<p>Should a H.S. Junior begin taking the SAT in December? Does it help to take it 5 or 6 times? What's the current thinking?</p>
<p>I'm a junior taking it for the first time this December. I'll retake it in the spring if I'm not satisfied, and again in September if I still want to improve my score. I think few people take it more than three times, and I certainly wouldn't want to.</p>
<p>don't bother taking it 5 or 6 times. just study hard each time you take it, and you should be happy after the 3rd time. colleges don't generally like to see someone take it more than 4 times.</p>
<p>Once a month starting in the second semester of sixth grade.</p>
<p>No, Poseur. Not 6th grade. From 6 months old!</p>
<p>If you take it starting in March, you can nullify the tests if you wish. So basically you can take it as many times as you deem necessary from then until college.</p>
<p>^^ Wharton you do not necessarily have to take it in March to benefit from the new policy (I think); the policy works for tests taken in the past as well</p>
<p>^You're probably right diligency92.</p>
<p>Anyone who takes the SAT more than twice [well more than once really, but I'll give everyone an extra try] is a complete moron.</p>
<p>^um... I'm sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. Many people can improve their scores by 300+ points by studying in between tests. I believe that the practice of taking these tests under testing conditions is highly beneficial to your score. Any more that 4-5 times, however, is a bit excessive.</p>
<p>INVENIAMVIAM, I agree with you. I took my first as a soph, second as a junior, then I was done. </p>
<p>Granted, I'd probably have done better if I'd just done it my junior year, but I'd missed the PSAT as a soph, heh.</p>
<p>To both Arachnotron and Inveniamviam,</p>
<p>Why would taking the SAT more than twice make somebody a "moron"? </p>
<p>People can take the SAT's as many times as they want. And how about if somebody takes it, cancels it, and takes it again? Does that make him/her a moron?</p>
<p>Since the CB has a policy of being able to cancel your scores and since colleges realize people study more than others, the number of times the SAT is taken is not representative of anything. Colleges take your best score and that's it. That being said, this is not to say that you shouldn't take your current/upcoming SAT seriously. </p>
<p>So basically, to Arachnotron's and Inveniamviam, taking the SAT more than once or twice makes somebody a moron? Even if the number of times the SAT is taken is held with no significance whatsoever? </p>
<p>I know plenty of people who have taken the SAT 4 or more times to achieve a high 2380/2400 score. They are definitely not morons. </p>
<p>Evidently, both of you have shown that you do not know what you are talking about.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Since the CB has a policy of being able to cancel your scores and since colleges realize people study more than others, the number of times the SAT is taken is not representative of anything.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Obviously the person that takes the SAT 5 times and studies hard every time has put more effort into it than someone who takes it once or twice without ever studying.</p>
<p>So if both get the same score, which is smarter?</p>
<p>^ How do colleges know if the students studied hard or not? For all they know the student could simply be smart. Taking it 5 times or taking it one time is no indication of a higher level of intelligence.</p>
<p>And it certainly doesn't make one a "moron".</p>
<p>The point is that you really shouldn't need to take it a load of times. If someone needs to take it 5 times to get the score they want, maybe they're not as smart as they think.</p>
<p>I didn't say it makes them a moron, but it shouldn't be necessary. Their score is a lot less meaningful, even if the colleges have no idea.</p>
<p>(Also, sometimes people are dumb enough to put SAT prep as an EC. Those people are morons.)</p>
<p>Lolol I was hoping to get flamed for that moron comment -</p>
<p>
[quote]
To both Arachnotron and Inveniamviam,</p>
<p>Why would taking the SAT more than twice make somebody a "moron"? </p>
<p>People can take the SAT's as many times as they want. And how about if somebody takes it, cancels it, and takes it again? Does that make him/her a moron?</p>
<p>Since the CB has a policy of being able to cancel your scores and since colleges realize people study more than others, the number of times the SAT is taken is not representative of anything. Colleges take your best score and that's it. That being said, this is not to say that you shouldn't take your current/upcoming SAT seriously. </p>
<p>So basically, to Arachnotron's and Inveniamviam, taking the SAT more than once or twice makes somebody a moron? Even if the number of times the SAT is taken is held with no significance whatsoever? </p>
<p>I know plenty of people who have taken the SAT 4 or more times to achieve a high 2380/2400 score. They are definitely not morons. </p>
