<p>Son's SAT's are 780 CR, 680 M, 730 CR, SAT II's 700 Lit, 740 Math II. His GPA is 3.97 unweighted. He's taken the SAT 3 times already. Anyway, I have been badgering him to retake it one last time to improve his Math, which I think is low for Stanford. He feels that it's unlikely to improve enough -- he hasn't studied any more for it -- and taking it a fourth time looks "pathetic". For his other applications (Reed, UChi, etc) I don't think it's a problem, just Stanford, which is one of his top three choices. What do yall think? Does his 680 merit a retake for Stanford?</p>
<p>If he has already taken it 3 times and isn't studying any more, then there is no point in retaking. If he is willing to do it (ie, you dont have to "badger" him) and do it right (by studying) then it will be worthwhile. Otherwise it'll be a waste of time and money. Why would you retake it twice if you weren't studying? You can't expect things to just come to you by magic. If you want improvement you have to do something about it. It's up to your son to decide whether the improvement is worth the work it will require.</p>
<p>Let me be clear -- he started taking it early (as a sophomore) for special programs -- it's not like he keeps retaking it as a junior or anything. He's never studied for it before, so this would be a special thing. And it's not that he's lazy; he's just been so busy with other things that it's very hard to fit in studying. This isn't about "My son is a lazy git who takes the SAT every month and never studies", but more about whether the 680 is low enough that he should retake it solely for Stanford.</p>
<p>If your son doesn't want to take it again, it's highly unlikely that he will study even if you badger him into taking it again. For the most part, I think that preparation is the only way to get better on the math section.</p>
<p>His Math II score is fairly good...it shows that his math score on the reasoning test might not be representative of his skills.</p>
<p>Four years ago I heard that if Math II score was higher then SAT I math, they used the Math II score. At that time they were also supposedly using SAT II Writing score to replace the verbal score if the writing score was higher. I don't know if it is true though...</p>