SAT II: I am a native Chinese speaker; does it look bad if I take SAT Chinese?

[life_is_beautiful]

I know some people think it is pointless to take a language that they already speak, but I thought if I get a full mark it will look good on my application...or will it? Just it case the language test doesn't help the application, I will still have two other SAT subject test scores to send (physics and math). However I highly extremely doubt that I will do well on my physics SAT. That is why I am wondering if I can still make it to a good college with a perfect Chinese SAT score, even though I am a native speaker.

Any ideas?

Edited November 6, 2009 by life_is_beautiful

[Peachez]

I really do not think that it will look bad if you take the Chinese SAT. (I didn't even know that there is such an SAT).

But if you think about it, SAT is mostly for native English speakers, and they all take it. I do not see why it would be bad in any way for you to take Chisese SAT. If you are going to study something that has to do with languages in University, then taking the Chinese SAT will only benefit you. But if it is just to take it and you will study math, for example, then its kind of useless... I would say.

[avident]

This is pretty much a no-brainer: of course it looks bad! One cannot compare the critical reading and writing sections with the Chinese SAT 2, because the Chinese test is not for native speakers. If you opt to take the Chinese SAT you're basically showing that you like to take the easy way out and I doubt many universities respect that. Moreover, if you're tied with another student for admission, they'll probably take the one that actually took a legitimate SAT.

[life_is_beautiful]

This is pretty much a no-brainer: of course it looks bad! One cannot compare the critical reading and writing sections with the Chinese SAT 2, because the Chinese test is not for native speakers. If you opt to take the Chinese SAT you're basically showing that you like to take the easy way out and I doubt many universities respect that. Moreover, if you're tied with another student for admission, they'll probably take the one that actually took a legitimate SAT.

Wow that absolutely makes sense...What a shame though, now my future is looking really dismal

[life_is_beautiful]

I really do not think that it will look bad if you take the Chinese SAT. (I didn't even know that there is such an SAT).

But if you think about it, SAT is mostly for native English speakers, and they all take it. I do not see why it would be bad in any way for you to take Chisese SAT. If you are going to study something that has to do with languages in University, then taking the Chinese SAT will only benefit you. But if it is just to take it and you will study math, for example, then its kind of useless... I would say.

But the Chinese SAT is desgined for those whose native language is not Chinese. On the other hand, the english sections of the SAT reasoning test are for native speakers. That is why I am worried...

The thing is...I have heard that there are quite a number of native Spanish speakers who take the Spanish SAT test anyway, and get perfect scores

[avident]

I'm sure there are many people who do that - even Chinese. It never looks good, but it's allowed, so it's ultimately your choice.

[deissi]

Usually when you have to ask yourself the question "does this look bad?", it does look bad. Obviously they'll raise an eyebrow at you doing Chinese, but you must weigh that against how bad you are at your second best option.

[Bee =3]

I'm from Argentina and I've taken the Spanish test, but basically because I wanted to see how easy it'd be for me. I sat for three other SAT II exams though so I can send those three.. in fact, what I'll probably be doing is sending in Chem and Maths II for most unis, as I've gotten 800s in them .. which leaves me with Harvard that's asking for 3 SATs.. and hence the dilemma, should I send in Literature with 770 or just send in Spanish with 800? Technically, I'm a Korean native and the only course at school I'm doing in Spanish is Spanish (though I'm doing HL ) ...

I'm leaning towards sending all of them in and letting them decide.. ^^;; or shouldn't I?

(ps. wow. that was major babbling)

[sweetnsimple786]

A lot of people send in scores for subjects of their native language. For the Chinese exam, I've heard that you really have to make a perfect to get an 800. If you make one error, you lost a lot of points and your rank is wayyy decreased because so many natives take it and make 800s. To OP: I'd send all the scores. If you don't know what the physics score is going to be, then let the school decide. The admissions people should just take the three best ones [or the two best ones if they require two].

Bee: I'd think Harvard would appreciate an 800 from you. If there was a Korean test and you took that and made an 800, it wouldn't be as valuable, I think. But why not send all of them? They'll only consider the best three, but they'll probably be impressed by the 770 in lit.

[avident]

Bee =3, you should definitely send the literature score! 770 is nearly perfect and really, a difference of 30 points is insignificant. I'm sure Harvard agrees with me on this. The fact that it's from literature versus Spanish moreover provides an advantage that is much higher than the 30 point difference.

As for sending all the scores, I'm not altogether sure I'd do that. You want to show that you can listen to directions.

Edited November 7, 2009 by avident

[faith]

I emailed an elite college about that question before (I think it was Yale but I can't quite remember), and the admission officer recommended that if I were to take a language subject test I shouldn't take it in my first language. However, I don't think it will hurt if you send in, say, two language subject tests.