I took the December 2017 SAT and got a 1340. My parents said it was a good score, but it isn’t.
My college research has taught me that you can start applying for the really good schools once your score passes that 1400 mark. Schools like Stanford, the Ivies, etc had the lowest 25% of their incoming freshman apply with scores around 1380 - 1450. Even if you’re not applying to an elite school, a score that passes 1400 distinguishes you from 95% of students who never make it pass that mark, making you more far more likely to be highlighted on an applications algorithm for larger schools.
These facts make me very restless. I did the math, and (according to the QAS I purchased with the Dec SAT) my score was 12 numbers away from a score of 1400.
I plan to take the SAT for the second time in just a few days from now, May 2018. The thing is, I’ve been practicing tirelessly but my score isn’t passing 1340. I can’t tell you the worlds of stress I’m going through, but I did do some research the other day on the type of practice tests I was taking - Barron’s.
Quora and College Confidential told me that Barron’s tests were much harder than the actual SATs, reason being so that students could find the real SAT a breeze when they sat down to it on test day. (Brief rant the tests were annoyingly inaccurate sometimes an answer is listed as like C, but when you read the explanation it’s A there were typos, inconsistencies, and I can list one circumstance in test 4 when the underlining in writing and language didn’t cover what it was supposed to, technically invalidating all the answers I get turned off by sub par work that I have to pay for study guides aren’t all that cheap)
I want it to encourage me, but it’s not and I’m still afraid of receiving a score that’s lower than my first. That’s a kiss of death for a lot of good applications. Also, I already used up the 8 official practice tests, so if you have recommendations I’d appreciate it.
If I finish the test with a sick feeling like I just messed up (y’all know the feeling) I shall promptly cancel my scores with the proctor.
But what if I didn’t? What if I kept them and (let’s assume) weeks later they came back as a 1320. Then, in October 2018, I take it again and get a a score higher than my first, preferably 1380 or more.
What would a college think? My application to Stanford rests heavily on my SAT score, because I’m well off in most other departments and have a couple good hooks given my background, academic rigor, etc. Those are things I can’t change, but I can change my SAT.
I know my description was a little long. I was slightly venting. But I really just want to know: is a positive follow up to a negative score worse than a positive follow up to a positive score?
I’d really appreciate all advice, even your personal opinion on what I should do, so long as you give reasoning for it.