Is it a good idea to take SAT on a week when a kid is working until 10-11 and then doing homework until 2 every night? Would rescheduling be better or retaking if scores aren’t good? Does it matter to top colleges if you took it once or twice?
I think it would depend on the kid. Most people would not function or test optimally when sleep deprived. However, there are some individuals that function well even without sleep.
Twice is definitely alright for top colleges. The majority of applicants take it more than once.
Some schools require you to send in all your standardized test scores. Look up the policies of schools you’re interested in. If you think you’ll do very bad and want to apply to schools that require you to send all tests, you should probably reschedule.
Thank you
Anyone else with an opinion or advice?
At the moment I’m trying to help out this poor kid who works and can’t afford to take time off to rest or to prepare for test. Don’t ask for him to post here, CC is very annoying and intimidating for kids who aren’t privileged enough to have tons of awards or parents hovering around on college admission forums to get information for them.
As long as the student is able to get a decent night’s sleep on Friday night, I would recommend taking the test. Colleges do not care if a student took the SAT twice. That’s the norm. My thought is that the student may not be in a position to guarantee that a future date is free from the same conflicts. August would probably avoid homework issues, but what if something else comes up? Also, that’s late to start testing. Taking the test this spring would at least provide him or her a reference point and remove any first time jitters.
Is there any advantage in acing SAT in one go and being NMF compared to ones who didn’t make NMS or had to take SAT few times to get their top score? Obviously, I’m inquiring about schools which want to see scores for all standardized testing.
Not saying it is impossible, but I haven’t heard of an admission office favoring a one-and-done tester. The universe of all scores schools is not all that large and probably shouldn’t drive a decision unless the student is completely unprepared to take the test.
In theory, no There have been some comments that the admissions rate for the “one-and-done” are slightly higher, but those are apocryphal, since the only ones who know are admissions, and they are not telling.
Generally you can take 8 or more SAT’s if you want and they’ll still take the highest one. I’ve heard from a couple admissions people that the only score that your admission counselor sees is the highest score. Only schools where they require all test scores could there be a disadvantage.
Yeah. I think only place it can be an advantage are schools where you have to submit all scores. I guess if adcoms see an applicant who scored1580 in one go, they would like it better than 1600 in 3-4 attempts. Of course, GPA, PSAT and other stuff has to be good as well.
My three all tested best in May and June. They were super busy but “in the zone” in terms test taking and working efficiently. The fall testing was not their best. A summer of good intentions but lacking the focus they have while in school left them a bit rusty. I think it is fine to take the test more than once especially if the real score is different from the practice scores.