<p>Hello all, I am a soon-to-be senior in High School and I need some advice.</p>
<p>I have a plethora of ECs and everything else (fluent in languages, leadership roles, etc), but my problem lies elsewhere.</p>
<p>I've seen graphs and I've seen the evidence that the average accepted Harvard student has an SAT score above 2000. I've also seen the evidence that SAT IIs are above 700.</p>
<p>Here's my case:</p>
<p>I took the SATs the first time and got a 1730.
I took the SATs the second time and got an 1800.
I took my SAT IIs Bio E - 650 Math I - 610</p>
<p>With some rigorous practice, I feel like I can still greatly improve. My only problem is, I've seen evidence to say that colleges seem deterred when they see that the student has taken the SATs more than 2 times. They see that the person is really trying "too" hard and is lacking proper time management opportunities. I even want to retake my subject tests too, I know they're too low. </p>
<p>My initial plan was to apply Early Decision, and submit my retaken SAT IIs after as supplementary information. I still have one opportunity to take my SATs before the Early Decision date.</p>
<p>My question is: What do I do? Do I take my SATs again, regardless if it's my third time? Am I a lost cause? Should I try my luck with the ACT?</p>
<p>Harvard allows you to use score-choice option from collegeboard. This means that they’ll only consider your highest score(s) and you can elect to prevent Harvard from receiving certain scores without penalty. However, not all colleges are like this, and I would advise you to check with all the colleges you plan to apply before making a decision. Harvard also accepts ACT and occasionally students who don’t do as well on the SAT find themselves a lot better off doing the ACT. </p>
<p>However, I can tell you that your current scores will really hurt your application. Both the subject tests and the SAT I. Unless you have something super extraordinary to display in your application, I wouldn’t bother applying unless you can significantly up your test scores. These test scores are the first things Harvard will see on your application. Considering they will also have to read a lot of other applications, unimpressive scores can give you a bad start, if not knock you out of the race entirely (by this I mean, they stop paying attention to your essays, etc. and just skim through your application uninterested).</p>
<p>By the way, a plethora of ECs can be a weakness. Students with many ECs generally find themselves divided among the many activities. Harvard doesn’t care how many ECs you have, but how much you’ve achieved with them. In other words, it’s better to be a national champion in one sport than to be the president of 15 school clubs. Quality over Quantity.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your input, it means a lot. I know my scores need to go up a lot too, but I am willing to work for it. My only question is, there is only one SAT testing period left before the Early Action deadline next year. What should I take? SATs or subject tests?</p>
<p>“I’ve seen evidence to say that colleges seem deterred when they see that the student has taken the SATs more than 2 times.”</p>
<p>I don’t know what “evidence” you saw, but this isn’t true. They won’t necessarily know that you took the test multiple times, and if they do know, they won’t care. Taking it 10 times might give the impression that you had nothing better to do, but 3 times is pretty common.</p>
<p>I agree that these scores are probably fatal unless you have a really great story, you’re a Juilliard-level timpanist, etc.</p>
<p>^^ Although the OP can take the SAT multiple times, Harvard and the College Board think that taking the test more than twice is unadvisable, as score improvement is generally not that significant:</p>
<p>Most students take the SAT once or twice, and the College Board does not recommend that students take the SAT more than twice. There is no evidence to support the idea that taking the SAT more than twice results in significant score gains.</p>
<p>I feel like that A (“diminishing returns”) is aimed at students who have high scores to begin with. 2100 to 2200; eh. 1800 to 2050? Yes, if OP is indeed able to bring up his/her test scores above 2000, that should help.</p>
<p>In all reality you are not going to be able to raise your SAT score to a level to make you a viable candidate, you need to start looking elsewhere.</p>
<p>The College Board is a private, for profit company. If they saw a substantial increase in students scores who take the test more than twice, I think they would be marketing the test differently. </p>
<p>The reality is that the OP needs to raise her/his score 250-300 points; given the past scores, I don’t think that can happen. The OP could try taking the ACT to see if s/he did better with that test.</p>
<p>I raised my SAT II biology score from a 690 to an 800.
Though I haven’t taken the actual SAT, I raised my average practice exam score from the 1500s range to the 2300s range. So to those who say improvement is implausible, that’s absolutely erroneous.</p>
<p>Raising an SAT score from an 1800 is do-able, despite the suggested diminishing returns. But if OP wants to manage his/her time wisely with the remaining one test seating, I suggest OP take the ACT in September and Sat subjects in October.</p>
<p>You mean improvement on a grand scale, yeah, not just 50 points? Nobody’d deny that small improvement is possible, even likely. But if you’re talking 150+ (and OP needs at least 200+), I think you slipped up and chose the wrong word. If you meant “impossible,” of course a large improvement is not impossible. But “implausible”? That’s exactly what that is.</p>
<p>Harvard16’s suggestion is probably a good one for OP.</p>
<p>If you think you can do better, and I mean you legitimately think so and aren’t just being blindly optimistic, I’d say go for it. Apart from the testing fee and a few hours on a Saturday morning, you have nothing to lose. </p>
<p>My first exam I got a 2170. Being a pretty arrogant seventeen year old, I thought I could do much better. Took it again and got a 2380. Granted almost all of the increase was in the (so-called) essay score and my score went up because I deliberately took time to study how to best write sham essays like they wanted.</p>
<p>“The College Board is a private, for profit company. If they saw a substantial increase in students scores who take the test more than twice, I think they would be marketing the test differently.”</p>
<p>I don’t agree – marketing the test that way would undermine their position that each score is valid. If they marketed a take-it-five-times plan, they’d be suggesting that the first score can’t be relied upon as a measure of the student’s abilities. They’d also be giving an explicit edge to students with more free time and spending money, which is exactly the PR they don’t want.</p>
<p>In the aggregate, scores don’t go up much on repeated retest, but each individual has to make their own determination about their own odds. The OP thinks he can improve with “rigorous practice.” Maybe so, maybe not, but it’s probably worth a try, even if Harvard remains out of reach. Breaking 2000 won’t get him into Harvard, but it could get him into a lot of schools that are currently out of reach with an 1800.</p>
<p>To clarify the OP’s original question, Harvard thinks multiple retests are inadvisable because in the aggregate they are a waste of time, not because taking the SAT three times is held against the student. It is not. A third or fourth attempt may be a good strategy for some individuals who didn’t prepare adequately for prior test days.</p>
<p>Good post Hanna. Number of times taking test also depends on how early you begin taking it. MY D started in Spring of Soph. year (more to get a baseline of what schools she had a chance of admit & getting her used to going to another school to take it). Took it again fall of Junior year, & Spring of Junior year. First two times were fairly equal scores, third time she jumped around 200 pts. If a student raises their score over a certain percentage from their previous session, College Board has been known to challenge the score. They check other answer sheets of students who sat near the student in question, check for an abundance of erasures (changing to the correct answers) & I know of one case involving an athlete, checking for an abundance of finger prints (of someone other than the test taker).</p>
<p>Are you URM? I hope you’re not Asian because that alone is enough reason to look somewhere else, unless you can raise the SAT to 2200+ and subjects to 750+.</p>
<p>Lol, you’re gonna have to have a score of 2200+ to even be considered. That translates to about a 33-34ish ACT. Unless you have some EC’s that are completely unique to you or something(that’s a diff story). Taking the SAT more than twice is not a bad idea. Taking it over 3 times is. If you believe you can pull that score up to 2200+ then, duh take it again. That’s a hell of an improvement.</p>