<p>My current SAT score breaks down to be (as superscored) - R: 800, M: 710, W: 700. I’m applying for some really competitive schools: Wellesley is around a mid-range for me at the moment, but I’m thinking about maybe applying to Brown / Stanford, if I can boost my scores up, and quickly. The problem is, I still need to take a few more SAT II tests and I’m unsure how to prioritize my time!</p>
<p>Also, I’m not quite sure what SAT IIs to take… I took Literature and got a 740, and I’m thinking about taking Maths II, Chinese listening (I’m a native Chinese speaker so it seems pretty easy), maybe something else… The problem is I DON’T test well for maths, except I’m a very humanities student otherwise and humanities subjects don’t test well on the SAT II. What should I do? I’m still fighting for my academics at the moment - I also need to make sure my IB scores improve.</p>
<p>2210 is fine! take the SAT II.
a 740 Lit is great! Take World His/US his if you want.
Math II is easy, buy Barron’s
Also, if you are a native Chinese speaker, taking a Chinese test is absolutely useless, and is a waste of money since adcoms won’t consider it.</p>
<p>I would like to reinforce the above. Do NOT take chinese for an SAT II. Colleges will not consider this as one of your required SAT IIs (if they require any) and will not think highly of a high score on it. You’re better off taking something else.</p>
<p>If you do take the ACT with writing you won’t need to take subject tests for Brown. If you take the ACT you will have to report it to Stanford, even if you bomb it. </p>
<p>Hm. Alright, thanks all! I think I’ll wait to see how my ACT practice test turns out before I make any final decisions. As to SAT II prep - I honestly don’t know what else I can study for. The sciences are very study-intensive (since they don’t correlate with my subject choices) and since I don’t take history, it’ll be quite a lot of work to study for history as well. I’ll have to think about how much time I have before November because honestly, I don’t know how much I can do in that space of time!</p>
<p>Thank you for your insightful comments, though - they’ve been very helpful.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bother… this score puts you in range to get in to any top school. You wont lose out to someone because they scored 40 more points on their SAT at this level.</p>
<p>Focus on your SAT 2, your ECs and other ways to stand out and you should be ok.</p>
<p>First, make sure the schools you are going to apply would do superscore with SAT. If they do, there is little point to take ACT since your current SAT1 superscore is good. You just need to take a couple SAT2 and you have 1 already. A dozen or so schools would require SAT2 even if you submit ACT. So getting another SAT2 score will make you eligible to all schools. Stanford does not require SAT2 but they strongly recommend it particularly for Math2. You probably should focus on it. Second, for a Chinese taking SAT2 Chinese, it may not be counted as the minimal requirement of SAT2. However, it would not do any harm when you have 2 other SAT2 scores. It may waive your foreign language requirement at some schools if you do great in it. In addition, it is more cost effective to take more than 1 SAT2 at a time. So I would not discourage you from taking it at all.</p>
<p>Update: I just got my ACT practice test back, and now I’m unsure what to do… I scored a 32 going in blind, with breakdown as follows:</p>
<p>31 Writing</p>
<p>31 Maths</p>
<p>35 Reading</p>
<p>32 Science</p>
<p>(32 average) I’m not sure what choice to make anymore. If I can boost my scores up to maybe 34 or above, would it justify me taking the test again?</p>