<p>Say for example you took the SAT 3 times. 1st time you got 1600. 2nd time you got 1630 and miraculously the 3rd time you got 2200. I'm not sure if that is possible but if so, would this HUGE leap from the 1600's to the 2000's look bad to college admission officers?</p>
<p>it's quite the opposite. If you can get a 2200 after you got 1600 college admission officers will see that you have been working assiduously and will appreciate your efforts. Consequently your admission chances will get higher and if your application is copious in ECs you will probably be admitted.
However your application suffers a lot if your score drops :)</p>
<p>I have to disagree. Most colleges take the best scores from each section from any sitting, in which case it doesn't matter what any of your total scores were or if that total score was moving up or down. If the college doesn't superscore, it takes the highest sitting. A big jump does not necessarily mean anything for college admissions. It is not true at all to say that if you have strong ECs and a large score jump, you will a highly elevated chance to get into college. Colleges have no way of knowing what others who scored 2200 the first time out did to prepare, and they know that the student who had no jump and did well the first time could have worked just as hard as someone with a jump; therefore, they don't really consider jumps.</p>
<p>No, it's not bad if you took it more than once</p>
<p>It doesn't hurt to have a high score. </p>