How did you do on your SATs?

[Kerz]

Hey guys. I know that the average person on TMD is extremely intelligent,  and after polling a bit on IRC, it seems that everyone is either a borderline genius or just a genius. After just taking my SATs today, I want to know, what did you get on yours? I was estimated between 1300 and 1500, and will know my scores in two weeks.

Feel free to comment on your SAT experience(s) also.

Aaron Kerzner

[Saucemaster]

1570.  800 Math, 770 Verbal.  This was in 1995, IIRC.

EDIT: 1995, not 1998.  Obviously, if I took the test now, my Math score would be significantly lower.

[Dr. Sylvan]

My PSAT was a combined 223 (one of the three sections was an 80, I can't remember which though).

6th grade: 560 V, 560 M - 1120
8th grade: 660 V, 640 M - 1300
10th grade*: 750 V, 730 M - 1480

* going by my age

I figure if I had taken it again this year (at the age equivalent of 12th grade), the universe would have cracked in half and I would have gotten a 1660, based on the previous trend.

SAT2 US History: 680
SAT2 Writing: 700
SAT2 Math 2C: 780

This was the exact opposite of the scores I was expecting, but then again virtually all of my US History knowledge is self-taught, and I've been slacking off on learning more since about sixth grade. I was surprised I did that well at the math, though, because at the time I had already been through a semester of calculus and forgotten terrible amounts of precalc, which I did not study up for before the test.

I thought the ACT was a harder test both times I took it, so I'll add those in.

7th grade: Reading Comprehension 30?, English 28?, Math 30?, Science 32 - Composite 30
10th grade*: Reading Comprehension 33?, English 32?, Math 34, Science 26 - Composite 31

* I can't remember whether it was Reading or English that got the 32 on this.

You can see that attending a Math and Science Academy did not reflect extraordinarily well in my ACT scores. I blame Science for being the last section on the test, and my ass for aching at that point in the day. :P

[jpmeyer]

780 math, 720 verbal

[walkingdude]

Math 800
Verbal 800

SAT2 Math 2 800
SAT2 World History 800
SAT2 Writing 720
My handwriting is terrible and I can’t spell so I got clobbered on the essay section for writing. : (  
On the plus side, small circles love me, I really had very little idea of what I was doing on the world history test and attribute that score to luck and an awesome curve. If anyone is looking to generate an easy 800 on an SAT2 I recommend world history because most Americans know close to nothing about it and consequently the curve is very kind.

[Ric_Flair]

I did not take the SATs.  It was some serious mojo getting into college without them.  I had to convince the admissions people.  And they let me in.

[kirdape3]

Again, I'm the dumb one.

1320 - 670 Verbal, 650 Math (which makes utterly no sense since I'm a math-science guy)

That being said, not only did both of the major schools that I applied to (Case Western Reserve University, Colorado School of Mines) accept me, they also delivered a half-tuition scholarship to me (each worth ~12k/year).

[Azhrei]

I don't remember, but I was a National Merit Scholar in Connecticut, where it's pretty hard to make the cut... somewhere in the 1400s I think? My verbal was almost perfect, but my math was in the 600s somewhere (I hadn't had a math class in a year at that time). This was in 1996 or 1997 I think, something like that.

SATs are no real indicator of anything. I know people who got around 1000 the first time they took it, had parents who paid $3000 for a class, and then the next time out they got 1300-1500+. All they count for is scholarship money.

I think my SAT II score in writing was a 740 or 750 or something like that. High enough to net me extra credits at college, which is all that test was any good for either.

[Kerz]

Quote directly from my "Cracking the SAT book":

The SATs are strictly a test on how well you take the SATs.

I belive this to be pretty true for the Verbal section. You can't really fudge math.


I feel so stupid. My goal is a 1350. :<

[walkingdude]

There’s certainly some truth to that. People who do well on standardized tests tend to do well on all standardized tests regardless of weather they know the material or not because a big component is just being able to think like a test writer.

[PucktheCat]

I belive this to be pretty true for the Verbal section. You can't really fudge math.

The math is all 9th and 10th grade subject matter.  Knowledge of subject matter isn't usually the problem.  Like the verbal it usually comes down to reading carefully and performing under pressure.

I teach SAT and LSAT prep for Kaplans as a second job and I can tell you that a huge part of doing well on these tests in comfort level with the test itself.  The tests do measure some real things (doing well on Reading Comp has a high correlation with reading speed, for example) but for the most part it is just another hoop to jump through.

