Skewed scores; Retake?

shadowyams
Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:05 +0000

Here’s the dilemma:

I’ve taken the SAT twice: first time (December) was a 2210, second (January) was a 2250. Superscore sits at 2270 right now: 800 CR, 770 M, 700 W.

I’m perfectly happy with my CR (duh) and M scores, but my W has me a bit worried. It’s not terrible, but it is fairly low for what I’m aiming for (Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Williams etc.). I write well, just not in 25 minutes. I’ve also had a personal goal of 2300+, but I’m not hugely obsessive about that.

Everyone I’ve talked to seems to think that these scores are perfectly adequate for these schools, and that a relatively low writing score will likely be overlooked considering my perfect reading score, IB English Lit. score, and application essays.

However, I’m also pretty confident that I could boost my writing score by at least 30-50 points if I cut down on the number of mistakes I make in the grammar sections (and keep my essay at 8+).

Opinions?

Oh, and I’m Chinese-American, but living in China now (convoluted life story for the win).