@northwesty has the way the scores get sent in changed? When my kids were applying some schools (i.e. all the ones my kids applied to) required you to send in **all ** your test scores if you took the SAT. You didn’t get to pick and choose for the maximum superscore - the colleges do that. I don’t think it would ever hurt a student if a low sophomore year score is in with higher scores from later years. Admissions officers know scores from sophomore year are likely to be lower. But the rules and the tests keep changing it’s hard to keep up!
I am curious as to why your daughter would think it advantageous to take the SAT sophomore year?
Other than exposure to the test (which she could easily get from practice testing that many test prep places offer at schools now), I don’t see the purpose. Am I missing something?
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I’m not an expert on the fine details of SAT super-score reporting since all my kids ended up as ACT reporters.
But since only some schools (Rice, Stanford, Georgetown etc.) have the “send all scores policy” you’d think kids have the ability to send some SAT scores but not others. You definitely can pick and choose which scores to send with the ACT.
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The schools definitely benefit by being able to report test scores which have been inflated by super-scoring. I always laugh when they mention in the info sessions what a great advantage it is to applicants to be able to submit super-scored test scores. How exactly does super-scoring my tests give me an advantage when all the other applicants I’m competing with can super-score too?
Based on the comments our family heard from Admissions Directors at virtually all of the elite schools where we attended information sessions (all the Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc), these questions almost always came up, I think in part because they are not always addressed on the school’s websites.
Almost always, the answer is an explanation of if/how they superscore, if they want ALL scores, single sitting, difference between ACT vs SAT, etc., then they follow it up with they are generally not interested in students who choose standardized testing as their favorite EC activity. They want students who are interested in something other than testing. Then a couple of the schools made comments about how someone with a 2300+ SAT, or the 770 subject tests, taking them again to try for a perfect score is telling them something about what kind of a person they are.
But I recall one presentation, I think it was Johns Hopkins, they made a point of telling us one applicant had taken the tests 7 times, and they were either apparently satisfied they had done their best, or run out of testing opportunities.
He then segued into the discussion about the applicant who had included 23 or 24 4 rec letters, and politely asked us to NOT try to top that. One or 2 rec letters from teachers was plenty. He said the admissions committees do read everything that is sent to them but everything should please be meaningful.
Don’t stress about this - it’s only your kid’s entire future on the line. Plan on taking them once, but if you have a bad testing day, take them again.
@northwesty thank you for #post 14…I just saw so many times for people just said “it was what the admission office said” when there is no fact to support their assertions.
“But I recall one presentation, I think it was Johns Hopkins, they made a point of telling us one applicant had taken the tests 7 times, and they were either apparently satisfied they had done their best, or run out of testing opportunities.”
JHU does not require you to send all tests. So why/how do 7 score reports get sent to JHU?
Does the kid elect to send every test score (even before the result is known) to JHU even though it is not required? Or is that how College Board makes you do it in order to get super-scored?
Are you not able to wait to see what your score is and then selectively decide which 2 or 3 to send?
I honestly don’t understand why a school would ever get 4 or 5 or 6 test scores unless that was required by the school’s “all tests” policy.
@northwesty The UC application does not require ALL scores.
After 14 years of full time test prep and college app consulting, I can confidently say that there are no negatives to taking the exam 3, 4, or even 5 times, aside from the loss of time and money.
Thank you. This is very helpful
Thank you.
Do PSAT practice sophomore year, PSAT Junior year, SAT junior year in June possibly and ACT junior year in May or June. By the time you’ve taken two PSATs you will have an idea of their ability range and issues if any and really, I think the level of improvements after taking four tests is likely to be slim and diminishing returns. Just one father’s advice. Probably poor advice.
UC admission requires all scores to be reported.
^^^Again, with the exception of colleges requiring all scores, I see little harm in taking SAT more than twice besides wasting time and money… I was puzzled with people claiming admission, from score choice colleges, told them about students sending 4 or 5 scores
I don’t think any harm is done taking SAT a second or third time no matter what the first scores were. Taking it three times is hardly evidence of an obsession. It’s just trying once more to improve your score.
Another fact to consider. Many kids first take SAT’s in middle school to be considered for one of the pre-college programs at Northwestern (CTD) or Johns-Hopkins (CTY). My son took the SAT three times: once in middle school for CTD, in junior year for National Merit competition, and in senior year. He was a National Merit Semifinalist and awardee.
@blueskies2day That is simply not true; UC requires ALL scores for either the SAT or ACT.
Why would UC require all scores if they only pick the highest one (rather than superscore)? I’m asking because I had D18 take an ACT in 10th grade (her HS had all 10th graders take a practice PSAT and I thought, ‘why not have her take a “P-ACT” as well’). She took the ACT a second time this Oct and believes she did substantially better, especially on the math and science parts.
About sending multiple SATs or ACTs for TOP schools that allow superscoring:
With 3 sections plus writing, I can see an opportunity for 4 sittings being sent to show best scores if best subscore was achieved across 4 days. 5 for the ACT.
Even for systematic super score schools (meaning Adcom sees only the top score in each section in the electronic application) they would also see the DATE that subscore was taken…so they KNOW, up to 4 times (SAT) and up to 5 times (ACT) that you’ve taken X times. Will it hurt you to show you’ve taken it 4 or 5 times? Maybe not… But will it be more impressive (again, for TOP schools - say top 50) to have a great single sitting score? I would say yes.
For schools that require all testing? Definitely its more impressive to have a single score and taking it more than 5 times-not as impressive. There is a REASON these schools are asking for all scores.
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“Many kids first take SAT’s in middle school to be considered for one of the pre-college programs at Northwestern (CTD) or Johns-Hopkins (CTY).”
The UC system has an all-scores policy. But they specifically carve out from that policy middle school SATs taken for these kind of programs. I suspect that the other “all scores” schools don’t require these scores either.
“Yale is all scores from a series. If you rely on SATs, you do not need to submit sub par ACT scores.”
Right. In most cases/schools, “all scores” means (i) all your ACT scores if you submit ACT or (ii) all your SAT scores if you submit SAT.
One last question on this topic.
Does it seem like the number of “all scores” schools is going up or down? I would have guessed going up, but the only recent change I’m aware of is Penn which backed off its “all scores” policy a little bit.
Intuitively, it seems like they are going down. I’ve seen many school back off from “all scores” over the last 2 cycles, but I’ve not seen any school going the opposite way.