GPA and SAT scores

Hi, @naeesuavee, I would focus on your GPA. It is sufficient that you keep your grades as high as you can. Junior year is the most important year and keeping up with your grades should be one of your priorities. If you do not know where to start with your GPA, ask or email your teachers, on how to increase your GPA, and what you can do. SAT, I would recommend doing a full Bluebook SAT practice test offered by the college board. When you finish your test, it will tell you exactly how many questions you got, their answers, and what areas you need to improve! The key to this is fixing the questions you got wrong and engraving the methods to answer each. You got this! Depending on how many SATs you already took, I would take at least 1 more. Applying for colleges; can be very flexible. There is no specific deadline on when you need to do it; before the end of Senior year, you should have already applied or know exactly what you will be doing. But, first comes GPA and SAT or ACT if you plan on taking both. Keep it up!!! I know it may seem like a daunting task, but you can do it! Believe in yourself!

Hey @naeesuavee, fellow rising senior here! I've had worries about my GPA too, and it is a scary feeling. Here is some advice I have heard or formulated that I think really benefits those worried about grades with college admissions:

1. Take a gap year. A gap year allows you to breathe and really assess who you are, where you are headed, and how you want to get there. Another great thing about gap year is that your entire high school transcript will be available to colleges because you took time off.

2. Aim for certain grades. Now this may sound trivial, but this is my method to how I plan to boost my GPA. I'm okay at math, right? My plan is to aim to get somewhere in the B-range in math. I'm taking on level English (which I ended sophomore on-level with a 97, then AP Lang with an 85) this year, so I'm aiming to get an A, maybe even an A+ in that class, and so on and so forth. As you can see, I'm not pushing for all A's and perfection, I'm just aiming where I know I can go that pushes me just enough to help me out.

And about your SAT score, I'd strongly suggest what everyone is in the comments is saying about you retaking the SAT. I'd look at what area you scored the least amount of points and really honing in on that. If you did good, or even better on the English section than math, then I suggest studying more on math, or it could've been the other way around. I really hope this helps you out!! We're all rooting for you!!

I came into high school at a 3.1 gpa and my gpa is now a 3.7 so never give up on stuff like that!!

Hey @naeesuavee, I'm also a rising senior and this is how I'd go about your situation!

1. There definitely are several ways for you to get your GPA up in time from retaking courses over the summer and adding the better grades to your transcript to aiming to perform better in your senior classes.

2. Most schools (unless prestigious) are still going to be test-optional for the class of 2025. So here are two ways you can look at your situation. Either apply to schools without a test score and lock in on your extra curriculars to show colleges that you're a dedicated and community involved student, or get an SAT tutor and take practice tests and revise over the summer.

3. A good time to start your applications would be in the fall of your senior year.

As long as you hold yourself accountable and put the work in, you should be college bound in no time! I wish you the best of luck! :)

Hello Naeesuavee,

Well, sorry to hear about your disappointment, but am certain there still ways you can better yourself to get your GPA higher and be more ready for college. It's definitely not too late to make a change, and colleges appreciate realisation and readiness to make a change to score better.

Well, regarding the SAT, as mentioned above, you can absolutely retake it. You can use sources like Khan Academy, very helpful free resource to help better your SAT scores as well as review your AP classes and learn better where you don't understand best in class, I highly recommend it.

Another would be hiring a private SAT tutor, and while that might be a more expensive option, I think the personalised experience will help understand where you scored an 830 and where you'd have to improve, so definitely can take that path.

About your GPA, it's hard to advise exactly what you should work on without knowing the reasons why it's 2.2, is it the kind of lifestyle you are leading, perhaps not a good balance between your academic life and social life and prioritise social life before academics, or perhaps you come from a difficult background and need to balance a part time job with studies in the way you don't have much time to revise, or perhaps its a health matter such as adhd, its really hard to give advice tailored to your needs. But my best shot at all of that would be, definitely seek help where necessary. I'd hope you have friends/peers in class who you definitely know that they score better at a certain subject than you do, seek assistance if you need to revise together or they should help you undersrand better a certain topic, it also benefits them as they get to re-study it with you so it's a win-win situation for everyone. Also there usually many free online resources including YouTube videos if you are a better visual learner so it might always help to look up resources online where you can revise better and go through where you didn't understand best in class, you'll also likely find sample exam questions of your needs so you can test them out too and see where you go wrong and work on it.

There's genuinely really no other advice, unless you are born in the 1% of people who are ultimately genuis, Albert Einstein and the like, most of us simply have to just put the work in. There's really no other way to do it, most likely only need to seek help, either with your teachers, friends and peers, or if its adhd, anxiety and depression as its certainly common at this age, or any other health concern that makes you not achieve your best in class then seek professional help. And just find resources online like Khan Academy or watch YouTube videos or take sample tests online and put the work in and am certain you'll see improvements.

Hopefully this helps!

You got to take your time and focus. I believe in you.

You still have two years to raise your GPA, and I believe you totally can! It would never hurt to retake the SAT too! I believe in you!