<p>My first time taking the SAT I got:
Critical Reading 800
Math 650
Writing 800</p>
<p>I want to take it again to bump my math score up to at least a 700, but I'll be risking my 2 800s if I do so. Do most schools take your best component or your best overall? I know some Ivy League schools take the best of each component, which would be perfect for me, but what about elsewhere?</p>
<p>pshh just be happy u got an 800 CR</p>
<p>depends by school but almost all of them take the best component. some of the better schools may look at each sitting seperately. btw how did u manage an 800 CR?</p>
<p>I have no idea. My parents can't afford test prep courses, I didn't feel like spending the equivalent of 5-hours-worth-of-work on an SAT prep book, so I just did the free college board SAT question of the day. I love reading though--I read constantly and I have a pretty good vocab. The 800 completely shocked me though...especially because I didn't do prep for it.</p>
<p>You do have quite the dilemma... a math score that is only decent, worth retaking... and absolutely stellar CR/W scores.</p>
<p>I don't have an answer for you.</p>
<p>i see you want to take princeton, and princeton take the best components, you can take it again. just see my other post about the problem that poses.</p>
<p>Since you got 2 800s with little prep, I'd go for it. Don't worry about those scores going down dramatically. Unless you blow them off completely you should still do well. In fact, you should go in more relaxed because you've already aced them. </p>
<p>Either way most schools take the highest from each section, so if you raise the 650, you are golden.</p>
<p>Oh, one other thing to think about...if you send in your app and SAT and SAT II scores before you retake, and then retake, they won't get a second score report unless you specifically send it to them. So if you do retake and don't go up on math and/or go down on CR and writing, then no worries!</p>
<p>Does anybody have a list of if these schools take best component or best sitting?</p>
<p>I looked on a bunch of colleges websites but I couldn't find the info on a lot of them. So far I know that Princeton and Harvard will take your best component. Does anybody know about...</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Penn</li>
</ol>
<p>If so, that would be so helpful! Maybe I'm just not looking on the sites hard enough, so sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm not very good at finding out all the answers on college websites, I usually just end up re-reading the FAQs about admissions a bunch of times and still being confused.</p>