Do Sophmore year SAT scores "Count"?

<p>For a variety of reasons, my DS'12 (a sophmore now) took the May SAT. Are those scores eligible to be sent to colleges when he is ready to apply circa Fall 2011?? Are scores every considered "too old"?</p>

<p>Before we get tangential, he will take the PSAT next October and expects to (re)take SATs the normal Spring Junior yr - Fall Senior yr cycle. Just want to know if today's scores can at least be considered a worst case scenario.</p>

<p>No. Your sophomore SATs do count.</p>

<p>I was in your sons same boat. I did decent on my March sophomore and felt like it was still good for a good college, and I was kinda scared that the score might drop.</p>

<p>Extra fact:
However, for the colleges that require all the SATs (like UPenn, Rice, and a lot others), you have to send in your sophomore scores too.</p>

<p>all scores in high school count unless you cancel them.</p>

<p>My dd also took the SAT as a sophomore this May. She scored decent on both the SAT and ACT. Will colleges think less of her if she didn’t retake them as a junior? </p>

<p>Also, could someone please help me figure this out.</p>

<p>She scored a 31 composite on the ACT.</p>

<p>She scored a 750 CR and 630 math on the SAT. Am I correct that most colleges look at those 2 scores and don’t add in the writing (she scored 750 on that)? </p>

<p>If they only look at CR and Math combined, does that mean she did better on the ACT and should only report that scored to colleges? We didn’t report to any colleges yet since we didn’t know how she’d do as a soph.</p>

<p>Why do kids take them so early when they can just keep preparing and do better their Junior year</p>

<p>@tb0mb93 What better way to prepare than to take the test itself?</p>

<p>All three of my boys took the SAT and ACT three times, one took them four times.<br>
I don’t see any harm in taking the tests multiple times as long as the motivation is realistic. </p>

<p>IMO, the more prepared (and comfortable) the student is when they take the test(s) their JR or SR year, the better chance they will feel confident and score well. Keep in mind, not all student that test multiple times are striving for the 36 or 2400. If each student measures their success on their own abilities and is more interested in seeing themself improve on their prior score(s), that is a healthy reason to retest. I feel that there are to many students in this country that are driven to be “perfect”. For this type of student, they may be driven to excel by parents. That is sad.</p>

<p>my son has a fair amount of anxiety around the SAT test in that he puts a lot of pressure on himself to do well. This anxiety can actually lead to the opposite result when he is too stressed to be able to concentrate on the exam. He tested as a sophmore to get familiar with the actual testing environment, timing, other kids, etc.</p>

<p>He did reasonably well (although he wanted to break 700) with 670 on both CR and Math. I wanted to be able to reassure him that he has a perfectly respectable set of scores already to send to colleges if he wants. Then he can retest as a junior with a little less pressure on himself and more familiarity with the test cant hurt either. I think these scores already should be sufficient for the type of college that would be a good fit for him.</p>

<p>^Like you said, he should definitely give it one more try, just to see how he’ll do. Though his current SAT scores may be sufficient for the colleges he’s looking at, there are many colleges that give merit money to students who score above a certain cut-off point. If you’re an extremely desirable applicant, it may help you bargain for more financial aid at certain schools. Also, without the pressure he faced when taking the SAT for the first time, he may do much better if he retake the test in his junior or senior year. SAT scores also tend to naturally improve (often by a significant amount) from sophomore to senior year, with any prep, because of additional exposure to reading, math, vocab, etc.</p>

<p>He’s planning on it!</p>