My son got 700 on the sat math, with a little self-study. Math is easy for him, so he’s hoping to pull that up. Are there tricks to it?
I don’t know if he should take the ACT.
@mom2cats , my kid performed WAY better on the ACT than SAT. Some kids are the opposite. It can only help to try both, even if just a practice test.
I wonder about the ACT Math, too. D18 took the ACT in Feb this year and again in Oct. Her English and Science went way up (from 30 to 34) while her Math only went from 27 to 29. I know for a fact that she’s far better at math now than in Feb, in both her ability and confidence, so we expected a much better score. There was no specific area in the Math Details section where she did poorly … about 75% correct in each one.
It will be really interesting to compare her Oct ACT to the upcoming Nov SAT and PSAT scores.
Oops!
Do you think schools prefer one over the other? New SAT scores seem pretty high (or at least here on cc).
@mom2cats – Every school website I’ve read says they have no preference … but I have to wonder about the big change in the SAT vs. the consistent ACT. Schools will have one full year of data on the new SAT by the time our kids are applying so I don’t think it’ll be as bad as the guesswork for this year’s SAT-only applicants. For example, a given new SAT score translates to a lower ACT than the old SAT according to the current tables, which means that X17 kids need a higher SAT score for merit, etc. Maybe they’ll find that those tables penalized the new SAT too much and change them for our X18 kids.
What’s high enough SAT to not need the ACT? I need a crystal ball! There’s just so much testing this year for s18.
^^I am hoping that is the case for our kids, @droppedit, because I think the concordance is off.
My D took the October SAT and missed the most math questions on algebra - something she hasn’t seen in awhile. (She took pre-AP Calc last year.) She didn’t miss any on the questions requiring more advanced math, so yes, if your kiddo is accelerated in math, make sure they revisit algebra.
Our S16 had no problem on the math portion of the SAT even though he took Algebra/Geometry/Algebra 2 in middle school and was taking AP Calc BC when he took the SAT and PSAT his junior year. S18 is on a conventional track (Precalc this year), so he hasn’t had as much time to forget things. Hopefully math won’t drag down his score.
The vast majority of colleges do not have a preference between the SAT and the ACT. Have your child take a practice for each one to see which suits him or her better. It can take a lot of time to practice the test, so I would say pick one or the other.
Also, if your DD or DS is in advanced math, schedule in the time to do some review of Algebra and Geometry.
Thanks all. He’s planning to review the math this month. It’s been a while since he’s had geometry, so maybe that’s tripping him up. There are all sorts of things you can memorize to make it go faster. If he can pull it up 50 points he’d be satisfied and probably say he’s done.
I’m worried that the Kaplan prep course was crap. Won’t know of course until the score comes in from the Dec 3 SAT
@JerseyParents wishing you the best on the score results but if they aren’t want you hoped, there’s still time to re-test.
I’m counting the days until the PSAT scores are released (21 more days) I hate waiting for scores from the CB!
My D has only taken the ACT. She probably won’t take the SAT at all. One advantage that I’ve noticed for the ACT is that some schools will accept the ACT in lieu of SAT subject tests.
Hey Parents on class of 18 How many of your kids were inducted into national honor society this fall?
Congrats to your child if they were. My question how many juniors were inducted and how many are in the junior class this year.
At my sons school they took about 22% of the junior class That seemed very high to me and I was curious if that is a normal percentage Thanks
Our school does NHS induction in the spring so the vast majority of the inductees were sophomores with a few juniors and fewer seniors.
Our school inducts juniors in the spring, but we have been notified that DD qualifies. I don’t know how many they take, but it seemed like a large number when DS did it. There are 500+ per class.
@JerseyParents My junior is getting inducted in two weeks, and there was a GPA cutoff to even be considered. I don’t know how many got in, nor how many applied, but there were definitely some surprises there IMO. In retrospect I feel like she sweated it for nothing, but I don’t think there were any sure bets since they did require a certain number of hours of volunteering, three leadership positions, an essay, etc.
In looking at past induction pictures in the yearbook, I’d say there were about 60-65 inductions of juniors and seniors each year, but no way to know how many didn’t even bother to apply. The junior and senior classes at our high school hover around 750 combined (my daughter’s class is about 325 kids), but there’s no way the acceptance rate was that low.
I don’t think NHS means what it used to, since every high school has different criteria. At least one county school does it strictly by GPA without supporting documentation. If nothing else, our NHS application was a good way to gather a lot of information for college applications lol.
Registered for the February ACT with writing yesterday. Gettin’ real over here …
Our school doesn’t even have NHS. I never really thought about it - I wonder how common that is?