Also, Kerz, you needn't feel too bad about the fact that all these crazy geniuses are posting here.  As I posted in the last thread like this (on the old forums) there is a built in bias based on voluntary self-reporting.  It is the same in the world at large, actually.  I haven't met anyone who told me they scored out of the 90th percentile on the SAT.  I am not saying people lie, just that those who don't do well aren't likely to volunteer information about it.

Leo

[BigChuck]

1310. I believe 700 math, 610 verbal, or somewhere around there.

[Kerz]

Puck: you made a fine point. But still, TMD is really full of genuises. It's madness.

Awesome note: the day of my SAT scores returning, me and my buddies are getting victory cigars (or cigars to stroke our deflated egos, either way). Gonna be sweet.

[kl0wn]

If it makes you feel any better, I got an 1150.

Of course, I didn't attend 9th grade for more than 2 months and had no preparation beyond taking a practice test the night before, but still...how's that for crappy?

[Jacob Orlove]

800 verbal, 750 math. And I missed all of two math questions on the whole test. How's that for a curve?

I don't remember my SAT 2 scores, except for the random 800 on US history. That was SO easy. I was somewhere in the 700s for math and writing (I too got clobbered by the essay portion, iirc).  AP scores are much easier to remember, because I got like a billion 5s.

I tend to be really good at standardized multiple choice tests. I also usually finish really, really early.

[jpmeyer]

800 verbal, 750 math. And I missed all of two math questions on the whole test. How's that for a curve?

I don't remember my SAT 2 scores, except for the random 800 on US history. That was SO easy. I was somewhere in the 700s for math and writing (I too got clobbered by the essay portion, iirc).  AP scores are much easier to remember, because I got like a billion 5s.

I tend to be really good at standardized multiple choice tests. I also usually finish really, really early.

I read that quickly and thought for a second that you said that you got clobbered by the dreaded MATH ESSAY SECTION.

[Klep]

I walked in with no preparation and got a 1430 (in 1999).  I decided it wasn't worth trying to do better.

[Jacob Orlove]

800 verbal, 750 math. And I missed all of two math questions on the whole test. How's that for a curve?

I don't remember my SAT 2 scores, except for the random 800 on US history. That was SO easy. I was somewhere in the 700s for math and writing (I too got clobbered by the essay portion, iirc).  AP scores are much easier to remember, because I got like a billion 5s.

I tend to be really good at standardized multiple choice tests. I also usually finish really, really early.

I read that quickly and thought for a second that you said that you got clobbered by the dreaded MATH ESSAY SECTION.

H8 @ proofs.

[Dr. Sylvan]

I walked in with no preparation and got a 1430 (in 1999).  I decided it wasn't worth trying to do better.

Test prep is only acceptable for rich kids whose parents will disown them for going to a non-Ivy school, and Asian kids who really need the test scores to go to MIT, which I respect more than probably any other educational institution in the world.

*dismissive hand wave @ sleeping before tests*

[PucktheCat]

Not test prepping is just dumb if your score matters to you.  Even if you just prepare on your own (without a class) the time is well spent.  I, like Kelp, did well enough on the SAT without prep that I didn't take it again.  I got into a college and that was what I wanted.  When I took the LSAT I wanted a scholarship, so I prepped.  I am sure I could have gotten into law school without prep, but with prep I earned $60k in scholarships.  Best 25-30 hours studying I ever did.

Leo

[Dozer]

WTF is SAT? I feel this is an opportunity to learn something about the US educational system, so please enlighten me - if all of you are such geniuses.

Dozer

[PucktheCat]

SAT = Scholastic Aptitude Test (is that right?)

It is basically supposed to test general ability with fairly little reference to specific subject matter.  A whole bunch of what I am about to say will be changing soon, but since everyone in this thread is talking about the SAT as they took it you don't really need to know about that.  The SAT is broken down into two sections:

Verbal - This section tests vocabulary and language-reasoning (through analogies and antonymns) as well as reading comprehension (really a test of reading speed as much an anything, since the test is timed)

Math - This section tests 9th-10th grade math.  Since the test is taken by 12th graders the idea is that the subject matter won't be challenging but the reasoning might be.

The whole test is multiple choice except for a few math questions where you bubble in the number.  It used to have a penelty for wrong answers to balance guessing, but it doesn't anymore.

The scoring for each section goes to 800 so a perfect SAT is a 1600.  The scoring also translates into a percentile of those who take the test.  A 700 on a section is around the 95th percentile.  800 is obviously the 99th.  Just about everyone who posted their scores in this thread would be well inside the top 10% of American college-bound students according to this test.

