How can we motivate our 17 year about higher SAT scores for college?
December 8th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Hi and welcome to my blog,
I opened this blog to help anyone who is preparing for his SAT.
I remember myself when I started - I was so lost and in such a panic.
Luckily I got this great SAT guide that helped me a lot . So study hard and good luck!
Our 17 yr old just got his results from his SAT he scored a 1280, lower than his first score of 1385 back in March. We were not happy with the 1385 and sent him to the Princeton Review tutoring course for the June SAT test. Can’t believe he scored lower! When I told him his score, I got an’oh well’. Oh well?!? What the heck is that? He said he’s not taking the SAT again & will take the ACT in Oct. He just doesn’t get the reality of this. He wants to go away to college, yet doesn’t get it thru his head that a 1385 isn’t really good. His GPA is 3.02 (freshman thru junior years, he’ll be a senior in Sept.). As far as a resume from his 1st 3 years in high school, he played jv golf for 1 year, has worked as a counselor in the summer for the past 3 years, he’s not involved in any extra-curricula activities in school, but will be volunteering this summer.
What I’m looking for is feed-back or advice to give him. Even let me know if I’m expecting too much, 1st & only child. THANKS!
Posted in sat prep | 
Tags: 3 years, amp, counselor, curricula activities, freshman, gpa, princeton review, resume, score, what the heck
Sounds like he’s under a lot of pressure. I know the future is very important. Hope you do not verbally berate him every chance you get about his grades. Hope you allow him to experience what it means to be young and adventurous. Hope you give him a choice on making decision concerning his life. Hope your not trying to live your life thought his. Hope you see his real talents and what he might be capable of doing not what you think is going to make you look good in front of your friends…somewhere along to line you’ve driven your son to quit the things he loves…with that comes ((lack of ambition)
I thought a perfect was like 1500?
I’m the same age and in the same grade as your son and if I was in your shoes I would be very disappointed as well. Just keep pushing him but ultimately he is the one who decides the course of his life. There’s only so much you can do as his parent. Just keep telling him that to suceed in life he will need to do better on his tests to get into a good college and have a career. If he still dosen’t listen to you, I’m not sure if there’s much else you can do for him.
Yes and no. It depends on whether you are making his education the only subject every time you are in his company. Drop the subject for a while. Then take him for a ride to a low income area and give him an opportunity to see how the other half lives. Obviously you can afford to send him to college, which is more than many people can do for their children. He doesn’t appreciate what you are doing for him. Let him see what happens to those who are not able to get a valuable education. Please take the time to see a write-up about Camden, NJ from 20/20.
This is a question you may have asked several yeaqrs ago. Sports and counceling do not produce high entrance scores – look at the categories – math is a big one.
It may be too late, because you should have been counceling your son on his course selection – like some math, chemistry, physics (which are all good college prep courses.
The argument to use against a kid who wants to be a counsler, is what are you going to be doing 10 years from now? Still coaching little league, or coaching at the Highschool level (which generally requires a degree), or heading up a general sports program at university (which definitely requires a degree). Or running a sports program in a city for disadvantaged kids (requires a degree, again.)
The other thing is that the courses taken to get a degree are not all sports – there is math, science, history – show him the college catalogue of courses required for a degree in his chosen field at university. But it may be too late – this is what parents generally discuss with kids before the start of Highschool… Sorry.
Ron.
If he wants to get into a good college, he will need to study hard for the SAT on his own time (or otherwise, take the ACT and score high on it). The SATs are capable of destroying what would otherwise be a good college application. But know that if he doesn’t do well on the SATs and can’t get into a good college, it is not the end of the world. He can still go to community college, get good grades, and transfer into a college (and maybe even a good college). SATs won’t count at most colleges after he gets an associate’s degree.
I don’t know how you go about motivating him to study for the test. If you push too hard, you may just end up making him feel like he cannot do well, and then he won’t do well.
