<p>Hello everyone. I am considering whether to retake the SAT or not. I will be applying to some very selective schools so the decision is important for me, but I want to get some outside opinions. </p>
<p>I took the SAT back in early January. I received a 1940. Instead of retaking the SAT at a later test date, I took the ACT. The time span between the tests was 5 months. During this time I got more focused and pulled out a 34 on my ACT. I believed I improved in this time, but will some of the schools on the coast see the same thing? Is the ACT really treated equally? I also have subject tests that I have decided to retake in October, so should I really be pursuing retaking the SAT in November or should my ACT cover my SAT I?</p>
<p>So I should not retake it because the schools will look at them evenly and my ACT is much better? I'm just asking because these schools will ultimately see both because College Board sends all your scores, SAT I, SAT IIs, and all your retakes at once.</p>
<p>Every school I visited this summer (10+) stated that they will use the scores that are most beneficial to you. If you submit both SAT and ACT, they will use the ACT and ignore the SAT. They made no qualms about admitting that they do this in part because it improves their stats for the purpose of US News rankings.</p>
<p>A further consideration is that many top schools require SATII's even if you submit ACTs. Since all your CB scores are reported, any school that you send SATII's to will also see your lower SATI score.</p>
<p>Check the colleges' websites. Many of even the top schools (Yale, for instance), accept the ACT instead of both the SAT I and SAT IIs. You may be able to avoid sending your SAT scores entirely, depending on your list. If so, there's no need to bother even retaking the SAT IIs.</p>
<p>Thanks for asking about this on your visits. As I expect you know, this is a very frequently asked question here on College Confidential, so I appreciate you passing on the news.</p>
<p>I've read articles on the ACT vs. SAT and what I got from them is that the vast majority of people do comparable on both the ACT and SAT (I'm assuming that's how they have those scales to convert). The people that do not do equally well on both tests do not do so for a variety of different reasons. In my case, my ACT was better than my SAT (I guess because the ACT is more about what you know and the SAT seems more study-oriented, which I didn't do for either). However, I've seen people (a few on this board) who had better SAT scores than ACT scores. But for the most part my observations have been along what the articles say: that in general people perform comparably on each test.</p>
<p>Also, one reason why it would appear that people do better on the ACT (I feel) is that the exam is scored on a scale of 36 versus the SAT's 2400. If you look closely at the ranges on the converters, they are probably not that different.</p>
<p>I will be applying to quite a few schools using the Common Application, and a few of the schools I am applying to require just the ACT and no subject tests (UPenn is the biggest one). However, others do require subject tests. So I have two questions: Should my SAT be listed under my ACT and should I retake the subject tests?</p>
<p>The application has a different spot for your SAT I and ACT. If you don't want them to consider your SAT I, then you can just omit it from the application (though of course the schools will see it when your official report is sent).</p>
<p>Without knowing the schools or your SAT II scores, there's no way to respond to whether you should retake them.</p>
<p>Well, I was thinking about omitting the SAT from the application, but if they are going to see it anyway would it look like I am hiding it?</p>
<p>As for the SAT II, I am planning on applying to schools like Harvard and Stanford and Columbia, so I thought that they should probably be retaken.</p>
<p>Send the SAT to all schools that require subject tests, and the ACT to all schools.
My suggestion: on the common app, just omit your SAT 1 scores, and put down the subject tests (because now you can't go back and change it).</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn't send in your SAT's to colleges that don't require it at all... I'm in a similar situation (2070 sat, 33 act), and I just have an internal fear that while the adcoms won't look at the sat, scholarship boards might in comparing me to other applicants...
But I'm a bit on the paranoid side.</p>
<p>Good points Chi-Town, you're probably right about reasoning. I didn't study for either of them.... When I say my scores were similar to yours, I wasn't kidding, I got 1920 on SAT and 34 ACT. Now that I think about it, it's probably because I never took an SAT style test before, while I took the PLAN, which is basically the same thing as the ACT... Interesting.</p>
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I was thinking about omitting the SAT from the application
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<p>I would report everything that you have taken, based on one CC post I've seen that I'd like to confirm (which suggests that a highly selective college will be much more turned off by your not reporting information that will appear on your score report than it will be turned off by the odd low previous score here and there).</p>