How bad is it if your scores go down?

<p>I got 31 in September and I"m thinking about taking it in October in which case I Have to send them blindly, but for some deadlines i can wait before I send though it's kind of pushing it. If I get 30 or 31, how bad does it look? I think Duke wants all the stuff in by March 1st so I could wait, but I really think that I can improve my score but I don't want to take the risk. How bad does it look when I already got a 97 percentile score?</p>

<p>For duke, I would say go for it. If you work at it, you'll improve. I went from a 33 to a 34 with little prep, so its doable.</p>