 50th percentiles. So, this is a phenomenal improvement. He has a tremendous desire to succeed and force of will. He has correctly predicted his scores: he knew he’d get an 800 on the Math section and also on the Math Level II and Chemistry Subject tests and said he’d gotten between a 700 and an 800 on the reading and writing sections. He says if he takes the test two more times, he thinks he would get three 800’s. But, as you said, some scores could go down. Unless it makes a clear and compelling differences to some of his colleges, he could live a long and happy life without taking another SAT Critical Reasoning test.</p>
<p>additional 40-80 points will not make a significance difference in the admissions process. the sat scores your son has is very good for top tier schools and he should start focusing on the essays (that’s where he can distinguish himself from other applicants with similar scores). perhaps, writing about his condition highlighting the hardships he went through and how he overcame it would be a nice topic for his essay. i don’t think it’s worth it to aim for 2400 since even perfect score applicants get rejected from top tier schools.</p>
<p>Take a look at the specs of the schools on your wish list. Your son’s scores certainly qualify him for any Ivy – raising the score further would unlikely add value. He has a great story of overcoming adversity – spend the rest of your time on ec’s and class work.</p>
<p>That’s an amazing score already. No need to retake; at that level, luck is such a huge factor that it would be more time efficient to focus on extracurricular, essays, etc. Even a prodigy might accidentally do a calculation wrong, or misread a word, or whatever. </p>
<p>Now I may be wrong, but that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying Shawbridge - I just wanted to know for my own sake. Still very impressive, I’m proud of him and I don’t even know him beyond this thread haha.</p>
<p>healthy or not, I would consider anything above 2200 gives the applicant a good chance at the Ivys and other top tier schools. Like I said before, it is more important to sell yourself to the colleges through ecs and essays (if you have good SATs and good GPA). So I would advice you not to retake it (it’s sort of waste of time and money as well) and focus on other areas of the application.</p>
<p>june and 2100, thanks. We got the school GC to plug his scores into Naviance and we looked at them scattergrams and he is in the upper right quadrant for kids from his HS who get admitted to the schools he’s applying to. </p>
<p>june, he’s been knocking off things one step at a time. Grades are superb, SAT Subject tests perfect. Now SATs. His ECs are off the beaten track because he has followed his own passion. We don’t know how schools will feel about them, but they are what they are. I think they are pretty sound and interesting. And, his program of partial home-schooling is going to take a little effort to digest, but shows a kid who tried to take his education into his own hands. </p>
<p>All that is left is the application. That is in progress, but thanks to the advice we’ve been getting, he’s got more time for it.</p>