<p>Hey so I have taken the ACT five times. The last test date was substantially higher than the other four... On the common app they ask how many times you took it and your scores. Can I simply say one and list them?</p>
<p>*can I simply list the highest date and the scores I received in that one date?</p>
<p>I think you only have room to put your highest scores for each section</p>
<p>You should say the exactly number of times you have taken the test and report the highest score. You should not lie at all.</p>
<p>Bump. The common app asks you to report the # of times you’ve taken the SAT (or ACT, etc). This sort of undermines the purpose of Score Report, though. If one has taken the SAT 3x but only wants to report 1 of them, you can use College Board’s Score Report to hide the other 2 administrations, but now it’s as if Common App is exposing you by forcing you to answer how many times you’ve taken it. Thoughts? How to answer this question? Importance of this question in admissions?</p>
<p>I’ve taken the ACT five times. I am listing the highest individual sections from three dates. The other two were lower in all regards. Thus I’m saying 3 times</p>
<p>Last year Yale had a separate score report section in common app supplement for those who want to hide their test scores from schools that accept score choice.If the school doesn’t accept score choice, they should do something like that.I am reporting my highest scores on common app and I will send my all scores through test agency to schools that don’t accept score choice.</p>
<p>Ok that’s whet I’m doing too.</p>
<p>You can hide the scores if the school does not ask for all scores. That is totally legal and you are not lying at all. However, if you intentionally put down a wrong number of attempts for certain test, that is lying. Just like making up awards and extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>I took it five times but I’m listing three because those three dates all contained my highest individual sections. I however am adding a note in the additional information section that says "if required all ACT test dates and attempts will be sent through official ACT score report</p>
<p>^ just make sure you understand they are asking how many times you have taken the test, not the number you are reporting. Indeed, you only put the highest scores in common app which is not really relevant to what you are submitting to schools. For schools that want all scores, you better match up the numbers on your application.</p>
<p>Isn’t it kind of a b!tch move for Common App to ask how many times you took the tests? For one, it undermines the entire premise of Score Choice, and for two, why does this question matter?</p>
<p>Yeah I think it kind of is. I’m just sending ALL my ACT scores and SAT 2’s to all the schools officially. I’m writing all of them on CommonApp and letting them deal with it. They claim they use score choice or they’ll just consider the best scores, so whatever.</p>
<p>For schools that accept score choice, they would not even care how many times you have taken the test. For schools that want all scores, you need to submit them all anyway. However, there are schools that may want to know your test history (disregarding superscoring or not) as one of the admission criteria for whatever reason. For instance, Harvard prefers students taking the test no more than twice. In that case, lying about the number of attempts is the same as lying about an award you never received.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t “prefer” students to not take the test more than twice, but they find that doing so offers diminishing returns (a claim which I’m sure many here would refute, as I know people who have boosted their scores dramatically on a third, fourth, or even fifth exam)</p>
<p>From H’s website: </p>
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<p>My point is, I’m not sure why a school would want to know how many times you’ve sat for a test if they allow the use of Score Choice; if they allow you to hide those test scores that you want to hide, it is inconsistent for them to then want to know how many times you’ve taken the test.</p>
<p>Base on your citation, they don’t prefers. But based on an article interviewing the admission officer from Harvard, he said so. As I said earlier, for schools who accept score choice, they don’t really care how many times you’ve taken the test. But there are schools that care.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the score choice has been available within the last few years, some of these articles available may be written before the transition too. In any case, there is no reason to lie about the number of attempts.</p>
<p>Well Harvard accepts Score Choice so your comments are a bit contradictory.</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree and think all should be truthful about the number of times they’ve sat for the tests. However, I do think it is a very unfair question - albeit probably an irrelevant one when it comes to college admissions - that undermines CB’s score choice service.</p>
<p>Here’s the problem… I took a ton of subject tests and did by the far the best on two of them and not the other ones. If I say I took six subject tests they make u list them all… This is not fair. Again, I believe you can say 2 and list the highest and then specify what you did and explain how some do score choice and others don’t. To you Mr BILSCHO I don’t think you are right about that being lying. That’s not lying because you specified what you did.</p>
<p>Should I do the thing where you offer to erase some of the test dates for the ACT? Could I then check three times? Or would the fact that I took it three times compared to five not me a difference?</p>