A Day of Reckoning - Dec. 5 SAT Scores are In - A Sobering Reality

NJROTC-CC

NJROTC-CC

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DS, a high school junior, took the SAT for the first time December 5th. We got his scores today. His scores were shockingly low. He took a prep course, many practice SAT tests and worked hard. But, despite all that, his score is so low, that he is not a realistic candidate for admission to many 4 year colleges, much less for a ROTC scholarship. What is so hard to understand is that he gets mostly A's a couple of B's and is taking several AP courses. His weighted high school GPA is well over 4.0. So it is difficult to understand why he is having such a tough time with the SAT's. He is signed up to take a crack at the ACT's in February.

Of course, he can take the SAT's again, even more than once more, but only a certain amount of improvement is possible. Fortunately, DS is athletic and has good extra-curricular, community service and leadership.

Based on his present SAT score, he best shot at college, for now, is for the NROTC Prep Scholarship. (He is unwilling to go to community college.) He has shown interest in several schools that offer the Prep Scholarship. We will apply and see what happens. However, his is also re-considering his previous plan to go straight to college. Enlistment after high school is now something he wants to seriously consider. ASVAB prep. will commence soon.

DS has a strong desire to serve his country and has been showing great interest in the Coast Guard since his NJOTC class visited and toured the local Coast Guard Station last year. He knows the local Coast Guard recruiter by name. DS's ultimate, long-term goal has always been Federal law enforcement. I think the Coast Guard would be a "win-win" for DS and for the USCG and can lead him in the direction he wants to go. My only hope is that if he enlists, he will still find a way to obtain at least a bachelor's degree in the future.
 
It sounds like your son inexplicably has test score results that are out of alignment with his HS grades. Have you delved into the score report to see where specifically the biggest weakness was? Focused prep might garner big results and academies do superstore. One of my children (not my CGA appointee) had little success on score improvement with self-guided prep/practice but had a big boost in the math section on his ACT retest after four one-hour individual tutoring sessions. Was the prep your son did self-guided, group, or individual? Which brings me to point 2. It’s good to take both the ACT and the SAT. Many people find that they respond better to one test than the other. My last comment would be that there is almost universally a bump in score from test one to test two even if the test taker does nothing in between to study. These tests are nerve-wracking; kids know their future plans could literally hinge on their performance. Taken a second time, kids have fewer jitters and a better sense of the timing within the test which can be very helpful in terms of managing pace. Whatever your son decides, please encourage him not to make a decision based on a single bad test from a single day. Don’t be discouraged!
 
NJROTC-CC said:
DS, a high school junior, took the SAT for the first time December 5th. We got his scores today. His scores were shockingly low. He took a prep course, many practice SAT tests and worked hard. But, despite all that, his score is so low, that he is not a realistic candidate for admission to many 4 year colleges, much less for a ROTC scholarship. What is so hard to understand is that he gets mostly A's a couple of B's and is taking several AP courses. His weighted high school GPA is well over 4.0. So it is difficult to understand why he is having such a tough time with the SAT's. He is signed up to take a crack at the ACT's in February.

Of course, he can take the SAT's again, even more than once more, but only a certain amount of improvement is possible. Fortunately, DS is athletic and has good extra-curricular, community service and leadership.

Based on his present SAT score, he best shot at college, for now, is for the NROTC Prep Scholarship. (He is unwilling to go to community college.) He has shown interest in several schools that offer the Prep Scholarship. We will apply and see what happens. However, his is also re-considering his previous plan to go straight to college. Enlistment after high school is now something he wants to seriously consider. ASVAB prep. will commence soon.

DS has a strong desire to serve his country and has been showing great interest in the Coast Guard since his NJOTC class visited and toured the local Coast Guard Station last year. He knows the local Coast Guard recruiter by name. DS's ultimate, long-term goal has always been Federal law enforcement. I think the Coast Guard would be a "win-win" for DS and for the USCG and can lead him in the direction he wants to go. My only hope is that if he enlists, he will still find a way to obtain at least a bachelor's degree in the future.
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I am also a high school Junior and preparing for the SAT has been one of my biggest concerns. Make sure that he has a Khan Academy account as this will allow him to track what areas that he needs to improve in and provides personalized study material according to those areas. That has been one of the biggest aids for my prep, as well as finding what works best for you. It is different for every person; whether that's how/what they study and for how long/often, their strategy when taking the test (I like to try and portion out my time and come back to the more time consuming ones), and figuring out which test (ACT or SAT) feels more comfortable.

