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My daugher is in 10th grade and took 3 SAT IIs in early May. She got her scores on line last night, so I wanted others to know they can take advantage of this feature. (It costs $13 I think.)


Here's my question: has the scale changed tremendously over the last few years? Her scores were 720 Writing; 710 French; and 670 Molecular Biology. In my day, many years ago, those would have been outstanding scores.

Is that still true?

Would you expect them to increase if she retakes them in a year -- i.e. at the end of junior year?

Thanks

By stressedout on Friday, May 17, 2002 - 01:41 pm: Edit

It really depends on what sort of schools she's considering. For most schools in the country, these would be excellent scores. For the very top tier, my guess is that many applicants will have higher scores. I assume she took Bio this year, so unless she's taking another year of Bio, it doesn't seem likely that score would go up. OTOH, both French and Writing should go up with more experience. And things have changed since your day -- my scores on what used to be called the Achievement tests were lower than these, and I got into a extremely selective college.

By jenniferpa on Friday, May 17, 2002 - 02:00 pm: Edit

When you called, you should have been given a pencentile ranking as well as the score. I know that 740 is 90% percentile on the May writing Sat II (because that's what my 10th grader got) but I don't know about the others. I think the percentiles give you a good idea about how outstanding any given score is.

Jennifer

By Rhonda on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 - 10:54 am: Edit

For some context -- I did read on the Princeton Review board that the Penn SAT II average, for admitted students I assume, is 715. So yes, scores have gotten higher -- in my day, these would have been outstanding scores for any college as well. She may see improvement in writing and French if she re-takes next year. For Bio, if she's not taking AP Bio or the equivalent junior year, she may see a decline if she forgets a lot of what she learned by then.

By Jack Campion on Friday, September 27, 2002 - 01:06 pm: Edit

I am a teacher who is very involved with college admissions. Consequently I see many scores of students applying to college. I must say that your daughter's scores are certainly ranked in the upper tier. Foreign Language SAT II tests are somewhat rigorous exams; consequently the scores are somewhat mediocre. This may be because the students in the USA do not necessarily "take foreign language seriously." Her score in French is extraordinary. She should congratulate her teachers for the excellent instruction that she has received. She will probably not study Biology again before she has the opportunity to take the Biology SAT II. Consquently, I would not have her take the test again. I also doubt that her Writing Score will increase. REMEMBER,THE HIGHER THE SCORE THE LESS CHANCE THERE IS TO SURPASS IT. Many of my students who have earned scores similar to these very rarely increased their scores when they sat for the exam again.
The scores that are earned today are the result of RE-CENTERING. Some years ago the ETS said that the score did not accurately reflect the achievement of the student. Consequently it re-centered the scores. That is, the scores were raised. Therefore the scores of yesteryear were significantly lower than the grades of today.
My two daughters earned very similar scores to those of your daughter, and both were admitted to and graduated from a prestigious Ivy League College.
GOOD LUCK!