My kid is a junior in high school right now and is registered to take the SAT this month. In March, they took it in school and we have received his scores. He ended up getting a 1440 (660 verbal and 780 math). He is in the top 5% of his class right now but won't know his end of the year ranking until June sometime. His goal is engineering at A&M so my question is should he go ahead and take the SAT again or are these scores competitive for engineering?

I originally registered him for the May date not knowing that they would take one in school in March because so many things are different this year.

Should he sit this one out? Would it look bad if he takes it and did worse?

I assume you are OOS.
Edit: I guess this is a chance me for in state.
https://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/Fall-2020-Admit-Scores.aspx

90 percentile 1435
75 percentile 1365
50 percentile 1270
25 percentile 1161

98th percentile 779 Math
55th percentile 661 Verbal

You could always take it and just choose not to send out the scores for free... then share if it is better.

We are in Texas and he attends a large school in the suburbs of a big city. I think he should be auto admit for A&M in general but I know that actually getting into college of engineering is by holistic review. And that makes me nervous as a parent. He is our oldest too so we are just trying to figure out everything.

I don't remember being worried as a kid because I was a top 10% auto admit back in the 90's but I feel like things are so much more competitive these days.

Good point on not having to send scores though.

Top 5% alone makes him an auto admit, regardless of what he gets on his SAT. He will then have to be reviewed to be admitted to the college of engineering even as an auto-admit, but with that score, especially the 780 math, I can't see a scenario where he doesn't get admitted to engineering.

That score and the combo gets him into Engineering pretty easily if he has any extracurriculars at all or can make it seem like it in his application. Given the past few years it probably isn't high enough to qualify for merit based scholarships unless he has a long list of outside school things that he can virtue signal well in his application.

ag97tx said:

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My kid is a junior in high school right now and is registered to take the SAT this month. In March, they took it in school and we have received his scores. He ended up getting a 1440 (660 verbal and 780 math). He is in the top 5% of his class right now but won't know his end of the year ranking until June sometime. His goal is engineering at A&M so my question is should he go ahead and take the SAT again or are these scores competitive for engineering?

I originally registered him for the May date not knowing that they would take one in school in March because so many things are different this year.

Should he sit this one out? Would it look bad if he takes it and did worse?

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. He is an auto admit. Is he shooting for a scholarship? If so, take it again with preparation.

Our soon to be HS Grad daughter was in the Top 10% (#48 out of class of 770ish) here in suburban HS in the Houston area .. was auto admit into A&M last September, however, did not find out until January that she was in the Engineering school. Yes, she stressed about it some - I didn't because I knew if she didn't get into Engineering, there were other ways for her to 'earn' a spot her Freshman year. I honestly don't recall her SAT/ACT scores. They were good but not great. Not sure if this is any help but since we just went thru it thought I would chime in.

Oh .. to add a bit more .. three years ago, our son, who was not in the Top 10% due to laziness his Freshman year of HS. He ended up around 100 out of 750ish. Got accepted into A&M but his SAT/ACT scores were right below where the Engineering Admissions standards at the time stated he needed to be to be accepted 'outside the top 10%' into Engineering. Sent him to ACT/SAT tutor - he retook the tests and improved his ACT score enough to be accepted into Engineering. He ended up going to Colorado School of Mines for other reasons ... but proved that one does not have to be in Top 10% to get into Engineering at A&M. Once again .. that was 3 years ago but just another example.

Should be safe but never hurts to use the time to bolster it. If you can, find a tutor that focuses on where he has room for improvement. That's what we did with my daughter and it was an extremely efficient way to boost it a bit more.

The time may be better spent on checking any missing boxes on the rest of his resume - volunteering, a job, leadership, etc

Btw, I don't know what 2022 will be like, but previously if sending scores, A&M has required that all scores be sent

A&M will use the best one day score that the applicant chooses to send.

Do they just take the highest combined verbal and math day and the essay doesn't matter? They didn't do the essay on the one at school and he also took it back in September with the essay but his verbal And Math were better in March.

Last time I looked the A&M Admissions website had very good & detailed info regarding all this. As did the College of Engineering website. It's been since last summer since I've needed to look at them so things may have changed.

You are correct that our website has the most current, correct info: https://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/apply

It notes that the essay on the test is not required.

First off, that's a great score.

Secondly, the SAT/ACT score isn't going to be the only thing that they are going to look at when it comes to Engineering. I encourage any kid to take the SAT at least twice, only because they will know what to expect the second time around, and their score will go up.

It's a freaking fun ride and I'm so glad we are over it. I assume that when my kid applies to vet school, we will go through this emotional roller coaster again.

TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Before investing your time, effort, and money into test preparation (paid or not), I highly recommend that each family take the time to learn the difference between the two tests. I estimate about 20-25% of the students demonstrate strong tendencies to one test over the other.

Identifying which test to start with will certainly save your child a lot of frustration and help them develop their confidence in a singular test.

SAT/ACT FAQs

SAT must be easier now, only 2 people scored that high at our high school in the 1980s. And I know kids aren't smarter. We had some very bright kids in my school.