Those are just my two cents, but again, practice, especially with Khan Academy really is quite helpful and easy to do.
 
Thanks for the encouragement. He did a Princeton Review Course on-line, an in-person tutor, and several practice tests. His score is 50 points higher in Math than in Reading, and we thought Reading/English/Verbal was his strong side. I can't figure it out.
 
NJROTC-CC said:
Thanks for the encouragement. He did a Princeton Review Course on-line, an in-person tutor, and several practice tests. His score is 50 points higher in Math than in Reading, and we thought Reading/English/Verbal was his strong side. I can't figure it out.
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Sometimes one of the subject are easier than the other depending on date.

Does he have test anxiety? Does he have concentration problems? Is something going on in his life that is stressful? Are his eyes ok?
 
A1Janitor said:
Does he have test anxiety? Does he have concentration problems? Is something going on in his life that is stressful? Are his eyes ok?
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He seems to be a very steady type who worries about nothing. His eyes are fine. I think he might have concentration problems based on what I am seeing although I never thought of that before. The SAT is really the only 3.5 hour test his has gone through in his life up to now.

One thing, his girlfriend tested positive for COVID and DS was waiting for his own COVID test results (that never came and he never had symptoms) and missed Monday through Thursday, leading up to the SAT. We almost cancelled the SAT, but he seemed o.k. , so he went for it. He thought the test seemed easier than the PSAT. So I was quite surprised when I saw his score. He will take the ACT in Feb. and another SAT in March. Maybe it is not the end of the world.
 
Given that many colleges are test optional this year, maybe it won't impact his ability to get into a 4-year college? There are other ways for him to pursue his desire to serve than the ROTC scholarship.
 
I would put him in the test setting and take full practice exams. It might be a one time thing and a good discussion in an essay with solid improvement.
 
I had the same issue with one of my sons. An A student, AP classes, top 10% of a class of 500, but with private tutoring and 3 tries he couldn’t get his SAT over 1210. He didn’t get into his top schools but will be graduating from our highly ranked state college with honors and a double major in CS and Math.

SAT doesn’t necessarily measure college success and he can also earn a scholarship once he proves himself his first year of college. Has he ruled out the Army? My understanding is they award more scholarships than AF and NROTC. I think the minimum SAT for Army is 1000.

Also wanted to add that he did bring his score up 80 points from the first one.
 
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Def have him take a few full practice SATs/ACTs. They are super helpful for time management for the test taking as well as help to figure out what areas need more focused studying.
 
Just don't put too much pressure on him. As a parent, it is easy to do it subconsciously.

I wouldn't worry too much about the first test. He is a good student,
I guarantee you can get that score up.

A tutor makes a big difference but it has to be the right tutor.

For instance, my kids tutor got a perfect SAT score and easily saw the simple mistakes they were making.
 
If he is just a junior he still has plenty of time to improve. On any given day scores can vary 30 to 40 points either way from one test to another. I don't have any specific advice to offer since what works for one doesn't always work for another but I can tell you what my son did.

My son used Khan Academy. In the beginning he just used their suggested study routine five days a week for 15 to 30 minutes a day. He would take the occasional practice exam to see if he had improved any. Eventually he increased some of his study times to 45 minutes. He started studying 1-2 months before the official test. He took the PSAT every year he could. He improved his PSAT score every year. His junior year he took his first and only official SAT test two weeks after taking the PSAT. He scored the exact same overall score for both tests but the ebrw and math scores were flip flopped on the tests. When he thought he would get to take the SAT again he used the part on Khan Academy that lets you see the breakdown of each section by skill level. He felt this allowed him to focus on his weaknesses better by just practicing his weaknesses and ignoring the areas where he was at max skill level 4. The SAT Black Book can also be helpful. We bought the book but then he never retook the test.

