<p>My daughter took the SAT in early high school to qualify for a GT program. Later, she took it very early 11th grade. Her scores were ok, but, we thought it would be good to retake it since her goals for college required a higher score. Unfortunately, she retook it in the middle of the AP tests. The only thing that went up was the SAT writing (she had taken AP English, and she got a 4 on the AP English test). </p>
<p>Since then, she took AP math A. We suggested she retake it one last time. She is registered for next Saturday. Now I just saw a post here that indicates that might be a bad idea to have her take it a 4th time, even though, not all 4 times were for college apps. She kind of needs to retake it anyway, because 30 more points on the math or reading or the two together would qualify her for a higher scholarship at some of the schools she is applying to.</p>
<p>I don’t see how taking the test 4 times would be considered an excessive amount. I don’t know how the SAT works because my daughter took the ACT, but you are allowed to take the ACT 12 times. My daughter took the ACT 4 times and only sent some of the scores to the colleges she applied to. She was accepted to all 6 colleges she applied to and never had any issues with how many times she took the ACT. It seems like your daughter is the most prepared for the SAT test than she’s ever been. Have her take it and hopefully she will get the score she needs for those additional scholarships!</p>
<p>I’m not sure her earlier SAT will count if it was for GATE qualification. My eldest took the SAT in 7th grade for a talent search and the scores aren’t included in her college SAT report. If for some reason they show up on your D’s report, they’ll see it was done freshman year.</p>
<p>I have heard that admissions starts looking a little cross-eyed when they see a student test more than 3 times but I only heard that from high school counselors… not from admissions officers. Plus, the freshman year test was obviously not intended for college admissions.</p>
<p>All that said, if she’s unhappy with previous scores and ready for this next text then take it.</p>
<p>LadyHam… with the ACT, you always choose which scores to send and you pay for each individual sitting to be sent. The SAT is different in that you don’t get to choose. If you send your SAT, that sitting and all previous will go to the college at one time.</p>
<p>I would just be wary that some colleges require you to send in all the SAT?ACT test scores you’ve ever taken so if you take the test 4 times you must send 4 score reports to those schools. These schools are rare, but just something to be cautious about. My advice is still to have here take it as 4 is not an outrageous number of attempts. If you are confident that she can improve then its a good idea, anyway its sounds like the test is a sunk cost and so is the time she spent preparing so go ahead and take it without worrying about how many times she took it.</p>
<p>I disagree with turtletime’s comment. Unless the school requires all scores you can select the ones that are sent. By default they all go, but you can change that. </p>
<p>So LMKH just omit some of the lower scoring tests if you are concerned about it. Personally i dont think it will make much difference either way.</p>
<p>OP, your D’s early test-taking won’t “count.” My S took the SAT in 7th grade for the CTY program, and those scores didn’t even show up on his report.</p>
<p>I think that your D has a good reason to retake. BUT–and this is VERY IMPORTANT–she needs to PREP. Prep specifically for the SAT. AP Calc AB has virtually nothing to do with the math tested on the SAT. She probably needs to better understand how to THINK about SAT math. She probably already has mastery of the actual math.</p>
<p>Only a handful of schools require you to submit all your SAT scores. The rest allow you to superscore, which means that you can submit the best scores in each sitting. For example, if your top scores in CR and Math were from one sitting, but your best writing score was from another, you could submit those and that would be all the colleges that allow superscoring would see.</p>
<p>2nd D’s school requires all be sent (state univ). I know someone in admissions who said they do it because it’s beneficial for student, since some make mistakes and don’t understand how the school superscores. He said the computer throws up the best scores from all sections and they don’t really look at every sitting individually. I guess they could, but why when the computer will pull the super score out for you. Both of my kids took SAT three times…I don’t think it’s a big deal - especially if scores increase each time which is logical as you get further along in school.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. It probably won’t hurt you at most colleges, particularly when you have the option to only send to particular scores. However, some colleges do see the number of times you take the test and do consider the number of times when evaluating the app. I’m most familiar with Stanford’s policies, which requires submitting all SAT and all ACT scores, unless financially limited. Their comments imply that they consider all scores, but focus on the highest ones.</p>
<p>I’d recommend only repeating the test, if you have reason to believe you will score notably higher. For example, a student might have received a low math score and since then spent a lot of time prepping for math. Or he might have been sick/stressed on the first exam and scored a lot worse than practice tests.</p>
<p>Excluding any ACTs or SATs taken in middle school for various programs most kids don’t need to take it again more than 2 or 3 times in high school. More than that is silly as the curve flattens quickly after a couple of attempts for almost all kids. In my opinion that 3 hours is better spent working on the essay or the supplemental essays.</p>
<p>And my opinion is totally different from the above. The negative reports about taking the SAT more than X times are ranging from old fishermen or their wife tales to mere parroting of hearsay and idle speculation. </p>
<p>There are two facets to the question. One is about the pitfalls of taking the test again. And one about the MERIT of doing so without an adequate preparation. The second one is the key. The first one is, unfortunately, mostly pure BS.</p>
<p>I don’t think it “hurts” them in admissions, I think admissions officials really don’t care if they take it 5 times. I just think it’s a waste of time that could be put to better use during junior and early in senior year and more testing has diminishing return.</p>
<p>I think it is totally fine to take it again, especially in the circumstances you mention, when 30 additional points on CR + M could result in scholarship qualification. Actually, in this case, it would be sort of silly not to take it again, in my opinion. Just be sure she gets plenty of sleep ahead of it!</p>
<p>The most I have ever heard an admissions officer say (Vassar if anyone cares) is that they* might <a href=“and%20I%20emphasize%20might”>/I</a> think you were overobsessing about the SAT if you took it more than four times, but really only if the rest of the application also created that impression. If you have plenty of fun ECs and don’t look score obsessed it’s always to your advantage to get the best possible score. That said, for most kids, who don’t study particularly productively, two to three times is probably enough as their scores are unlikely to improve substantially. Even the colleges that require you to submit all scores usually say they use the superscores.</p>
<p>One of the reasons this question is coming up is the new Common App (that’s so efficient) now asks how many times you’ve taken the SAT/ACT. So, your student may use score choice and be sending one test date for SAT where all scores were the highest, but has to disclose how many times they took the SAT. There may be some wiggle room in here for tests taken in early hs. I don’t know the rules on that.</p>