<p>I would like to know that too. Thanks for bringing it up.</p>
<p>My son has a bit of a unique situation. He took the SAT twice in the Spring because he has been given alternative entry in to National Merit. This was due to a major disturbance in the testing room. The counselor sent in a disturbance report, and he was told to take the SAT "as many times as he wants " before September for national merit consideration. </p>
<p>To make a long story short, the kids around our area do not take the SAT, but the ACT. He was the only kid that tested for the PSAT. He is very close to attaining the score he thinks he needs for merit, (40 points maybe), but is not there yet. He is supposed to take the SAT May 5, but I don't know if I should advise him to drop the whole thing, and alternatively take the SAT again in October. I think He will look a bit obsessive/compulsive on his college app when they see he tested Jan, Mar,May and (possibly June) for the SAT. </p>
<p>Also, we live in a small rural area. My son wanted to be homeschooled so he could self study AP (which he has successfully done), as our local school district offers no honors or AP capability. To complicate his possiblity of May 5 SAT testing, he is scheduled to take three AP tests within a week of this test, so I am not sure that he would raise his score as he is a bit spead thin at the moment.</p>
<p>If anybody has an opinion on this situation, it would be most welcome. I am trying to do my best to cousel him, but I don't have a wealth of knowledge on these matters.</p>
<p>Wow, I never expected so many replies! Thanks everyone for the advice!</p>
<p>I went to Exploring College Options and I talked with the Duke representative. She said that Duke realizes that the SAT is a test. They take the best score (not sure if from individual sections) from tests taken. She also said that taking the test up to three times is fine.</p>
<p>After all the talk, I will definitely take it again. I think that I will also try my hand at the ACT in the fall. I think it's good to try both tests and see what my strengths are if nothing else. Plus, I don't have to report my ACT score (as far as I have been told).</p>
<p>That's lovely. So 3 times IS okay. <em>celebrates</em></p>
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the Duke representative.... said that Duke realizes that the SAT is a test. They take the best score (not sure if from individual sections) from tests taken. She also said that taking the test up to three times is fine.
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<p>The Duke rep's statement contradict each other and do not address the more specific questions above (hopefully answerable by AdOfficer or other people on these boards with firsthand knowledge of the process).</p>
<p>"Up to three times is fine" means that Duke feels free to use more information from the score report than just what your best scores are, at least for 4 or more sittings. Saying they "take the best score" is probably not meant in the strong sense that for all applicants with up to 3 SAT's, regardless of the details of the score report and any other information in the file, the score report might as well have been just the equivalent one-shot superscore. More likely, it is just telling you that they have a highest-scores policy for the SAT as do most other schools, without pretending to clarify what else can happen in particular situations.</p>
<p>Tokenadult asked me to weigh in here awhile ago; apologies for the delayed reponse.</p>
<p>As far as MIT goes, I agree with what AdOfficer posted above. Taking the SAT multiple times is fine, but if you already have a near perfect score and continue to retake it over and over again it will send up "perfectionist" flags. Folks with perfectionist tendencies are often unhappy at MIT, because it's pretty much impossible to be perfect here (and we like that fact ;-).</p>
<p>We'll use the highest score from each of the three components regardless of date taken.</p>
<p>Are the highest scores used with no further comment in situations like the one described in post #40 above, where there is a huge gap between the summed highest scores and the total scores at each of the 3-4 sittings (i.e. each sitting is mostly a string of mediocre scores but the highest scores look great)?</p>
<p>I found this rather interesting article: <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=3947759%5B/url%5D">http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=3947759</a></p>
<p>Apparently the kid took it 5 times before he got a perfect score...it's still just as impressive as a one shot perfect I think...</p>
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Are the highest scores used with no further comment in situations like the one described in post #40 above, where there is a huge gap between the summed highest scores and the total scores at each of the 3-4 sittings (i.e. each sitting is mostly a string of mediocre scores but the highest scores look great)?
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<p>It's a good question but to be honest I don't think I've seen a series of gaps as wide as those presented in #40, so I don't have the experience to comment definitively. The only exception would be international students who often have stellar math scores and much lower verbal scores because English is not their first language. For these students we look at the TOEFL instead of the SAT anyway, so the gap is not of concern.</p>
<p>Were I to ever come across the example presented in #40, I suppose it would all come down to context and how the scores fit into the various other components of the application.</p>
<p>It strikes me that just because a school says it will take your highest SAT scores does not mean they will not consider your lower scores. I mean, the schools all benefit by showing that their admitted students have higher SAT scores, so they will use the highest scores for statistical purposes. That does not necessarily mean they will ignore lower scores in deciding whether or not to offer admission. I do not speak from experience--only my guess.</p>