<p>I went to the admission office by myself, and asked the question,</p>
<p>"so I took the SATs three times already, should I not take it once more?"</p>
<p>the answer was the admission officers would not see how many times I took the SAT. They will simply take out the best score from each section.</p>
<p>some people, including me, would question the validity of the answer.</p>
<p>But I don't know where the most valid answer could be from if it was not from the admission office itself.</p>
<p>Could anyone please explain why people say, "taking the SAT three times is the best scenario," when such advice is not supported by any direct source from the colleges' admission offices?</p>
<p>Cornell for a fact, I know, superscores SAT stuff. That means they’ll only look at the best score you had from each sitting. When I took the SAT I got these scores–</p>
<p>M-710
CR-750
W-800</p>
<p>M-790
CR-740
W-710</p>
<p>But when Cornell looks at the scores, they’ll pick out my highest score and add them all up, or </p>
<p>M-790
CR-750
W-800</p>
<p>For a score of 2340. At least that’s what the admissions lady from Engineering told me, and it says it on their website as well. So take it as many times as you want, to get the scores you need for each section.</p>
<p>They’re trying to save you money. You waste time by taking it more times unless you know you improved and some colleges require all test scores (will look at every test you’ve taken).</p>
<p>It’s due to score choice. Most schools take it, some don’t. Cornell takes score choice, so this is not a problem. Also, this is the first year score choice is offered, so that might have been a source of confusion.</p>
<p>Cornell actually does not take the score choice policy, and requires all test scores. However, the admission office informed me that the admission officers would not look at how many times one takes the SATs because they just take out the highest sectional scores.</p>
<p>That’s what all schools say. If adcoms see that you retook a 2350, they are going to unconsciously make assumptions about the applicant despite what they say. It’s like discrimination. You wouldn’t admit that you’re discriminating, but it’s more of an unconscious phenomenon.</p>
<p>If you take the test for other reasons, such as admission into JHUCTY/summer programs, they’ll take that into account. Excess is most definitely in the range of 6 or 7 times, and your score will likely not improve much at that point.</p>
<p>but how can you assume that the colleges would think in a such way?
The Cornell admission office actually informed me the admission officers would “not” be able to see how many times one took the SAT. so they wouldn’t know if you got 800 on reading by taking it 10 times or in a single shot.</p>
<p>Everyone says taking the SAT more than 3 times would be an adverse, but I don’t see any solid evidence behind that theory, especially when the colleges themselves state there would be no penalty for it.</p>
<p>Potential reasons why taking the SAT more than 3 times could hurt you:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It shows that you had to put a lot of effort into getting whatever score, thus you probably would have scored a lot lower if you studied like a “normal” person.</p></li>
<li><p>It could give the impression that you have no life; spending your Saturday’s taking the SAT isn’t ideal - for you or for colleges.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Read Michele Hernandez’s book “A is for Admission”. She worked for Dartmouth and is now a very wealthy private counselor (98% admit rate I believe), and states that taking the SAT too many times can be detrimental to the applicant. Although the colleges will state that it does nothing to your application, it is a subconscious bias.</p>
<p>You must be one of those kids who thinks that intelligience is the most important factor for getting into to college. Advice: get over yourself, it’s no one but your own fault if someone beats your score through hard-work. Sure, you got your score by eating a bag of potato chips while surfing the internet, but you don’t need to have bias against people who actually had to do something. The SAT was made so you could study for it. Look at the Blue book, my god. The SAT isn’t an IQ test, wake up.</p>
<p>I never said I held that opinion, rather I said they were “potential reasons” for colleges to negatively view you taking the SAT more than 3 times. So perhaps you should read more carefully next time, before jumping to erroneous conclusions. </p>
<p>To howon92:</p>
<p>Obviously, they can’t get those impressions, unless they see how many tests you have taken. But there are some schools which don’t allow you to use score choice…</p>
But they can’t view how many times you’ve taken the test now with score choice. Assuming this, I came to the conclusion that you believed your statement because the college won’t be even able to make this judgement.</p>