New SAT Score Choose Rules

Applying to College
1

<p>I know that the new score choose rule is going to apply next year, and colleges will know whether you decided to use that score choosing or not.
If I decided not to use the score choosing method would colleges still add up the top scores?
Or even if I did use it and say I took out one out of three, would colleges add up the two I sent?</p>

<p>I'm expecting answers from person who are actually familiar with this because I know this is the first year College Board is doing this, and everybody is confused about it</p>

2

<p>who would really be all that familiar with it, as you said - it’s new.</p>

3

<p>Varies by school. Most will superscore and take the highest from each section.</p>

<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat-score-use-practices-list.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;

4

<p>Have you read the FAQ? Follow the links: </p>

<p>ONE-TIME TEST-TAKING </p>

<p>Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn’t useful information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that. </p>

<p>1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them “cold.” </p>

<p>2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus consideration if the students submit only one test score. </p>

<p>3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores submitted by default. </p>

<p>[SAT</a> Younger than 13](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/younger.html]SAT”>http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/younger.html) </p>

<p>[Hoagies</a>’ Gifted: Talent Search Programs](<a href=“http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm]Hoagies”>http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm) </p>

<p>[Duke</a> TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students](<a href=“http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-ACT_scores.html]Duke”>http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-ACT_scores.html) </p>

<p>4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once. </p>

<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don’t mind students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students prepare for tests. </p>

<p>From the New York Times: "Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.</p>

<p>“These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, ‘People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.’ He added that ‘the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest’ to his group.” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>6) And now the College Board is back in the business of letting students choose which test scores to send into colleges, </p>

<p>[Score</a> Choice - New SAT Score-Reporting Policy](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/policy]Score”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/policy) </p>

<p>so now there is less reason than ever to suppose that colleges care how many times you take the test, because the colleges have no way to know how many times you took the test officially. </p>

<p>Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>From the Harvard admission office: “If you submit more than one set of scores for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your best scores—even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT Reasoning Test were taken on different dates.” </p>

<p>See also a Newsweek article about the renewed score choice policy adopted by College Board. </p>

<p>[Reactions</a> to College Board’s SAT Score Choice | Newsweek Education | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/172585]Reactions”>http://www.newsweek.com/id/172585) </p>

<p>Some colleges want to see all scores a student has ever obtained, period, but as one admission officer asks, if “a student submits a single best sitting of 2320,” does anyone really care “how low were her other score sets?” </p>

<p>A January 2009 email from Dartmouth’s assistant director of admissions clarifies the issue: “At Dartmouth we consider a student’s highest SAT I score in each category (or their highest composite ACT score) and their two highest SAT II Subject Test scores, regardless of how many times they have taken the tests. We never discount a student’s highest score, even if they have taken the SAT multiple times. I do hope that students will not feel the pressure to take the SAT tests four or five times (the data suggests that scores typically do not improve after the second try), but we will always consider the student’s highest scores.”</p>

5

<p>the new score choice policy went into effect last March. As the previous poster mentioned, some colleges will opt out of the new policy and the college board will send all your scores, case in point would be Yale. </p>

<p>Schools will all use a composite of your best sections. It is in their interests, too, as they publish their SAT ranges of accepted students, or of the new ‘class’.</p>

<p>Admissions officers have been known to say that standardized test scores are not a predictor of success in college. Your transcript is key, including course rigor and grades in the challenging courses. Schoolwork should never take second seat to test prep. </p>

<p>And the ACT has always had ‘score choice’ though that isn’t what they call it. And colleges don’t use composites for that. For highly selective schools, you should take the writing portion too. </p>

<p>My DS took both tests cold (in a proctored, practice setting) and found he was better suited for the ACT and never sat for the SAT I. It is becoming more common in his high school, which has traditionally been very focused on the SAT and not the ACT. And except more a few schools, he did not even submit his SAT II scores, since the ACT+writing satisfies most admissions requirements.</p>