<p>I have heard that if a student takes 4 SAT's, it will look bad because the SAT is supposed to show a student's "innate" skills. Taking the SAT I more that 3 times shows that this student had to study to get a high score.
I am a junior right now and I took the old SAT as a sophomore, and got a 1260. I took the March and got 2080, and June was 2190. Looking at my SAT trends, I am sure that my score will go up around 40 points. But this will be my third SAT I if I include the old SAT too, and I dont know if this is a good idea.</p>
<p>I'm a firm believer that you should never take the test more than twice. Anymore and you look score hungry.</p>
<p>First of all, why would you take it again? 2190 is a great score, congrats. It will probably put you in most admission pools, and of course, for the elite schools, it's a tossup from there. </p>
<p>I myself took the test only once, and I don't plan to take it again. Save some money and use those test fees for the SAT IIs.</p>
<p>My philosophy is the exact opposite of that of bill_smear. My personal belief is that you should always retake if you want to and you believe that you could get a better score. Most college admissions are very driven by numbers. The best option, of course, is to get a perfect score the first time you take it. However, there are very few people who can do this. In the end when all is said and done, I highly doubt that if you have the numbers the adcoms will worry about how many times you took the test to get them. They may even get a "sanitized" copy of your scores that only shows your best score in each section. Of course, I would never advocate taking the SAT a ridiculous number of times. I think admissions people would think it a tad strange if you took the SAT like 20 times, but anything within reason should be fine.<br>
To sum up my lengthy post, if you think you can do better, go for it.</p>
<p>I agree with bill_smear. Taking the SAT more than twice just looks bad, because it makes it look like you have to do poorly to finally do better, and you just don't do well the first time. Colleges will think "what? This dude had to take the SAT 3 times just to please us, how will he think college classes will be? He can't retake classes in college! What a duper!"</p>
<p>I am aiming for UCLA or UCSD and my weighted UC GPA will be almost 4.0 and I'm not sure how they will look at SAT's. I am hoping that it goes up about 40-50 points, and it might look good that I am at least improving every time. (if I take it)
thanks</p>
<p>Fakeout's right. Higher scores help college rankings. But colleges also don't want to see kids playing with the system. Unless you can score higher on ALL three sections each time you take it, don't the test more than twice. Take some SAT IIs instead.</p>
<p>I disagree. I asked a Yale admissions officer about this very topic, and he said it does not matter. What happens anyway is that your scores are passed to some sort of secretary who "screens" your score report, ie taking the highest scores. So, most of the time the admissions committee just recieves a printout of your highest SAT scores. Take it once more, it can only help.</p>
<p>i took the old one it is last sitting as like myt first practice not realizing that it would limit my chances to take the exam other times so far i have taken it 3 times including the old one. WOuld it be wise to take the SAT a 4th time even tho it would only be my 3rd new sat attempt</p>
<p>the way i see it is that the sat is a reasoning test so y should it matter if you take it numerous times becuase its not like memorizing knowledge its testing your reasoning ability so in theory your score should stay the same unless you weed out careless errors..thats only my opinion it could very well be absolutely wrong</p>
<p>"I disagree. I asked a Yale admissions officer about this very topic, and he said it does not matter."</p>
<p>they also say that the high school transcript is the most important, but they get so many students with straight A's that it barely means anything anymore. I'm sure that they care if you took the SAT 5 times to get a competitive score.</p>
<p>fakeout, it's not like the adcom is going to see your Official Score Report with all the scores listed. As stated above, the scores first go through a process where a computer/person picks the best scores from each section, and THAT is what the adcom sees. Plus, your point about the transcript is completely irrelevant. Of course the transcript is the most important, that is WHY students almost always have to get straight A's in order to even have a shot at schools like Yale. It doesn't mean that the transcript's value is diminished simply because everyone get straight As. It is pretty much a given that to apply to HYPSM you have to have a As across the board. And I heard this straight from a Yale admissions officer, in direct response to the question that we are currently discussing. If you don't believe it, suit yourself, but don't harm the chances of anyone else by providing false information based upon your own, interpreted understanding of what really happens during the admissions process.</p>
<p>I think 2 or 3 times is no problem.
Of course, if your test is from 7 grader, 4 or 5 time is OK too.
for example:
grade 7 1000
grade 8 1100
grade 9 1200
grade 10 1400
grade 11 1500
grade 12 1600</p>
<p>Can any of you firm believers of taking SAT two or three times at most come up with backing sources? </p>
<p>I believe sheldon0789 has come up with a more convincing source:
"I asked a Yale admissions officer about this very topic, and he said it does not matter."</p>
<p>Someone a year or two back asked the same question to the AdCom's at some Ivy's and some other top schools and got the same answer as sheldon every time. Essentially, take the test as many times as you are comfortable with if you think you can improve your score. I think the 3 test "limit" idea has arisen from the idea that after taking it a couple of times, most people's scores reach a "plateau" and taking it more times results in nothing but more frustation.</p>
<p>I think u should take it as many time as u want because they only see ur highest. Im taking it for my forth time, this Oct. I have seen a 60+ average improvement every time I take it so by the 4th time I will have a 240+ imprevement, and I think that will make a big impact on the adcom</p>