<p>Currently I have a 790 in Lit, 800 in Math IIc, and a 2240 in SAT I. I’m of Chinese ethnicity. Which would help me more for colleges, taking the Mandarin subject test and hopefully scoring 750-800 or retaking the SAT I and hopefully scoring 2300+? </p>
<p>I’m not applying to any schools that require more than 2 subject tests, but I heard that even those schools would still take in extra subject tests into consideration?</p>
<p>You would be better off retaking the SAT Reasoning Test. Many schools that require two Subject Tests won’t even consider the additional tests; they’ll just look at your highest two scores. Moreover, the Mandarin Subject Test won’t be very impressive if the admissions officer is aware of your ethnicity. After all, they don’t offer any Subject Tests designed to test the native language of English speakers.</p>
<p>"Subject Tests designed to test the native language of English speakers. "</p>
<p>True, but one would think that native speakers would have a bit of an advantage on the CR and the Writing section, not to mention the Literature subject test.</p>
<p>^Retake the SATI, it’ll help you more. The Chinese SAT Subject Test is kind of pointless because about half of the test takers get 800.</p>
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<p>You’re right, but that’s irrelevant to my point: the fact that there is no English Subject Test indicates that the language Subject Tests are most likely geared toward testing the knowledge of foreign languages; for many people who are ethnically Chinese, Mandarin is not a foreign language.</p>
<p>I can confirm that, at least from what I’ve heard, it’s pointless for native speakers of a language to take the subject test.</p>
<p>but how do they know he/she is a native Chinese speaker? he scored high in english lit. and SAT CR. Also, would it help if he takes french or spanish, or sth. like that? I have a friend in that situation. she is from a chinese family. her english is better than her chinese but i suppose she could take sat II chinese and get a very good score. Her Spanish is good - at least I think so.</p>
<p>this is very simple. Retake the SAT I if you think you can get 2300+. If you are fluent in Mandarin, write than on your application, in the additional comments section explain that rather than taking the SAT II Mandarin, which most institutions would give little weight to since it is a native language, you decided to demonstrate that you wanted to work hard to show your dedication to getting into college by scoring better on the SAT I, which has more weight to begin with.</p>
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<p>If she doesn’t indicate it, they won’t know for sure; but they may assume that it is likely based on the ethnicity.</p>