Should I report SAT scores that are at the 25th percentile if I am a homeschooler? Answered
Do I have a better chance with 25th percentile test scores or no scores at all? Does being a homeschooler affect this since they may not rust my grades much? Will scores as a whole be lower this year? (To be clear I am talking about 25th percentile scores for the school I am applying to, not the SAT over all).
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2 answers
Yes, you should report your SAT score at the 25th percentile and even lower if you are within 60 pts of it.
So if the school you are applying to has a middle 50% of 1320/1470, you can actually submit anything as low as 1260 to this school and it will be welcomed. The driver behind this thinking is that there are fewer people submitting test scores so lower scores are better than no score at all.
What this also means is that you should re-evaluate your reaches and hard target schools as well and perhaps add some to the mix.
So if you have 1320, look at schools that are up to 1380/1500+ as well.
In past years, I think homeschoolers got a bit of a pass on test scores because they had to self study while many kids enrolled in Private and Top Science Public schools had in-school resources like tutors, classes or Khan academy tutorials, etc. Plus many private and public schools offer PSAT tests or Pre -ACT tests in school as well. However with everyone at home during Covid-19, I think you lose that perk for the time being and get no bump.
Test scores are going to be higher at Top20 schools since most admits have been prepping for years, not just this past year.
I think test scores will be about the same at T25-T50 schools and lower everywhere else like T50-T250 schools.
Report your scores depending on the school you are applying to. For example, if you say, have a 1000, you shouldn't report that to Stanford or Yale or Princeton.
I don't think being homeschooled affects your SAT score since most people self-prep for it. I even know people who prepped for it before they entered high school.
Scores might be lower or higher. No one knows because less people are able to take it. The numbers will be skewed. My prediction though is that it will be lower because people are taking a test in weird conditions like mask wearing and COVID19 in general. People wearing glasses will especially find it annoying with mask wearing because of like the fog (I had to take my glasses off when I did my SAT 2s in October since I couldn't see) so they might have difficulty performing optimally.
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I don't think my original question was clear enough. I mean 25th percentile for the school I am applying to not for the SAT overall.