Six weeks before the ACT he started studying. He said the ACT study site is awful. My son used a free practice ACT test to get a baseline score. He took it with correct testing conditions and times. Time management wasn't an issue for him. He marked on the test where he didn't know the answer and where he narrowed it down. After I scored it for him, we went through the whole test together. Any question he got correct and he knew why he got it correct we skipped discussing. Any question he got correct but wasn't sure why it was the right answer we went over. Any question he got wrong he would try to redo. He made note of whether it was a careless mistake or something he just didn't know or understand. Anything he didn't know or understand we tried to focus on him learning it. He just used practice tests and we went through and dissected them apart afterwards. He would do one section a night until we went through a complete test. At the end of the week he would try to redo once again all the ones he previously had gotten wrong that we had gone over. After doing three tests in this manner he took another practice test under correct testing conditions and we started the whole process over. He would retake tests up to a total of three times. Part of it is training your brain to get used to the test.

Whenever you can use real (previous) tests published from the original sources. Prepscholar has a link for both ACT and SAT tests.
 
A few thoughts here (some of which have been mentioned):


1. What about the PSAT? Did he take that as a Sophomore or Junior? It is not the "same" as the SAT and usually is "easier," but it would give you a good idea of where he was during October of this year and last year.


2. This could be a classic case of test anxiety. No matter how many "simulated," "actual test conditions," etc. tests you take, this may not surface until the official test when it "really counts" for the test taker. It can be offset by the practice tests, but many times it does not even show up until it is too late in the test cycle like when you have an "all of nothing" test date very close to the deadlines. COVID has obviously made this worse for the 2021 class.


3. Time management is often the biggest hurdle for many students on the SAT, and even more so on the ACT (less time per question). If you are a slow reader or a person that does not like to read, you can have serious difficulty with the long and dense reading passages. The words in context/vocab also can kill a score if you have not read a ton during junior high/middle school and high school. Additionally, lots of kids that take Honors and AP English courses are not taught actual grammar, do not have a well-developed vocabulary and they cannot read and analyze quickly. The fact that you have not had to read The Scarlet Letter in a week or two in grades 6-8 can haunt you on reading speed and time management later.

The same issue can apply to Math, but it is less pronounced for the speed-related issues. It also is a problem when you are a Senior and your math stopped prior to Trig, Calc AB, etc. or if your Geometry was part of Integrated Math, etc. You may "know" the math or be able to figure it out, but the ticking clock is an enemy.


4. Many schools are guilty of grade inflation. This is at the elementary school level, the middle school level, the high school level and college/grad school as well. In the early 2000s, a Duke professor caused a stir with a white paper showing this trend for colleges:

Stuart Rojstaczer: Where All Grades Are Above Average | Duke Today

today.duke.edu today.duke.edu

Prof Finds Grade Inflation at Duke, UNC

DURHAM — A Duke University professor has reinvigorated the national debate over grade inflation. Professor Stuart Rojstaczer announced a web site, GradeInflation.com, wherein he has compiled data on more than 50 colleges and universities nationwide showing how average grade-point-averages at...
www.carolinajournal.com www.carolinajournal.com


It is rampant in high school, with the traditional 4.0 GPA model being replaced with the 5.0 GPA scale with grade bumps for Honors, IB, Dual Enrollment, AP and college classes. Many times these GPAs now tell students they are "exceptional" but it is really through the GPA only that the "exceptional" component exists.

The course content has been "dumbed" down at many schools and the teachers "teach to the test." This type of short-term memory "learning" that is nothing more than regurgitation is not how the SAT and ACT work and many test takers do not have the analytical skills to do well. This of course flies in the face of a high 4.0+ GPA and many times parents can be shocked when they see it.


5. An often overlooked, yet repeated, problem is the "numbering" issue. This is where you have skipped a question to come back to, or inadvertently skipped a bubble line on the answer sheet. For example, you write the answer to Number 10 on the Number 11 line and continue that until the end at Number 40. You are out of time and each answer is off by one. If you skipped one on purpose you can do this as well.

