Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

I got 800 on math but 540 on Verbal, wat are my chances in the top 20 schools?????

By 1212 (1212) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 08:42 pm: Edit

um it matters mucho, unless you are a non-english speaking foreigner w/ a math major with other exceptional background, or are blind or paraplegic, it could very well hurt some chances.

however, i have seen ppl make it, so good luck (maybe retake) im sure u can raise it if u want, i know that i was in the same situation and i have raised by verbal 200 pts to a 750 (how? u ask, well read some archived posts or somesht)

i suggest u do not pick english as ur major

By Sqingx (Sqingx) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 09:57 pm: Edit

no i ain't

By Desperate_Girl (Desperate_Girl) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:40 am: Edit

I got 540 i math and 390 in english and i really dont know wut to do, I am so desperate, especially when i am not an english speaker
so can i raise my scores?
I just wanna get 1000 or 1000+, i will be so happy when i reach the thousand.

By Journkid (Journkid) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:48 pm: Edit

If you're a native English speaker, a 540 verbal is a killer. You HAVE to get it up. I think it's to the point that anything below like 600 (being generous) can hurt your chances, especially when you're competing with kids of your status with scores 700 or higher in both math and verbal. Unless you have some extremely unusual circumstance, a 540 verbal will not do you any favors when applying to top 20 schools, let alone anything Ivy-caliber.

However, verbal scores can take some slack if you're a non-native speaker. However, most people I've seen with this issue have had a 750+ math score, so who knows.

By Dreaming2005 (Dreaming2005) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 10:12 pm: Edit

i came america 4 years ago, and i am planning on taking TOEFL,
i took sat yesterday, and i was raped -_-, and estimating verbal score around 540-560(or perhaps .. less.. T_T)
does SAT1 verbal score much matter for top engineering schools such as MIT, JHU??

do they weigh TOEFL more than SAT1 verbal and SAT2 writing?? .. if so, anyone knows what kinda TOEFL(CBT) score is 'safe' ???

please leave any advices or comments !!

By Journkid (Journkid) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 10:18 pm: Edit

I don't know that much about TOEFL, but I'd assume that a solid score on that would kind of make up for poor verbal scores. MIT and JHU will probably value your math scores more than anything; being a non-native speaker will definitely come into play.

By Justice (Justice) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 10:51 pm: Edit

the problem is that there are nonnative speakers just like you guys who can still manage to score 700+ at schools like MIT. i feel bad for you but that's the reality

By 1212 (1212) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 11:21 pm: Edit

i came to the US 5 years ago, never spoke english before. I got a 750 on my verbal section, i got it up from a 550 in 3 months. should of had a 800, keep working hard, dont lower ur confidence

By Dreaming2005 (Dreaming2005) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 12:06 am: Edit

Justice, yes that's so true, there are so many kids who can not speak english much as i do, but manage to get pretty good score on blablahblah test.

so. you think there isn't much chance(for top engineering schools), even for non-native speaker with low 500 on SAT verbal?

um.. 1212, how did you do that ?! wow.. that's truely amazaing. did you take prep-courses, or tutor.. or what?! advises would be so helpful. if i can raise my SAT1 score, I want to take december SAT1 one more time.. , but i dont know whether i have such a potential 'ability'.. cuz for last test(Oct), i had studied pretty much and had learned all that 'strategies'.
i did 'touch' fifty to sixty percentage of barrons' 3500 word list, but didnt memorize.. (i dont know how much i do remember).. and i actually believe i could get some where mid 600, but i guess i wasnt .. good enough at english or whatever..
what to do. whatever comments. please tell me..(wow did i just beg? :-) email me if you prefer ; dreaming@cycleforums.com

thanx all who replies, and add more stuffs!!

By Paulhomework (Paulhomework) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 12:15 am: Edit

1212,

Raising your score from 550 to 750 in three months in not humanly possible. It's not just a regular 200 point jump, we're talking about raising your accuracy from 1 out of 2 wrong to 1 out of 8 wrong!!!

Are you sure you didn't start w/ a 550??

BTW I came here four years ago with minimal english skills. On SAT I verbal I started with a 420 in ninth grade and now I have 700. It's possible but i'm almost certain it takes more than 3 months!

By Geniezclone (Geniezclone) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 12:25 am: Edit

It'll say it's humanly possible to raise your verbal score up more than 100 pts in one month b/c that was what I did. Just memorize lots and lots of vocab (2000 words min.) and you'll see a significant score increase. Plus, read alot. But always vocab comes first. Barron's 3500 word list is especially helpful.

By Dreaming2005 (Dreaming2005) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 12:54 am: Edit

one really important question..

how did you guys memorize or study vocab???
what kinda materials or methods did you guys used??
please tell me in detail, it will be appreciated.

Geniezclone//, in a month, how did you memorize more than 2000 words.. let's say you memorized 3000 words, since you said 2000 is min. that means you memorized 300 words in A day. SIMPLY , HOW DID YOU DO THAT? (detail would be really better.. detail as daily schedule .. if you dont mind..)

also another problem.. many supposedly "easy" questions for native english speakers are actually hard to figure out.
you know. like.. names of parts of stuffs, animals, something about farming, hospital, blahblahblah..
many SAT word list or such a high level vocab list does not include those words. how should i obtain such vocabs??
how did you (non native speakers) guys deal with that??

thanks in advance!!

By 1212 (1212) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 05:54 pm: Edit

no i did raise it 200 points in 3 months. this is probably due to my indifference for the verbal section on the first sitting. I felt that if i got a 800 in math i can entirely focus on the verbal afterwords. However, after i recieved the dissapointing score, I just felt the need to improve.

This is what i did, i think i learned about 3000+ words (totally useless, the vocab on the SAT isnt that hard, but adding "designer" vocab to ur language doesnt hurt at all). That takes care of sentence completion and analogies. But i think everyone will agree that critical reading is their downfall. To improve ur CR score (u can read my detailed posts from before), i suggest u do a lot of practice passages. I combined the Barrons Book which has more than ample amount of practice qs and tests with the 10 reals. I worked on my thought process after i finished the passage. Why i picked so and so answer and why the correct answer is so and so. Make sure you read the question and the choices carefully, on the CR every word has a definite purpose. Within days if you do enough questions, u should pick up a pattern and a personal method to handling the CR.

as for how to expound your vocab, i went to webster's website. they have a toolbar for IE Exlorer that is awesome if u are trying to add vocab. It contains direct links to word of the day, dictionary, and the thesaurus. So if u find an unfamilar word as you are reading ur news, u can highlight, left click and look up the word. Hopefully this helps, im somewhat busy so i cant elaborate anyfurther at the moment, good luck