<p>Evidently, both of you have shown that you do not know what you are talking about.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, if someone cancels their scores and redoes it to try and look like they are "smarter" by getting a higher SAT score, I think they're a moron. And this "Colleges take your best score and that's it." is not true. SOME colleges have this policy. But as of my graduating class, colleges can still see how many times you've taken the SAT and all of your scores - Yes, it's mildly impressive to be able to work your way up to a 2300+, but if the colleges see that you actually got 1800, 2000, 2200, 2350 - how is that impressive? Wow, the student can take SAT prep tests? Wow, they must be, um, really dedicated? Cool, SAT scores totally represent knowledge and ability to succeed in college? No. SAT scores show how well you can perform on the SAT, not in real life, not in college - no matter what they're supposed to represent. College is not like the SATs. If someone can take the SAT once and get a great score, then great! They're good at the type of things tested on the SAT. If someone takes the SAT once and gets a fair score, then, well, that really only shows that they're either not so hot at either standardized testing [which personally I believe is a verrrry strange excuse] or at the things tested on the SAT. Oh no! If you got a "bad" SAT score - shouldn't you take it again?! Surely you'll be denied by your dream school if your SAT isn't good enough! If it isn't perfect! Oh no! Okay, colleges know that SAT scores don't mean, really, that much at all. If you improve your SAT score by too much [I mean, if you improve it by a number that's more that could reasonably be naturally improved - like by actual gained knowledge, etc.] [meaning that you studied the TYPE of test that it is, figuring out the questions, etc etc etc which actually doesn't even really help you in the grand scheme of things], it basically proves that you only improved your knowledge of the test itself, which basically cheats the system.
Yeah, if you have a bad day, sick day, etc., and you end up doing more poorly than you would have liked - FINE! Take the test again! I'm not saying that that makes you a moron.</p>
<p>^ You're entirely generalizing your comment now on people who take it to look like they're smarter. </p>
<p>What about people who genuinely do poorly to other external conditions? Are they also morons? And yes, you said that makes them a moron earlier by directly saying: </p>
<p>"Anyone (that means anyone, meaning 100% of all people who take the SAT twice) who takes the SAT more than twice [well more than once really, but I'll give everyone an extra try] is a complete moron." I fail to see how you gave any exceptions.</p>
<p>So as I understand it, you're arguing that the SAT is standardized and not accurate of somebody's real abilities at life; fine. So as I understand it, you're also arguing that a higher SAT may or may not get people into their dream schools; fine. So as I understand it, you have no argument. </p>
<p>Also, you're wrong about the importance of having only one try (or in this case the second or third "moron" try) to accomplish a good score on the SATs.</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</p>
<p>Hoagies</a>' Gifted: Talent Search Programs</p>
<p>Duke</a> TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students</p>
<p>4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once.</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>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 Choice</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 Retake on How Many Times to Take the SAT or ACT</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>^Yeah yeah I've seen articles like that several times.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What about people who genuinely do poorly to other external conditions?
[/quote]
Okay please explain to me what an external condition of this sort would actually be? I said they can take it twice if they genuinely have a reason for doing poorly the first time - are there situations when twice there's an actual external condition that causes them to do badly?? If someone genuinely had a real reason [although there are very few external reasons that I can think of, so idk the chances of them happening more than once for a scheduled SAT date] to do poorly on the SAT, and this happened to them more then once, then fine, they can take it again. They're not morons.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period.
[/quote]
Now - meaning for the NEXT year of applicants, not this year, which includes me, so it's not exactly what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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."
[/quote]
And YES I do agree with this - if you study MATERIAL that's actually going to be in classes, in college, etc, then that's beneficial. If you're mindlessly studying the sort of questions on the SAT, I don't think that's going to help.</p>