<p>Ive debated this with one of my friends, who thinks it is OK to take the SAT like 5 to 6 times or as many as you want. I, on the other hand, believe that it is detrimental to your college admissions(especially in the top colleges) to take it more than 2 or 3 times.
What is your opinion or knowledge of this? Does taking SAT numerous times hurt your college apps/admission?</p>
<p>If you send all your scores, then yes. Furthermore, taking it 5 or 6 times is just a waste of time. Taking it that many times means you want a good score, and if you want a good score, just sit down and study. The “experience” component of raising your score is void after your first or second testing.</p>
<p>Use the search button. It’s been debated many times. Most people agree that taking it 3+ times is alright. You can still get into selective colleges, but some admissions officers will question how effectively you use your time.</p>
<p>well i have searched. and everytime i type in a question like that it doesnt really come up 
any other opinions?</p>
<p>Don’t take it more than 3 times. If you know you didn’t do well, then cancel it. It definitely doesn’t help your chances to have taken a test 5 or 6 times. As to whether it hurts you or not, chances are that it will affect the decision only slightly if at all.</p>
<p>I thought, according to my dau., that students can now select which scores to send. So taking it more often than in the past doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.</p>
<p>Some top colleges still want all your scores so score choice does nothing to applicants to those schools. It’s not detrimental to take 5+ times if the school goes by score choice. However, if they don’t and you have to send in all scores, the colleges will most likely question if you use your time wisely. Also, the increase between tests probably decreases with each test.</p>
<p>I don’t see why you’d really need to take it more than three times (or when you’d find the time?). Let’s say you took it five times instead of two. Those three times are seven hours (five hours of testing, an hour of transportation, and an hour for registration, let’s say) worth of testing. 3 tests x 7 hours = 21 hours. If you spent that 21 hours studying… well, to me, 3+ SATs would be a waste of time and money. But if you really want to, I guess you could.</p>
<p>3 times is plenty</p>
<p>My D gets extremely anxious when taking tests. She knows the material cold when she practices at home, but gets completely flustered during actual testing. Further study will not help her. However, it calms her down to know that any one test does not count at all. She will take it multiple times (haven’t decided how many yet). If it takes 5 times, to get the results she wants then she will take it that many times.</p>
<p>See the FAQ: </p>
<p>ONE-TIME TEST-TAKING </p>
<p>Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn’t useful information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that. </p>
<p>1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them “cold.” </p>
<p>2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus consideration if the students submit only one test score. </p>
<p>3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores submitted by default. </p>
<p>[SAT</a> Younger than 13](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/younger.html]SAT”>http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/younger.html) </p>
<p>[Hoagies</a>’ Gifted: Talent Search Programs](<a href=“http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm]Hoagies”>http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm) </p>
<p>[Duke</a> TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students](<a href=“http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-ACT_scores.html]Duke”>http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-ACT_scores.html) </p>
<p>4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once. </p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf</a> </p>
<p>5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don’t mind students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students prepare for tests. </p>
<p>From the New York Times: "Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.</p>
<p>“These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, ‘People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.’ He added that ‘the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest’ to his group.” </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print</a> </p>
<p>6) And now the College Board is back in the business of letting students choose which test scores to send into colleges, </p>
<p>[Score</a> Choice - New SAT Score-Reporting Policy](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/policy]Score”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/policy) </p>
<p>so now there is less reason than ever to suppose that colleges care how many times you take the test, because the colleges have no way to know how many times you took the test officially. </p>
<p>Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038</a> </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf</a> </p>
<p>From the Harvard admission office: “If you submit more than one set of scores for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your best scores—even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT Reasoning Test were taken on different dates.” </p>
<p>See also a Newsweek article about the renewed score choice policy adopted by College Board. </p>
<p>[Reactions</a> to College Board’s SAT Score Choice | Newsweek Education | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/172585]Reactions”>http://www.newsweek.com/id/172585) </p>
<p>Some colleges want to see all scores a student has ever obtained, period, but as one admission officer asks, if “a student submits a single best sitting of 2320,” does anyone really care “how low were her other score sets?” </p>
<p>A January 2009 email from Dartmouth’s assistant director of admissions clarifies the issue: “At Dartmouth we consider a student’s highest SAT I score in each category (or their highest composite ACT score) and their two highest SAT II Subject Test scores, regardless of how many times they have taken the tests. We never discount a student’s highest score, even if they have taken the SAT multiple times. I do hope that students will not feel the pressure to take the SAT tests four or five times (the data suggests that scores typically do not improve after the second try), but we will always consider the student’s highest scores.”</p>
<p>So basically, the general consensus is to take the test as many times as it benefits your score…
ANOTHER QUESTION
i have a 2210, after a 2nd try, and all my individual scores improved from the first one try, Should i retake it?</p>
<p>Depends… how thoroughly did you study between your first and second testings? If you studied like crazy, then there may not be much more you can do to raise your score. On the other hand, if you still feel there’s more you can study, it’s not necessarily a bad idea to retake.</p>
<p>Was the 2210 your first or second attempt? After you reach a certain score there’s not much point in re-taking.</p>
<p>once is best. three at max. four is debatable. no more…</p>
<p>Strange Camus…since you differ from others, why do u say that? whats your reasoning/knowledge that makes you say that? because that is what i originally believed.
and to 112358, it was my 2nd time.</p>
<p>I just registered today for the SAT in May.
I took the one in March but im going to take it again so that i can start studying as soon as i get my scores.</p>
<p>I know someone who has taken the SATs 5 times, with a cumulative score of 2050 who got into Duke, UVA, UPenn, UNC, etc. He also won a full ride scholarship to Duke.</p>
<p>Hope that helped w/ your question</p>
<p>***?!? 2050?? He was an athlete right??</p>
<p>is that means a higher score or a score of 2000+ after the 3rd test is ok?
i hope so…im going to take antoher test this october</p>
<p>haha, no he wasn’t an athlete. i guess that goes to show SATs aren’t everything. He had amazing Recs, ECs, Essays too.</p>