Off to take my SATs.

[Ralath]

I'm going to say because Booyah and I are the same year... (I think..)

[A_Forever]

Yeah lol I did fine 8D

now I get to wait for stuffs to happen and for me to get a number and I'm required by law not to tell you any of the questions but there was a question and it had LIZ it in and I was liekomg !!!11

LOLOL.

Thats bitchin.

You smelled what body spray/lotion I use and was like "OMG!!!1!!!1!!1" And now you have seen my name in a question in the SAT test and you were like "omg" Yeah.

lkajsdkljfklsd;jff

[Dynamics]

And that is?

Just a one number summary of how you did across all your subjects. The way it's calculated is different for different schools. But generally each individual subjects grades (A, B, C, D, E (if applicable), F - including plus/or minus) are assigned values between 0 and 4. 0 being the word, 4 being the best. The grades can be decimals.
eg: A+=4, A=3.5, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.5, E=1.0, F=0.5, U/G=0

So if you've got four subjects and scored 3 points on each, then you add them up (12) and divide them by number of subjects. GPA of 3.

This is looking at it simplistically though - the numbers are completely wrong.

More can be looked up here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education)




And good luck with your scores booyah

[Tamashiiryuu]

sigh ive only taken the psat a few times wich are probably nothin comparred to the sat

[Vasu]

So how do they do the GPA thing for non-American students?

[Ralath]

Depends.

If you're talking about how... say... a university admissions officer looks at international students when choosing whether to accept them or not, they will probably view the application holistically. At the very least, you should have a transcript of the courses you've taken in high school as well as a general idea of the achievement in the course. You might not have a specific letter grade, but there should have been some way to quantify your progress in the class. At this point, they might look more importantly at other factors (other achievements, personal essay, class rank if your school ranks). I'm actually not sure how they do it. I've never thought to ask any of the international students at my school.

There are some American schools that don't calculate GPA either, but admissions officers should usually understand that you've taken so-and-so courses.

Oh. And of course, they'll look at test scores--SAT, ACT (though it's not as popular overseas), AP, IB, and TOEFL, especially if you come from a country where the primary language is not English.

[Vasu]

So if I was to write the SAT, they would look at those marks, then they would look at the courses I took in my school, and depending on my score, and how I did in my school, they would decide whether or not to admit me. Is that it?

[Yosei]

There's also recommendations and extra curricular activities to consider. If you have good grades, but no extra curricular, you might look like some anti-social nerd who doesn't want to contribute to society.

Also try to be active in at least 1 club or society at school, and try to get at least 3 recommendations.

[Phantom Badger]

Umm... In England we have SATs in Year 9 (9th grade over there I think.. dunno) but they've been stopped now =D

[Ralath]

So if I was to write the SAT, they would look at those marks, then they would look at the courses I took in my school, and depending on my score, and how I did in my school, they would decide whether or not to admit me. Is that it?

It depends on the school you're applying to. Some schools might just look at those factors. I just looked at the criteria for international applicants for my school and its not that different from normal applicants. They require a personal essay as well one teacher evaluation (funny, I remember it being two). They also require a description of the grading system (which is actually a pain to get if your school doesn't have a ready-made one).

A lot of people say that applying to very selective colleges is a very hard to determine if you're not one of the "must-haves." And I think that's partially true. For example, last year, my best friend got into 2 very good schools and rejected from another very good school. No idea why except maybe that third school didn't put as much weight on his "qualities" as the other two.

Colleges always say that they're building a "class" and not necessarily determining it on individual students alone. So (and this is a commonly given example--no idea if it is actually true or not), if the professor in charge of the orchestra says that he has to have a euphonium, and you just happen to be an amazing euphonist, then you might get picked over someone with better scores, etc.

Umm... In England we have SATs in Year 9 (9th grade over there I think.. dunno) but they've been stopped now =D

For British people, I know that my schools (and other schools) look at your A-levels.

Again, it's different for different colleges and universities and it's a very convoluted process.

The less selective state schools tend to be a lot more numbers based. They'll say something like, "We'll admit you if you get a 24 on your ACT, a 3.5 GPA, or a 1200 on your SATs." (random numbers). For some of the more selective state schools (UC-Berkeley, UMich, UVA, etc.), I've heard competition has been really intense at those schools so they have a better student pool to select from so their score averages will be higher and they don't/can't necessarily guarantee admission to people who get the minimum score. State schools also heavily favor in-state residents. In-state residents get a cheaper tuition as well as a higher acceptance rate.

/walloftext