SAT II questions

[danielle]

I have a pretty good feel for what constitutes a good to outstanding SAT or ACT score, but what's a good score on SAT IIs? Is over 700 great or so-so? What would admissions be looking to see, especially from a homeschooled kid with, say, no traditional biology? If a kid scored, say a 650 on Biology E, would that be enough or would it need to be higher to impress? How high (or pick any other subject to give me an example)?

Also, if the kid takes APs early enough to be able submit with an app, do they need the SAT IIs also? I know each individual school has regs, but just in general? We've been so focused on planning APs the whole idea of SAT IIs has just blown by me, I guess.
Danielle

[Jane in NC]

If you look at SAT subject means (Wikipedia lists them here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT_Subject_Tests), you'll see that there is some variation but, for the most part, means are roughly 600. So, in general, 650 is a reasonable score.

Now a friend of mine who is a high school guidance counselor (with her own children in highly competitive universities) said that 700 is the psychological number for the more competitive programs. Statistically, there is no difference between a 690 and a 700 on these exams, but psychologically it means something.

I doubt if this helps much though so I shall wait enlightenment!

Jane

[Gwen in VA]

Generally the kids who take SAT-II's are the kids who are applying to the more competitive colleges, so the "desired" scores are higher than on the SAT. I agree that 700 is an important psychological benchmark, but it depends on the college.

Some colleges want SAT-II's scores no matter what else the student has on his transcript (AP scores, cc classes, etc.) The SAT-II's allow an "apples-to-apples' comparison of students -- not all students take AP exams, and each cc obviously teaches the courses differently, so the SAT-II's are the only subject-specific standard available to colleges.

Talk to the colleges your child is interested in -- some colleges may allow substituting AP exams for SAT-II's.

One last thing -- at least in the sciences, taking the SAT-II in June after taking the AP exam in May is a piece of cake. Some SAT-II's, though are quite different from the AP exam -- in Latin the SAT-II exams focused on very different material than the AP exam did.

[Brenda in MA]

Danielle,

You've asked a tough question. The mean scores on the SAT2 tests vary greatly. Here is a link to the chart from the College Board.

http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2005/16_subj_test_percentile_ranks_0506.pdf

If you look carefully, you'll see that a 600 would be about a 50% on the English and History tests, but only a 23% on Math Level II and a 28% in Physics. I do agree with others that 700 is a psychological barrier to be considered a good score, but I don't have any concrete evidence to support that.

Welcome to the college application "game"!
Brenda

[Gwen in VA]

Wow -- an 800 in Chinese only is at the 61 percentile!