I heard from my friend’s father, who is a university counsellor himself that colleges will never be able to find out how many times you took the standardized test- the ACT/SAT and the SAT Subject Tests and advises me to take the test until I receive the desired score since I will be able to pick and choose the scores. Is this true?
Life is too short to take the test more than twice.
Some schools require you submit your entire standardized testing history. Some don’t (score choice).
Yes it’s true. Your tests are confidential and College Board cannot release any info about testing without your permission.
@itsgettingreal17 Yes I do know that. But would schools that require you to send the entire testing history know if you don’t?
@uskoolfish So is there any risk in not complying to the school’s policy that requires you to send the entire testing history? Why are so many people scared that colleges will find out?
They won’t take kindly to liars. If you’re shooting for ivies, they will share with one another that a particular student lied (and even if they don’t schools will find out somehow).
The issue isn’t about whether the schools WILL find out. College Board will not be telling schools because it is a violation of privacy and your privacy is protected.
But the issue is whether it is morally correct to not comply with a school’s request to send all scores. Some schools make this request, others do not.
When my D was a junior and deciding what tests to take, she looked at all the schools she planned to apply to and reviewed their policies. At that time, all allowed score choice, meaning she did not need to send them all her test scores. With that in mind she chose to sit for the SAT and ACT early in the year–as an additional practice test. As expected, those tests were her lowest scores and she did not want to send them.
One of her colleges, ended up changing policies and wanted all scores sent in her senior year, when she was ready to apply. The issue resolved itself because she applied to another school ED and was accepted. However, I am not sure if I would have told her to send that first test score if she was applying to the school that changed their policy, since she took the extra test believing she would not have to send it.
But on the other hand, maybe she would have.
The issue is complex but your statement “So is there any risk in not complying to the school’s policy that requires you to send the entire testing history? Why are so many people scared that colleges will find out?” is very revealing.
Doing what is correct isn’t about whether you will be detected or caught if you decide against doing so. I’d suggest reading a bit about integrity.
By the way, I’d normally discuss the problems with the desire by some colleges to request the full record but given the wording of your posts, I think my suggestion is more important.
@lostaccount HAHAHA. Okay then. Ya blame me for asking a question after reading another post here on college confidential.
I’m not blaming you for anything. You appear to have excessive interest in how to game systems. That’s your business.
Shady dudes are shady
I actually don’t think it’s possible to game the system that way. I remember when I had to send all my SAT II scores to one of my schools on the college board website there wasn’t an option to click the specific dates I wanted to send…just a note that said “this school does not allow for score choice”
Ummm, because they will find out. You can do the best job you can in covering your tracks and then find out that your HS sent a final transcript that has your entire testing history. Or, oops, the CB “accidentally” sent your entire testing history.
[url=http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2009/01/16/no-choice-on-scores/]Here[/url] is what former Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel had to say about not submitting all scores:
Personally, I’m not sure what an applicant hopes to gain by playing loose with the rules.
You can take as many practice tests as you want. No need to pay for and take a bunch of official ones.
Practice until you are sure you have improved, then take the test.
I would not take the risk of not reporting all scores if required. I think I heard about CB sending all scores by accident on CC before.
I would cancel any scores you took before 11th grade. Some people have to take the ACT for dual enrollment and some middle school programs. Colleges usually don’t count those scores anyway.
Study for the SAT. Take it. See your score…study some more…see if it changes.You are not going to do that much better…and frankly if you have to study contininously and take the test 6 times then perhaps you really are not prepared for the college you may get into with that score…plus you will have no life.
Both my D’s had sections go up (a lot) randomly without additional studying. Like 670 to 720 in verbal. And 680 to 780 in writing. They also had sections go down randomly-- 30 to 24 in ACT reading. But by using score choice and super scoring, their total scores went up enough to matter.
I am always a little saddened and surprised to read posts here essentially asking “if I cheat on my admissions packet, will they catch me?”
The answer is always the same: maybe, but that’s not the point. Whether they catch you or not, you’ll be living the rest of your life with the knowledge that everything is on-record out there, and that if, say, ten years from now those records get shared, you’re going to be humiliated, and quite possibly have your degree revoked, or some similar consequence.
And more immediately: what does the fact that you are even contemplating cheating tell you about how well you match up to the proposed school challenge?
I know I am going to get a lot of hate for this, but one option is to just take the ACT and avoid the SAT I altogether. The ACT allows you to cancel your scores even after you have received the score report and once you cancel a score, there is no score to report, even if you want to, assuming it is not on your school transcript. This only works if you are not going to benefit from super scoring of individual sections. So take it as many times as you are willing to suffer through it (sad, but that is an individuals choice) and cancel all the ones that you are not comfortable reporting.
But this discussion, made me think about all the things colleges do that are not “quite kosher”. Most refuse to report vital statistics that would help students make more informed decisions, for e.g.: # of Applicants, Admit rates, Stats, debt and Graduation rates by ethnicity and class, Some won’t release important and detailed placement reports because the numbers may embarrass them. Some game the rankings and manipulate key metrics to make themselves look better, and yet they expect the applicants to open up the Kimono and reveal all their warts??
The reason students are panicking and asking all these kinds of questions, is because the process is so clouded in mystery. Your application goes into a black hole and you get an admit/deny decision. Nobody can really tell what goes on in these admission committee meetings. If colleges want students to be more upfront and honest, then they can start by being honest and upfront themselves. Record and make available to the public the admission meetings. Let the students see that “sending all their scores” really doesn’t handicap them negatively as the colleges “say”. More importantly, that all students are treated the same when multiple scores are submitted and it is not used as a secret weapon to clobber some “ethnicity” or class of students, that the university feels “are too academic” or “too focused on test taking” or some such repugnant stereotype. Make the admission process more transparent and above all, don’t give students “happy horse-s**t” about how admission works. Be honest and upfront on how it really works.
Bottom line, Universities have no right to expect students to exhibit better behavior than they exhibit. That’s just hypocrisy.