These tests are weighed fairly heavily by American colleges and universities for admission (less than grades, but more than anything else) and have a substantial impact on scholarships.  The school I went to offered a decent scholarship to everyone who got within a certain percentile on this test (actually, the PSAT, a very similar test administered a year earlier as preparation for the actual SAT).

These tests have their advantages because they can pick out bright kids with mediocre grades (those who spent too much time playing Magic, for example) but they are also pretty biased against people with less typically American backgrounds.  I just finished tutoring a Saudi Arabian student for the GRE (another similar test used for graduate school admissions) and he had real trouble with things like the analogy "Tennis is to Racket as Baseball is to Bat."  Since he knew almost nothing about baseball, that was a tough question to answer.

Leo

Edit: One more thing, the SAT II that some people mentioned earlier ARE subject matter tests.  They are supposed to provide an objective standard for measuring knowledge in one discipline between two people from different schools.  Not everyone takes these.

[Dante]

I did well on the SATs and ACT (1400 and 31), but what I found really gave me extra freedom during college were my 9 AP classes that I scored a 4 or 5 on.  My college (and most liberal arts colleges) gave me pretty much straight up credit.  We were on tri-mesters, and my last two full years, I only had to take 2 classes a term instead of 3, which meant I could focus extra hard and still have plenty of time left over for other things.  So if your high school offers AP classes, I would try and get into them if at all possible.

For the non-american students AP (Advanced Placement classes) are classes you take in high school that have the curriculum of a first or second year college course.  At the end of the class you take a test (with multiple sections, they all include essays with topic choices, etc) and receive a grade of 1-5.  A 4 or 5 is usually enough to get some sort of college credit, allowing you to skip intro level and distribution type required courses, which allows you to take fewer classes in college or to be able to focus on the subject areas you actually care about.

[Dr. Sylvan]

In a lot of cases, a 3 is enough. At UIUC, a 2 on the BC Calculus AP gets you five hours of math credit. Standards vary widely, of course.

My high school didn't emphasize APs and I wasn't into science much, so I only took the calculus one. I really, really wish I had taken the opportunity to grab a few more of those, because I'm sure I could have gotten free credit hours all over the board.

[jpmeyer]

Wow, a lot of the places that I looked at only accepted 5's, and that included uber-hard ones like the foreign language exams.

[kirdape3]

Case took 4s - a 4 is above average on those, and getting a 5 on like most of the exams is FUCKING HARD.

[Jacob Orlove]

Case took 4s - a 4 is above average on those, and getting a 5 on like most of the exams is FUCKING HARD.

It's not that difficult. You just have to really know the material. Or maybe I'm just good at standardized tests.

Except for the foreign language ones. You pretty much need full language immersion for a summer at minimum to get a 5 on those.

Brandeis accepts 4s for limited credit on some of the exams (but not many). Fortunately, I got a bunch of 5s.

[jpmeyer]

Case took 4s - a 4 is above average on those, and getting a 5 on like most of the exams is FUCKING HARD.

It's not that difficult. You just have to really know the material. Or maybe I'm just good at standardized tests.

Except for the foreign language ones. You pretty much need full language immersion for a summer at minimum to get a 5 on those.

Brandeis accepts 4s for limited credit on some of the exams (but not many). Fortunately, I got a bunch of 5s.

I got a 3 on AP German.  I had taken 6 years of German at that point and studied there for a summer session.  A friend of mine who is a native speaker only got a 4.  My 3 wasn't good enough to earn me credit at Case, but for a comparison it showed that I knew enough German to place directly into German Lit 2 when I got there.

Most of the other tests aren't really that hard.  I know for Math AB everyone in my class wanted to get a 100% rather than a 5.  I think the only ones I didn't get 5's on were Physics, German, and one of the English ones (Lit I think.)

[theorigamist]

1480 on SATs.

I think a lot of schools will only give credit for 4 or 5 on most AP tests, but they'll give placement for a 3.  None of the schools I looked at gave anything for 1 or 2 (as far as I remember).  I'm not quite sure what the University of Chicago feels about APs, but I guess I should find out soon.

I took Bio and Calc AB last year and got 5s on both.  I'm waiting until July to find out about Calc BC, Physics C, Statistics, Chemistry, English Language, English Literature, and Spanish Language.

JP, did you take both English tests?  If you just took the one, it was probably literature (the way to tell is the third question on the literature test will be something about a theme, and you can choose a book to write about from a list of books).

[jpmeyer]

Yeah, I took both, which is why I'm having trouble remembering which I got the 5 on and which I got the 4 on.