<p>schools tell you they superscore to give you an incentive to send all of your scores, promising that they will only look at the highest</p>
<p>ok, so they may see your higher scores, but they will also see if you are one of those kids who is obsessed with standardized testing, and they will also see your "worse scores"</p>
<p>i mean, it's nice for colleges to "superscore" but don't be fooled and take the SAT millions of times, all colleges say that there is little variance between an applicant's sat scores during different takes, and that increases in scores are pretty much insignificant</p>
<p>frequently, applicants get denied if they take the SAT "too many" times</p>
<p>so if you see a "huge difference" between
700 M, 690 CR, 720 W, and
710 M, 720 CR, 700 W, just know that by sending these two sets of scores for a recalculated "composite" of 2150 instead of 2110 tells colleges that you're too obsessed with a slightly better score</p>
<p>and a superscored composite isn't as legit as one that comes from a single sitting, and students know that , and colleges do too</p>
<p>I kinda wish there was a limit of twice on the SAT. I just think people have such better things to be doing with there lives than worrying about getting their scores a couple of points higher.
I know some people who took it 4 times and the ACT 2 times as well. it is just a really bad use of time</p>
<p>^^^^ With those scores it seems to me the obvious choice should be to go with a single report of the second set of scores, 710 M, 720 CR, 700 W. That gives you a total score of 2130 (statistically indistinguishable from the “superscore” of 2150); no subsection score below 700; and a highly respectable CR + M score of 1430 (on the theory that most colleges are still figuring out how to deal with the SAT W score, and until they do, it probably counts for less than CR and M).</p>
<p>I guess in a broad sense this supports the OP’s thesis: watch out for superscoring because it may end up making you look weaker, not stronger. But in the particular case proposed, it seems such an obvious point that it’s hardly worth mentioning.</p>
<p>What you are saying is blatantly untrue-where does it say on any website of a college that “frequently, applicants get denied if they take the SAT ‘too many’ times.”</p>
<p>Don’t you figure someone in the office fills out the superscore on some form and that no adcom is poring over test scores and therefore wouldn’t be able to dissect them?</p>
<p>Lets say someone were to go from like 1800 to 2200 and the two tests were about 2 months apart, then how would that look to colleges if they required you to send all of your scores? (This really has nothing to do with superscoring)</p>
<p>Basically how do big score improvements look to college? Or would they rather see a good score the first time an applicant takes the test that way it gives them a better sense of what they’re ‘innate’ reasoning skills are?</p>
<p>No one knows for sure and probably seen differently through different admission person even at the same school, but IMO, once your SAT score is in a range, whether it was done by one test or three, coupled with your GPA, you are in the game and your accomplishments, ECs and essays get looked at carefully. It is crazy to suggest that you go to the bottom of the pile if you took three tests instead of one to get the high SAT score. I think there are more important things to worry about besides this.</p>
<p>i went to this college fair with harvard
people asked questions about SATs and all the colleges addressed them
harvard said that yes, they did look at an applicant’s highest scores if they took the sat multiple times, but they didn’t want applicants to make standardized testing an extracurricular activity, and the guy actually said that increases in scores are too insignificant to make a different, and that from the end of junior year to senior year, SAT retake scores stay in the same range anyway</p>
<p>then, being obsessed about SATs, i went up to the guy and asked him if stronger candidates took the SAT more than once, he said that it is better to just try your best your first time around</p>
<p>i really felt like that guy wasn’t too fond of superscoring. just how i felt while talking to him…</p>
<p>so, obviously, if you retake the SAT again, you should aim for higher scores in every section so that colleges just see ONE set of scores, it’s plain and simple and makes it easier for them</p>
<p>and btw, the SAT writing matters at the elite schools. look in stanford’s pamphlet, they admit a larger percentage of people with 800 in writing than 800 in math or cr (21%/15%/18%), maybe part of it is because less people score 800 in writing, but it’s an advantage if you do</p>