The test taker needs to always stop every 10 questions or so and make sure they are on the "correct" number. Easily done if you circle the answer in the test book each time and compare it to your sheet. If you don't circle those in the test book, there will almost never be enough time to go back quickly and fix it.

It would be hard to do this for 2 or more sections vs. 1 section, but it is possible.


6. Khan, Princeton Review, Kaplan and the others are great whether they are free or you are paying, but when it comes to focused, in-person and one-on-one tutoring with some of the smaller test prep companies that can be pricey (ArborBridge, Applerouth, etc.), you will likely get what you pay for if the SAT or ACT score is one of the biggest application issues.


7. He is a junior, you have 11 months to get this addressed - starting today!



I know the areas above are not solutions, but many people (as well as yourself) have commented on the backup plans that can be pursued. Keep fully developed Plans B-Z on the table and take a deep breath.

He's got this!
 
Find your preferred test! DS scored pretty well on two SAT practice tests (Khan Academy) and PSAT. I asked him to take a practice ACT test, and voila - his percentile score was like getting 125-150 points higher on the SAT. ACT has a science section, less esoteric reading material, but timing requires quicker answers.

Take practice tests (eventually do an entire test early morning just like test day). I would score the practice tests for him - he did paper to better simulate time required for pencil filling in bubbles - he was recovering from a broken finger in his writing hand. DS would review all the wrong answers using a book from the library with the practice tests.

A lower than expected score could be any number of things - not feeling well on test day, forgetting new batteries in a calculator, getting off track with the bubbles and not noticing until a few questions from the end...
 
I had the same problem. 4.44 GPA and 1200's in the SAT. I've learned there are 2 categories to study for any standardized test. There's the actual content, and the backdoor tricks. For content, Khan is really great, and the Princeton books help as well (I took the course too). He should have gotten a huge book with a ton of full-length tests, so he should focus on those and check his answers after he timed himself. A mistake a lot of people make is not checking and correcting their answers after they're done, but he should. He'll begin the learn how the SAT questions are structured. For tricks, the SAT Blackbook is amazing! It's $20 off Amazon, and so worth it.

I've noticed that people with good grades tend to overthink since we always try to do everything perfectly in school, but the SAT doesn't require much of it. The questions are super simple if you know the tricks, which is something I wish I realized sooner. I wish him all the luck!
 
Shoot me a PM and I’ll send (when I have more time) you a book that I attribute all of my English subsection perfect standardized test scores to. Sure, it’s anecdotal but my home school buddy went from an ACT 27 to 36 in English with the book.
 
@NJROTC-CC - sounds like my DS from last year. Took the SAT and ACT and did not score well. Did online prep course, did not improve very much. Got a SAT/ACT tutor and improved a little, but not enough to be competitive for SA/ROTC Scholarships. After a few conversations, I don't think he was taking the prep course or the tutoring seriously and was not doing the "take home work". He buckled down and put the effort in on the homework - Took the ACT again and scored a 31 - he definitely did better on the ACT than the SAT. Just a data point that massive (300+ points) improvement is possible.

Tough year for these kids with regards to testing. As everyone else has stated, I hope it woks out but there are ALOT of ways to commission other than a 4-YR scholarship.

Good luck to your DS!
 
I, too, had terribly low SAT scores when I took them as a sophomore. Even after a free prep class through my school, my SAT scores remained brutally low.
I took the ACT, and by my surprise and that of my parents, did shockingly well. I did no act prep and took the test once. It’s a way different format. It feels much faster, the answers are much more straight forward, and it also has a science section. As others have mentioned above, try out the ACT. It’s not discussed nearly as much as the SAT, but often a student will do far better on one. Hope your DS can do better on ACT!!! Good luck to all!
 
NJROTC-CC said:
DS, a high school junior, took the SAT for the first time December 5th. We got his scores today. His scores were shockingly low. He took a prep course, many practice SAT tests and worked hard. But, despite all that, his score is so low, that he is not a realistic candidate for admission to many 4 year colleges, much less for a ROTC scholarship. What is so hard to understand is that he gets mostly A's a couple of B's and is taking several AP courses. His weighted high school GPA is well over 4.0. So it is difficult to understand why he is having such a tough time with the SAT's. He is signed up to take a crack at the ACT's in February.

