Before I go for my tuition, I just thought I'd start a 3 part series about the SAT. As usual bear in mind I am not an adcom officer but this is just what I feel from, well experience and cc readings.
Obviously a good SAT score doesn't hurt you at all. What's good? Well above 2100 is good, above 2200 is safe, about 2300 is competitive.
How do you improve your SAT score? First of all I feel that SAT is really a measure of your English basics - the reason why I say that is because discounting all November 2008 onwards scores, 3 people in my batch did an analysis of all the SAT scores that we knew of our level - which amounted to about 23 people, and this was what we found out (all results without superscoring).
1. Average times people took the SAT among the 23 people: 1.625. However accuracy of this is questionable as a)Many people took a retake of the SAT in November and December 2008 in a bid to improve their scores - resulting in extra takes of course and b) We font have the scores of the whole level so it doesnt represent the whole level.
2. Lowest score: 1900. Highest score: 2360 - courtesy of Fiona
3. Out of the 23, 8 people had their best scores in the 2100+ range, 7 people had their highest scores above 2200, and the rest had their best scores below 2100.
4. Most people get full marks for math, it is the critical reading and especially the
writing that pulls people down - essays anyone?
5. This last point was probably the most crucial finding of all. Out of the 7 people, 6 of them were ex-GEPers. The rest of the GEPers scored no less than 2150.
I am not trying to be elitist by saying GEPers are better than non GEPers but it is a fact that the GEP programme is quite rigorous in terms of teaching English, Math and Science, so I think it is quite reasonable to say that they, as a result have a better footing in terms of their English basics than anyone else, at least to explain the trend in the SAT scores. Ask any GEPer in your level and they will tell you what their GEP education was like.
Of course it is by no means a proper statistical study but the results are there, you can make your own conclusions. At least, that is the conclusion that I have made. And of course, it doesnt mean that if you are a GEPer you will get above 2200+ and if not you wont get it, because it may be a correlation rather than a causation effect for all we know. I am sure Mr. Allan has more information about the trend of the SATs in my level.
I am of the opinion that you can study for SATs if you really try. I dont believe in going for outside prep classes - there have been complaints about certain reputable testing centres where some ex-teachers there confess that they were supposed to teach using the center's model rather than what's right for the kids. All for the sake of money making I guess.
Okay the next few parts of this series will talk about:
Part 2 - Improving your SAT score
Part 3 - The Importance of SAT in Adcoms, Scholarships, etc
Again I would like to stress that I don't have statistics so please remember that this is only the opinion of 1 person derived from informal asking around and not anyone else. You are free to devise your own methods of studying and interpretations of what I have posted above.
I probably can comment more about this after April when all the results of the US universities come out, but right now this is what I feel. Maybe I will write another article again in April. Okay I got to go for tuition now, I will post the next few parts soon.
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