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How to Get into Harvard Even if You Suck at Standardized Testing

How to motivate yourself to care and get that top score

Amy @ivyleagueguide
Ascent Publication
5 min readJan 21, 2020

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Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash

I hated standardized testing. The only thing that was cool was that my name was short and took less time to bubble than the rest of my class.

It’s natural to dislike things you suck at. Unlike my peers in my honors and AP classes, I got an embarrassingly low score the first time I took the SAT.

Even though I didn’t prepare for the SAT, I thought I was at least going to get a 2000 out of 2400 (based on the old scale) like my friends. Nope, I scored a good few hundred points lower.

I was in denial for a bit, but then I decided to not let the score define me. I want to help others beat the college admissions test because it shouldn’t define you either.

SAT and ACT scores represent your college readiness

At least in theory they do. College still use standardized testing because, according to the College Board, it is a “common standard” since all high schools are different. One school could have serious grade inflation where everyone gets A’s. Another could only give out two A’s per class.

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Amy @ivyleagueguide
Amy @ivyleagueguide

Written by Amy @ivyleagueguide

Harvard Grad👩🏻‍🎓 College Admissions Coach🙋🏻‍♀️Get FREE spreadsheet to organize your colleges→ bit.ly/freeivychecklist

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