Of course, he can take the SAT's again, even more than once more, but only a certain amount of improvement is possible. Fortunately, DS is athletic and has good extra-curricular, community service and leadership.

Based on his present SAT score, he best shot at college, for now, is for the NROTC Prep Scholarship. (He is unwilling to go to community college.) He has shown interest in several schools that offer the Prep Scholarship. We will apply and see what happens. However, his is also re-considering his previous plan to go straight to college. Enlistment after high school is now something he wants to seriously consider. ASVAB prep. will commence soon.

DS has a strong desire to serve his country and has been showing great interest in the Coast Guard since his NJOTC class visited and toured the local Coast Guard Station last year. He knows the local Coast Guard recruiter by name. DS's ultimate, long-term goal has always been Federal law enforcement. I think the Coast Guard would be a "win-win" for DS and for the USCG and can lead him in the direction he wants to go. My only hope is that if he enlists, he will still find a way to obtain at least a bachelor's degree in the future.
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My daughter took tests repeatedly and also scored badly. She super scored to a 21. Not great. SAT even worse.

However, she got applications in early and was admitted to all six. She got merit scholarships by applying test optional and it's going to join guard most likely and will do the SMP (simultaneous membership program) worst case for a two year and hopefully get a three year on campus scholarship by hard work.

It's doable. Don't lose hope. Focus.
 
Really lots of good advice already. I have 4 kids that went through this process. Each was different!! Here is what we learned through testing:

-The first test is a wash. Not representative of anything, really. Don’t be discouraged.

- Practicing over and over, using the same method, without improvement, doesn’t work. Try a different method. Even a different private tutor. This piece was HUGH for my youngest. Even try several tutors. They are available online and their different eyes can pinpoint different issues.

- It may not be the material at all, especially with the grades he has. It could Be STRATEGY. Which a good tutor can also pinpoint. Again, this piece was HUGE for our youngest. A light bulb went on finally for him with a way he was doing something and his score in reading FINALLY skyrocketed to what we thought represented his true abilities (we were shocked at how low he was scoring in that section of the test).

- Two of my kiddos went to a public school. Took AP classes. And the quality of that education was not the same as the last two kiddos school. A Blue Ribbon college prep school. Simply put, their A’s and high class placement simply was no where near the quality of education our last two received. Not knocking any school....but there absolutely is a reason that school profiles are considered in this whole process. Even duel credit classes may not mean much. It depends on the school. We know this from our own experience as well.

-Lastly, covid. 2020. Virtual. It does matter! And speaks to the dip in education I believe we are seeing across the board. As already mentioned, perhaps these things will be considered during the college application cycle. Those piece will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

As a mom, I feel your post!! What I have
learned through this journey with all of my own (now) adult kiddos, is that what we expect, and what ends up happening, are USUALLY different. No matter if it’s been a dream of theirs from early on. Stay open to different pathways. Embrace a change of course. But for sure, it’s too early to think this path may not work out. I understand that “shock” of a score. Been there, done that with my last (who, btw is now a Mid at USNA...he kept testing even after submitting, and got that score up. FINALLY). GOOD LUCK!!!

Adding this: when my youngest, with that one lower section, interviewed for NROTC as well as with his BGO, he was asked specifically about this piece. So be prepared to address it in interviews! He was honest in his answer (hates English/Reading...and didn’t take any ‘normal’ English class after freshman year as he was advanced and DONE). Not his favorite class, and no talking him into taking more. Let alone AP. So don’t shy away from applying. MAKE THEM SAY NO. Ultimately my guy peaked up his score and submitted it. But it wasn't on his initial app’s. And he was pulled off the USNA wait list late May. And he was also offered NROTC 1st board scholarship, even with that reading/English score. They obviously saw something in him despite that one small tiny piece. May or may not be your DS’s outcome, but the point is, it’s a whole person they look at. He is more than any one single piece.

Going to be watching!
 
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