Basic question about sending scores

Test Preparation
1

<p>I took the SAT in January and opted not to have my scores sent to any colleges. I'm registered to take the SAT again in May and, because I assume that I'll do a fair amount better the second time, I selected four colleges to send my scores to.</p>

<p>My question is, if the scores of my May administration for some reason aren't higher than my January test, how will they know? Or does it not matter until I'm actually applying this fall to send the right scores?</p>

<p>I'm only sending my scores to start to put my name out there and at least get a file started for me at these in-state colleges. Should I not even be doing this in the first place?</p>

2

<p>When you send your scores, you usually get to pick which ones to send (unless the college requires that you send all of them). So, if you had the choice, you could send either your January score, or May, or both. </p>

<p>You have until about a week after the exam to change your college/score choices, so if you take the May exam and think you didn’t do well, you can cancel the score reports. You won’t know what you actually got until ~3 weeks afterward though, and by that time the free score report period’ll be over and you’ll have to pay to out anything.</p>