This is the new SAT with the writing score, right, with 2400 as the top score? Or is it the old SAT, with just 1600 as the top score and no writing part?
I just thought of this. Why don’t you get his IQ tested and then you can see what talents he has. And he can see what talents he has, too. And then he can see what he is capable of doing with his life. Be sure they test the coding subtest (ask for it–it’s how fast he is with doing clerical stuff, need for being a lab technician, etc.) and seeif they will test his manual dexterity. It would be great to know if he can do certain jobs that require manual dexterity, like lab technologist, etc.
Well, this is what he has to have for Johns Hopkins U. I called their admissions office 2 months ago to check it out for my daughter going into her junior year.
When I called Johns Hopkins U to ask, they said they "look" at the 9th grade scores, but they don’t calculate those scores when they figure out your GPA. They look at your grades in only CORE ACADEMIC CLASSES (sciences, English, social studies, math, maybe foreign language, I’m not sure) for grades 10 and 11 and half of 12th grade when they decide who to admit. They add up all the grades for the core classes, take the average and that is your GPA that they work with. 90-100 is an A, 80-90 is a B, etc.
Want to know what else they said?
Only 21% of the applicants are accepted.
They look to see if you took the hardest courses offered at your school.
Did you have leadership roles in all of your after school activities?
75% of the kids admitted to JHU have a GPA between 3.7 and 3.8
They like to see volunteer work and good letters of recommendation from your teachers, but the high school transcript is the most important thing. If that doesn’t look good, nothing else matters. They don’t want to hear about potential, they want to see what you have done.
Typical ACT score of those students who are admitted: 30-34 composite (top score is 36)
Typical SAT score of admitted students: 1350-1500 in the old SAT (top score was 1600 then)(800 in math and 800 in English is top score on old SAT)
The lady in Admissions said that they don’t really care much if you made National Merit semi-finalist. They care about how hard your classes are and what grades you got in them.
Well, I do not think that you are asking too much from him…but does he have any idea of what he might want to as far as a career goes? I also thought that the highest score of the SAT was a 1600…if that is the case, then a 1385 isn’t to shabby. I also think that like any normal child, he is probably a little burnt out with school and somewhat stressed about the thought of going to college. Maybe with a little bit of a break and the GPA that he is currently holding he can try again when the time gets a little closer. You are never to old to go to school and some people just need a little more time than others. I believe in pushing your child to do the best that they can, but don’t push them too hard that they end up pulling away from you and doing the exact opposite of what you want. Just try to be supportive and keep talking to him with patience…he will do fine. Remember, there are a lot of people with much lower SAT scores that get into college and still do better than those with the higher scores! Also, if for any reason he doesn’t seem to thrilled at the idea of more school, maybe you could think about a community college transfer program or something. I currently work at a hospital and we have radiology techs and nurses starting out at around 45,000 dollars/year with only two years of school-and no SAT scores.
Maybe you and your son should sit down together, talk, and look at ALL of your options that are available to you.
Good Luck!!
You’re crazy. 1385 is a very good score is a very good score. As long as he isn’t aiming for and ivy league school he should be fine.
If he can honestly say that he did the best that he could, then I wouldn’t push him to take it a third time. I think he does understand the reality of his scores, and is probably frustrated with it. I remember that the SAT was exhausting, and that was 5 years ago. I didn’t do all that well, both times. I did much better on the ACT, and that got me into the school I wanted. See how he does on the ACT, I guess.
Hope this helped!
I was once in the same position as your son, before my parents just left me alone and bought me a guide. Over the summer, since I had nothing better to do, I read the guide, and I got 2 perfect scores in math and reading, but my writing score was only 720, for a total of 2320. I only read this SAT guide, and that is how I got such high scores:
http://www.guideparadise.com/index.php?option=com_guides&task=buy&id=10
I recommend this guide to anyone seeking to get a higher score to get into a first choice college.