Are the verbal analogies still on the test?


PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. redundant : discussion
B. austere : landscape
C. opulent : wealth
D. oblique : familiarity
E. banal : originality

TXPremiumBoy said:

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Our soon to be HS Grad daughter was in the Top 10% (#48 out of class of 770ish) here in suburban HS in the Houston area .. was auto admit into A&M last September, however, did not find out until January that she was in the Engineering school. Yes, she stressed about it some - I didn't because I knew if she didn't get into Engineering, there were other ways for her to 'earn' a spot her Freshman year. I honestly don't recall her SAT/ACT scores. They were good but not great. Not sure if this is any help but since we just went thru it thought I would chime in.

Oh .. to add a bit more .. three years ago, our son, who was not in the Top 10% due to laziness his Freshman year of HS. He ended up around 100 out of 750ish. Got accepted into A&M but his SAT/ACT scores were right below where the Engineering Admissions standards at the time stated he needed to be to be accepted 'outside the top 10%' into Engineering. Sent him to ACT/SAT tutor - he retook the tests and improved his ACT score enough to be accepted into Engineering. He ended up going to Colorado School of Mines for other reasons ... but proved that one does not have to be in Top 10% to get into Engineering at A&M. Once again .. that was 3 years ago but just another example.

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How does he like Mines?

wxman2005 said:

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SAT must be easier now, only 2 people scored that high at our high school in the 1980s. And I know kids aren't smarter. We had some very bright kids in my school.

Are the verbal analogies still on the test?


PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. redundant : discussion
B. austere : landscape
C. opulent : wealth
D. oblique : familiarity
E. banal : originality

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They "renormed" the scores since the 80's (I think it was around '95) to reset the average at 1,000 out of 1,600. To make modern scores equivalent to scores from the 80's, you must deduct 100 points.

Buck Turgidson said:

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They "renormed" the scores since the 80's (I think it was around '95) to reset the average at 1,000 out of 1,600. To make modern scores equivalent to scores from the 80's, you must deduct 100 points.

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Beginning with the March 1995 exam, scores were shifted so that 500/section was "average."
A project I had as part of an internship for grad school in Spring '95 was to set up charts and training for Admissions Office workers to compare "new norm" scores to previous (old) scores.
IIRC it was -120 for the Verbal section and -90 for the Math because the adjustment amount wasn't equal for both sections to compare SAT-to-SAT as opposed to pears-to-peaches.

If you submit two SAT scores, does A&M engineering wholesome review consider the best combined score, or the best individual Read/Writing and Math scores, or just the best math score?

Texas A&M does NOT superscore. They will take your one day best sitting score.

Some time back they changed the grading so that those who took the SAT prior to this change (I think it was in the 90's) can add 100 to their verbal score to get an equivalence to current scoring.

Buck Turgidson said:

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wxman2005 said:

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SAT must be easier now, only 2 people scored that high at our high school in the 1980s. And I know kids aren't smarter. We had some very bright kids in my school.

Are the verbal analogies still on the test?


PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. redundant : discussion
B. austere : landscape
C. opulent : wealth
D. oblique : familiarity
E. banal : originality

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They "renormed" the scores since the 80's (I think it was around '95) to reset the average at 1,000 out of 1,600. To make modern scores equivalent to scores from the 80's, you must deduct 100 points.

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I took my SAT in '88 and got an 1100 which was Top 14% at the time and I was an auto admit to A&M even though I wasn't near the Top 10%. A 1200 got you in just about anywhere. 1400+ was EXTREMELY rare. Now I see kids getting 1400 plus fairly often.

It's a combination of multiple things. They shifted the scoring but also the prep for the SAT today is light years from what it was back then. There were very few options for SAT Prep and they were nothing like what you have now with the level of assessments they can do and the decades of research they have on how to improve test scores. I know I watch my HS son just log in to Khan Academy and think about how I used to have to pay big money just to get help and it wasn't nearly as good as what he can get for free with a few clicks of his computer.

It's just different.

I went to a fancy private school and some years they would offer calculus. My kid took cal 1, 2, 3 and linear algebra. Kids can do a lot more in high school today. That's the biggest difference in SAT scores.

Same, I had many friends who got 800-900 on the SAT in the 1980s, they all went to UH.

One of my friends scored 1200 (SFA of all places), nobody scored over 1400, except our valedictorian who was a hot red head, 1500. Another friend got a 1300 he went to Harvard.

xfactor91 said:

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SAT must be easier now, only 2 people scored that high at our high school in the 1980s. And I know kids aren't smarter. We had some very bright kids in my school.

Are the verbal analogies still on the test?


PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. redundant : discussion
B. austere : landscape
C. opulent : wealth
D. oblique : familiarity
E. banal : originality

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Is the answer D?

The answer is no. They do NOT have verbal analogies on the SAT.
However, they do allow calculators for the Math section.
I don't think the top math students hardly use the calculator.

I have made a series of SAT Math videos on youtube to share:

I would put E.

I'd probably get a 750 math now. These are too easy.