<p>DD took SAT for the first time yesterday, but unfortunately she was up most of the night before with a GI virus (DW is a physician and said it was going around the HS kids).</p>
<p>After months of preparing for it, she took the SAT, but she said she really faded at the end (and promptly threw up as soon as she got home).</p>
<p>Not sure what our options are now or the best course of action:</p>
<p>1) She was planning on taking the SAT again in April, so just stick with the original plan, since schools only care about your highest score.</p>
<p>2) Take the SAT again in January (if it is not too late to register). My DD didn't want to do that originally, as she has midterms around then.</p>
<p>3) Contact the College Board Monday and see if she can cancel the exam (if that is possible).</p>
<p>4) Other options?</p>
<p>Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. (BTW, she feels a lot better this morning.)</p>
<p>How old is your D? If she is a junior, I wouldn’t really worry about retaking the test in the spring. I think most colleges would expect a jump in scores and if hers went up alot, it could look really good. </p>
<p>If she is a senior, then I would suggest she retake them in January.</p>
<p>Oh your poor daughter! I assume she’s a junior? If she wants to cancel her scores without seeing them, she can do it by this Wednesday. i googled ‘cancel sat scores’ and got the college board page that said this:</p>
<p>If you choose to cancel your scores after leaving the test center, your written request must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on the Wednesday after the test date. You cannot submit cancellation requests by phone or e-mail because your signature is required. Students with disabilities who test in school-based testing have until the Monday one week after the published test date to cancel their scores, due to the extended school-testing window.</p>
<p>Download and print the SAT Request to Cancel Test Scores form or write your request. You must provide the following information to cancel your scores:
* Test date
* Test center number
* Name of test you are canceling — either the SAT or SAT Subject Test(s)
* Name, address, sex, birth date and registration number
* Signature (required or the cancellation will not be processed)</p>
<p>Remaining test dates are:
Jan 22
Mar 12
May 7
Jun 4</p>
<p>Registration deadline for Jan test is Dec 23, but people can sometimes show up and get in as a standby, even if they haven’t registered.</p>
<p>D (a junior) got sick in the middle of the ACT this past September. Bad cramps, couldn’t focus. We did not cancel the score, because I wanted some sense of how she did, even though it was not truly accurate. In the end, it showed that she did ok on the math and reading sections and it is worth her taking it again since she may end up better at the ACT than the SAT. I don’t intend to send these scores because her English and science (when she felt sickest) were really low.</p>
<p>D took the SAT yesterday, and although she was feeling better than her ACT experience, she was coming off a cold and had a runny nose. On top of that, she had a very annoying proctor that kept shouting out the time (in the last 5 minutes she would interrupt them at least every minute) and who had her own cell phone go off in the middle of the test. A student’s went off, too.</p>
<p>I’ve learned that the more times you take these tests, maybe you will eventually luck out with the “perfect” day!</p>
<p>I’m sorry about your daughter’s bad luck. If she thinks she really did poorly, you should probably cancel the scores. If she thinks she did okay, it would probably be worth seeing the score so you have a benchmark. My daughter was sick with a bad cold for her second ACT, but her scores were much better than she expected.</p>
<p>I would recommend having her wait until March to retake since she has exams in January. That still leaves time to take it again in May or June. It’s good that you started early because this stuff happens a lot! Good luck.</p>
<p>dadinator, I hope that your DD feels better soon! I am sorry that this happened to her.</p>
<p>Our experience is similar to some of the things uskookfish described. My son took the ACT on an unusually windy, stormy day. My son told me that the sound of the wind drove him nuts! It was what it was. He took the test in the same building on a nice sunny day and there were no sound issues. My point is, that even if your kid is not ill, there are other factors that can come up. One never knows. BTW, my kid did not escape taking his ACT without having a bad cold for one them either. Those scores were lower than his other seatings, but we did not cancel any scores. He just sent his highest scores.</p>
<p>Actually, the worst story I heard was from my D’s bf at the time. He wanted one more shot at the SAT so he took it October of his senior year. The high school was adjacent to the middle school’s football field…where marching band pratice was going on for almost half the test!</p>
<p>I think it would be a mistake to cancel the scores. She may have done very well on the first couple of sections, and with superscoring she may benefit from that down the road.</p>
<p>^^I agree. If she’s a junior she can take it in the spring and she could have potentially done well this sitting which you would never know if you cancel the scores.</p>
<p>Dadinator, {hugs} to your D for having to take such an important exam when she didn’t feel well.</p>
<p>One year our district allowed a Pop Warner Cheerleading competition to rent out the field house on SAT day. The traffic was crazy, and there were groups of little girls yelling/screaming/practicing cheers all around the outside of the building, just outside of windows where kids were taking the SAT!! (even though the field house is in the opposite corner of the building from the wing where the SATs were being held and we have a very large h.s.). The parents were furious, as was the principal. Central office was informed that from now on NO ONE rents ANY space in the high school while SATs are being held.</p>
<p>I’d let your daughter decide whether to cancel the scores or not - she probably has a good feeling for how she did - and definitely sign her up to take them again in January (assuming she is a junior).</p>
<p>Back when I was going to HS with dinosaurs, I passed out during the math section of the SAT! Thank the deity that it was not so hard to get into our excellent state flagship back then! (It never occurred to me to retake the test.)</p>
<p>Just as a note, both my kids have taken SAT (for one) or ACT (for the other) 3 times, once in junior year and twice in September and October of senior year. We found taking twice close together seemed to make a big difference, presumably from the cumulative prep they did on their own (although in each case the prep for the 3rd one was more of a review.) Don’t know if it means much but might be worth looking for 2 test dates close together, later in the year. </p>
<p>Still, don’t you feel for them when this happens! My daughter had one awful proctor too, and this one not only paced but refused to shut the window on the band practicing outside. WE changed test locations for the next one.</p>
<p>When my DD took the ACT, a girl a few seats in front of her threw up in the middle of the math test. The sick student left the room, but apparently finished the test elsewhere and ended up with a 36!</p>
<p>Don’t worry about canceling. Not going to be an issue in the long run. The test was in first semester junior year. Colleges will expect a good jump in scores by the time she’s a senior.</p>
<p>Besides, I think it may be too late to cancel. I think you have to request cancellation then and there…not days later.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have her take the SAT at a time that will interfere with her midterms. Her junior year grades ARE very important.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about canceling. I once took the ACT in a strange location when I was sick…it was rough. When I scored relatively highly AND I knew that I could improve my score, I knew that the ACT was a test for me. Think of it like a diagnostic test. Plus with score choice, there’s no harm.</p>
<p>I think DD has decided to go with the original program and just take the exam again in the spring.</p>
<p>She definitely does not want to take the SAT again in January, due to her midterms.</p>
<p>I’m glad that she has everything so well planned and started the process early, so that her getting sick last Saturday doesn’t really negatively impact her.</p>
<p>I think her plan is to take the SATs again in March, AP and related SAT Subject tests in May, and another SAT Subject Test in June.</p>
<p>^Sounds like a good plan. My younger son took three subject tests in May and then when one score turned out unexpectedly low he switched from his original plan to retake SAT in June to taking a different subject test in June. He took the SAT one last time in the fall of senior year instead. It turned out well for him. He wasn’t too stressed about the SAT score, but there was some room for improvement.</p>