Do colleges care for the fourth SAT score?

<p>I think I didn't do so well on the OCTOBER SAT and that was my third one!!</p>

<p>So..I'm either thinking of...
1) canceling my test (meaning no more EARLY DECISION plan for me -_-)</p>

<p>OR...</p>

<p>2) changing my subject tests to reasoning test so i can take SAT again in NOVEMBER...</p>

<p>BUT..</p>

<p>do colleges care if I have taken the SAT FOUR TIMES?
or..would it be okay since my scores are going up every time? (except;; i'm really worried about my CR this time ugh)</p>

<p>PLEASE HELP!!!</p>

<p>*what about ED?</p>

<p>i talked to some admissions officer at nyu. they said after 3 times, most kids dont improve, and that they note it while going t hrough ur admission. why didnt u think u did that well? if u like had a bloody nose or something id cancel. otherwise november is coming up quick, i would either stick with ur score unless u know u can improve, or cancel if u know u did bad</p>

<p>see..that's the problem cuz when i know i did well, i do badly and the other way when i think i did badly..</p>

<p>ahhhhh what to do??!!!??
on the second thought, i know scores went up (even though i did badly) cuz my last SAT in june was horrible except the math.</p>

<p>thats the same with me. i knew scores went up from my last one. So far i think i have 3 math wrong, 6 reading wrong and maybe 5 writing wrong. But hey, im not aiming for a 2400 lol. Besides, the act is 100 times easier.</p>

<p>Thinking about the exact same thing right now. I've sent emails to some colleges regarding the fourth SAT score, but not reply yet since its the weekend.</p>

<p>Anyone else have an insight into this?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Every reliable source I know of says not to take the SAT I more than 3 times. If you really feel the need to retake, cancel your score, but make sure that you have a good reason to think your score is going to improve.</p>

<p>For example, Milton Academy, which sent 13 kids to Harvard last year and knows something about the admissions process, warns their students in the official college app packet that students should <em>never</em> retake more than 3 times. I have read similar advice in more than one book on admissions, some of which were written by former adcoms.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would do one of two things.</p>

<p>First of all, figure out why you are not hitting your goal score! This is not really a take/retake issue for you; your bigger problem is why you are not improving as much as you want. Once you have an answer to that question, you have two options available to you:</p>

<p>1) Accept that your SATs are not what you hoped and develop a new list of "match schools" where you could see yourself being happy;
2) Figure out how you are going to improve your score for the Dec test, cancel your score, and hit the books.</p>

<p>I will warn you, though, that your odds of improving your score without radically altering your preparation strategy are pretty much zilch. The worst thing you can do right now--the thing you must avoid doing--is to cancel your scores, miss EA/ED, and then get the same score in Dec that you got yesterday. So don't cancel that score unless you have a concrete plan for making a major improvement!</p>

<p>dude i feel ur pain. i think my writing and reading scores will easily be above 700.............. but stupid math screwed me over. i misread atleast 3 questions, luckily 1 was student response, and i omitted 2. i hate this stupid test</p>

<p>Thanks all for the advice.
The more I think about it, the more I fall into the abyss of sadness!!</p>

<p>Agh, see, my problem is that (I think) I get so nervous about getting higher scores and all, that when I actually take SAT, I care too much about one passage and waste my time.</p>

<p>For example, in June, I took the test and got a WR score that was about 100 points lower than my practice test scores. So, I started practice tests and practically spent my whole summer focusing on SAT and actually got around to have 2100~2200s (which is 300~400+ more than my usual)...</p>

<p>But what does that matter...I know I did badly on the CR and WR essay!</p>

<p>Anyways (regardless of my low GPA +low SAT compared to other applicants) I'm going to apply ED to my reach school and take November SAT II tests and take SAT again in December for my regular-deadline schools.</p>

<p>about not encouraging students to retake more than three times on SATs..
I just read a thread about an applicant (or parent) who asked Harvard Admission officer the same question and from what he/she wrote, it seems like colleges don't care... (which is what i hope them to do!)</p>

<p>Also, I, too, did send emails to several colleges about 4th SAT. Wish lucks to all of us!</p>

<p>I think it depends on what college you are going to, I emailed the University of Florida about it and I got this response:</p>

<p>Thanks for your message and I'm sorry that you have been given erroneous information. At UF, we don't care how many times you take the SAT. We actually encourage students to take the test multiple times. If you take the SAT multiple times, we mix and match test scores ---we take the highest critical reading score and the highest math score from different tests to determine the SAT score that we will use in your application process. WE DO NOT AVERAGE YOUR SCORES. When I pull your information up on the computer screen, I will ONLY see one test score and not the number of times you took the test. </p>

<p>Since UF is a fairly large University, they dont have time to look at how many times each person takes the SAT. So yeah im taking it like 5 times lol.</p>

<p>I have the same question - please let me know when you guys here back from the colleges</p>

<p>different officers from berkeley told me that as long as the increases are SIGNIFICANT, then it's not a big deal. for example if you have a 23--something and you're going for a 23-somethingmore, then..it's like why?
but if you're going from 19something to breaking 2000, then it's great.</p>

<p>october was my 4th time taking it, and if i don't do as well as i hoped i'm retaking it in december. i'm not going to let the sat beat me :) we can b eat the sat.</p>

<p>also, multiple retaking and increasing shows colleges you're persistent.</p>

<p>some NYU lady said she would rather see us doing other things than wasting that much time and money. but eh who knows. </p>

<p>The SAT is fun in my eyes. Im going to take it once a year after graduation haha</p>

<p>i just want to kick the sat's ass. i don't want to graduate knowing that i never managed to get the score i wanted. however, i feel pretty confident about october's test :)</p>

<p>Not me....... i got 710 or lower in math :(. But im confident in a 770 or higher in reading, and a 750 or higher in writing.</p>

<p>If I don't break the scores that I desire, and if I don't get into a certain college because of my SAT scores, I won't feel sorry for myself. I'll be feeling sorry for ETS after what I do to them. :)</p>

<p>I guess 4 times isn't too big of a difference from 3 times then? If so, I'm going to kick that SAT arse in December, as I don't want to think that I never did too well in the SAT, especially when I have GREs and MCATs in the future to look at.</p>

<p>I had a college adviser tell me that a lot of colleges take the average of each subject's score after more than 3 tries.</p>

<p>The admissions officer at Penn who lead our info session said, "if you got a 750 on your SAT don't go taking it again looking for an 800. A 750 will not keep you out of Penn." If you got a 600 and that doesn't jibe with your GPA, figure out what your problems are and retake it OR take the ACT instead. The two tests are very different--and easier or harder than one another, depending on which test better suits your personal style. My daughter's estimation of the two is: "The SAT tests how good you are at figuring things out while the ACT tests how much info you retained from your classes."</p>

<p>I would e-mail each specific college you are applying to and ask. :) You have gotten some good advice here, but colleges have many different ways of handling re-takes. Your admissions committees might not even some how many times you took the test.</p>