Honestly, does getting a terrible score the first time hurt you at all?

<p>I've gotten my fair share of terrible SAT scores, and I'm definitely looking to make a huge jump my second testing. I'm just worried that my first scores will completely hurt me in the admission process. I know colleges say they only look at top scores. But doesn't it look worse if you got a 1600 the first time and a 2300 the second time, in comparison to one whos gotten a 1900 then a 2300.</p>

<p>It depends on the school and how they handle SAT's. I wouldn't say it looks worse when someone jumps from a 1600-2300 as opposed to a 1900-2300. The bigger the jump, the more impressive.</p>

<p>Not exactly. Sometimes a huge jump makes the adcoms suspicious.</p>

<p>How is a big jump suspicious? That shows improvement...</p>

<p>a very big jump suggests </p>

<p>1) you're not taking the test
2) something else suspious</p>

<p>however, if you end up with the 2300, it's ok lol</p>

<p>I don't think it'd hurt you at all.</p>

<p>I do not think the adcoms should look too far into scores. If someone jumped from 1600 to 2300 then don't try to reason if the score is honest or not.</p>

<p>I'm working very hard this summer. I'm trying to go from a 2000 (720M/700WR/580CR) to a 2250 (800M/750CR/700WR) or higher. I can do it because I know the 580 the first time was because of a bubbling error. I mean 250 points is not that big of a jump.</p>

<p>Read this </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1&lt;/a> </p>

<p>and think about the implications. </p>

<p>Here is a chart of score changes upon retakes, from the College Board: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/AverageScores.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/AverageScores.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>Good luck on your tests.</p>