<p>If I, for example, take SAT 92384731 times, will it put my scores to inferior situation relatively the scores of the other applicants to the college? If colleges penalize, then why do they do that?</p>
<p>Colleges generally do not penalize you for having multiple tests. Nevertheless, nothing prevents an admissions reviewer from concluding you are an overly compulsive personality that might not be right for the college if he sees you have taken the test a lot of times. Since the SAT is given 6 times a year, you cannot really take it more than about 22 times (colleges do not use pre-high school SAT scores for admission and for most you need to complete all testing by Dec or Jan of your senior year). Two is not an issue and the same is likely true for three, but you should not assume you are actually going to get meaningfully better scores on more tests after that.</p>
<p>Very good response. I agree. Take the test once. If happy with scores, taking it again to see if you can do better is not likely the best idea. There are other things that virtually all colleges use to make admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Some schools really don’t care. They will just look at your highest scores. i did hear from an admissions officer at a top 20 school say, that “you can take the SAT as many times as you want, but there comes a point where we wonder why you wouldn’t rather be doing something else on your Saturday morning.” I read that to mean, some schools do care becaus ethey want interesting people on their campus and they don’t find SAT scores all that interesting. this particular Admission Officer did say that taking it twice was a good idea and that there was nothing unusual about taking it a third time. He was asked about a fourth test and his answer was, “I rarely see substantial improvement after 3 sittings.”</p>
<p>I agree that beyond three tries there is not likely to be much change. But, there can be value in taking a test a third time. </p>
<p>After our D received identical (and not wonderful) composite scores on the first two sittings she was not expecting materially different results. But, during two sections of her second sitting the room proctor had done some distracting things that D felt affected her results. Sure enough, D’s scores improved dramatically on her third attempt.</p>