former newt

my parents have always been crazy about i do in school. while i usually put in just enough effort to maintain A's in my classes, i do acknowledge the fact that i don't work as diligently in my studies as some kids my age. my parents didn't give me too much trouble about that before...until the standardized tests happened.

early my junior year, i took the ACT for the first (and still only) time. i did minimal preparation. i read through some of Princeton Review's Cracking the ACT book. that's about it. didn't even take a practice test. so when the test came along, i was suitably nervous. however, even though while taking it thinking i did horribly, i managed a 32 composite score. my parents were happy, at least for a while.

my family has a lot of friends...i mean a lot. my parents know more people than colleges have in alumni. so naturally they know people with kids who are infallible scholars with perfect scores on their ACTs and SATs. slowly but surely, my parents lost their satisfaction with my 32 score.

soon came the SAT. same thing happened in this case: i did minimal preparation and thought i did horribly and got a 1410 composite score. again, my parents were happy temporarily. thoroughly sick of my parents' attitude toward my scores, i recently decided to study for the tests. however, i've noticed an unfortunate trend...my scores are dropping.

the second time i took the SAT my score dropped 50 points...for the second SAT i studied a hell of a lot more. on practice tests i've been taking for the ACT i've also been getting progressively worse. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!

the more i study, the worse i do....and that isn't good. my aim for the ACT is a 34 composite, but at this rate i'll be dropping to a 29 or something! my parents are getting more and more adamant about my doing even better on the tests, so this is, again, not helping at all.

so. got any advice for me?

(PS: sorry for the rambling, but i needed to get it off my chest...)

rsl12

enjoy yourself
it's later than you think
enjoy yourself
while you're still in the pink

the years go by
as quickly as you wink
enjoy yourself enjoy yourself
it's later than you think.

btw. i got into columbia with an SAT score not much better than yours. have some passion for life, do some extracurricular activities. those are equally, if not more, important.

are you over 18?

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oh baby oh baby, i like gravy.

former newt

yep. about to be a senior.

here're the colleges i'm looking into applying for:

Brown (longshot,) Rochester, George Washington University, Cincinnatti, Illinois Institute of Technology, NEOUCOM

all these schools have combined medical programs, or BS/MD or BA/MD.

Dawson70

Well you can kiss John Hopkins goodbye. They wouldn't talk to me and I hit a little higher than you. GW will give you a good look however. All I can say, some people are better "by the seat of there pants" I am one of them. If I prepare for any exam.....I'm toast. However after 4 years out of college, I decided to take the Medical Entry Exam, and cruised through it. Even thou I decided not to go into med school, its nice to know, i still got it.

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"I Finally Finished My Goal....You Can Too!

Yippie Ki Ya...

shakran

I took the ACT, got a 33. Took a 5 week, $1000 prep course and took the ACT again, got a 34. Whooee. Wasn't worth the money IMHO. Anything 31 and over puts you in the 99th percentile. Don't kiss JH goodbye either. Colleges look at your ACT, your grades, and your extra curriculars. If you get a 31 on your ACT, have straight A's, and your EC's indicate you're well-rounded, then you're more likely to get in than the guy with a 33 who got straight C's and never did any after school activities.

k1ng

Keep taking practice tests. Each time I took a practice test, my score improved. I probably should have kept that up..

Good luck with your tests and college applications.

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"Delight in excellence is easily confused with snobbery by the ignorant." -Joseph Epstein

former newt

GW will look at me?

phew that's a relief. i was under the impression that even that was out of reach for me...

ishkeb

I didn't take the ACT but I scored around what you got on the SAT and was accepted to a school that's almost as hard to get into as Brown (which you described as a "long shot"), if not as hard. So I looked up the average scores of those attending Brown, and you're fine. According to the Princeton Review, the average ACT score was 29 and the SAT was 1390. If you want to see for yourself:

Of course, colleges look at a lot more than just standardized test scores. But at least yours shouldn't stand in your way.

hrdwrjnkie

Hey man, a 32 is othing to sneeze at. Pat yourself on the back, start applying fopr colleges (all of them youwant, don't be afraid to apply) and like others have said, keep up the EC's. Then, when the acceptance letter comes, tell ma and pa to blow it out their ass. Some parents seem to have a "keep up with the Jones's" attitude with their children. As you said, your 32 was great until they talked to other parents. Odds are good the other guys were all in the 30-34 range, and your parents were pissed cus you didn't smoke 'em all. Your life is your life, and nobody else's opinion should get you bent out of shape. I've known a few buddies who went Brown with a 31 or 32. Just keep pluggin away with the EC's, and if you go in for the interview, confidence will get you farther than test scores.

[/rant]

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I build, therefore I am.

THGL

I think your problem is your getting too stressed out about the tests and that's making you do worse.

I guess I'm lucky, I never seemed to get stressed out about tests in school. I either knew the subject or I didn't and cramming for a test usually doesn't help that much.

Your parents just want what's best for you, and that's okay, but you need to tell them that they're stressing you out too much and you'll do better without their nagging.

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"The truth is merely an excuse for lack of imagination." - Garak

Acetylene

Tests like the SAT are impossible to study for. They are different in that there is no set curriculum and it is impossible to review the past 6 years of your life with any accuracy. I would say DO NOT STUDY for them!

Because, while it is not possible to make your knowlege better, it IS possible to make you unsure of yourself and actually backstab yourself by choosing the wrong answer. I know this sounds stupid but I see people do i all the time. You look at the choices, start to do one, and then say, "No, I must be wrong, it's this other one." Sometimes it's even subconscious and you don't know you're doing it, but trust me, if you are anything other than perfectly cool and confident you will sabotage your scores.

So, now that I've terrified you...let's see you go out there and kick butt ;-)
"
PS. Apply for all the schools that catch your fancy. Nothing is "out of your reach"...I applied for three schools and the worst one rejected me, the medium one waitlisted me, and the best one accepted me with a full scholarship. Go figure, huh?

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There's no justice. There's just us.