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College counseling at Punahou School (3)
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Let’s talk about SAT.
Many years ago, I reconnected with a grade school classmate. She told me that her only son got 2400 on SAT. Hearing silence over the phone line, she asked me if I knew about SAT. I said I only knew SAT is a test used for college admission but had no idea about the score itself. Well, 800 is the perfect score for each component of the test, and SAT (reasoning) test has three parts: reading, math, and writing. So, her son had a perfect SAT test score!
I hear more about SAT scores since then. My son also took PSAT, twice, as required and paid for by his school, and finally his first SAT last December on his 17th birthday.
What I learned from Mr. Obenchain is how college admission offices view SAT vs. GPA. He added two more numbers to the Bell Curve he draw for the GPA: 500 and 600s. These are the “corresponding cutoffs” for each SAT component, say math. These two numbers are “matched” with the two GPAs, 3.0 and 3.6 (see Part 2 of my Blog), namely 500 and 3.0 are for “below average.”
Mr. Obenchain pointed out that my son’s SAT scores are closer to the high cutoff than his GPA. What does this mean? Since SAT measures one’s (reasoning) ability and GPA reflects one’s efforts, higher SAT than GPA suggests “laziness.” Well, I knew my son was not doing his best, and now Mr. O sees that, too. The college admission office will see it as well!
Unlike the Gao Kao in China, SAT can be taken many times. However, statistics show that scores don’t change much for the same student when he takes SAT many times, at least for U.S. students. My son was encouraged to take it one more time, since his writing score was much lower than expected (based on his PSAT, which is not part of the application package). Then, Mr. O said writing is all about grammars. Since teachers in the U.S. don’t teach grammars any more, you can imagine how good the students do in SAT. (On the other hand, SAT Prep classes can really boost writing score. Punahou offers SAT Prep, for about $600. I definitely would recommend it to other parents.)
At that point, Mr. O asked my son to sign on to his SAT account, and helped him to input some important data. This will ensure that when I register him for the 2nd SAT, all his scores will be collected in the same place for college admission offices to view.
What if my son gets a better writing score next time, but slips on his reading? “Don’t worry,” Mr. O said. The admission picks the higher score for each component.
There are SAT subject tests, too. I guess only those very motivated students will go for it.
There is also ACT (American College Test). Some students do better at ACT since it does not panelize for wrong answers. Mr. O does not recommend my son to take ACT since his SAT scores are “strong” already.
So, I will sign him up for the June SAT, and use October as the “safety net” in case the June test date does not work out for some reason.
(To be continued.)
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-306792-308491.html
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