Help my friend convince her parents to not take the SAT at 4th time

<p>This is a post that my friend wanted me to write, but she is not registered....</p>

<p>Her parents want her to take the SAT a fourth time, but she is satisfied with her scores, and feels that it will hurt her chances and it will be unnecessary for her to take it a 4th time.</p>

<p>she is applying to Unc Greensboro as her first choice for the Music Therapy Program, and the score range is the following for UNC-G:</p>

<p>Verbal: 470-570
Math: 470-570</p>

<p>these are her scores:</p>

<p>680 verbal
570 math
570 writing</p>

<p>her parents signed her up for the SATs for a 4th time to see if she could score higher, and what i need from you guys if you could is like good online resources or other resources that say that it is good to take the SAT 3 times maximum and that it may end up hurting you if you take it 4 times.....</p>

<p>because it seems pretty excessive to take it a 4th if she is already way above the range.....</p>

<p>I think it's a waste of time and money for the parents and the girl.</p>

<p>However, I don't think it will hurt her any if she does. Colleges, I believe, don't look at how many times you took it; they just want good scores. In fact, a private school system here starts pushing students to take the ACT & SAT in 7th grade. Imagine how many times they'll have taken it by the time they reach 12th! I don't think the school would do that if colleges "look down" on excessive testing.</p>

<p>With that said, I'll reiterate the word "excessive." (BIG waste of $ and time!)</p>

<p>I used to teach commercial test prep courses, and would not recommend taking these tests over and over, for several reasons. First, students who have already prepared thoroughly do not get much higher scores on the retaking (law of diminishing returns, etc.). Second, it's a drain on resources and can be stressful. Third, while test scores are moderately important, they are not the core of the application - your friend would be better off devoting her re-testing time to aspects of her application that she can substantially improve (additional community service, polishing her essays, doing an exceptional class project that would bring in better letters of recommendation, etc.). </p>

<p>More importantly, the only time a student should EVER re-take a test, even just a second time, is if he/she has good evidence that she will do better. When your friend takes practice tests at home, are her scores significantly better than her scores from the official exam? If they aren't, then re-taking it isn't going to do any good.</p>

<p>It's not going to hurt her to take it again.</p>

<p>Have her explain to her parents that she does not need to spend an entire Saturday morning to raise her scores a little bit. It is a waste of money and time. Her scores are fine. Even if she is going for a merit scholarship, the minimum SAT is a 1200 (just the two section, I'm presuming) which she already has. I wouldn't worry.</p>