<p>I've taken the SAT twice. Scores were better on the first. I have heard that it does not look good if a student takes the test more than 2 times. Is there any truth to this?</p>
<p>I've heard numerous places that 3 is the cut-off. Anymore than 3 is starting to seem obsessive (and your scores tend to level off anyway)</p>
<p>ive taken it 2 times, and im thinking about 3...</p>
<p>1st time i took it i bombed it.. 530 cr 530 writing 610 math</p>
<p>and i just got my scores and i bombed it again.. 560 cr 610writing 500 math</p>
<p>The author of A is for Admission, an admission officer at Dartmouth, recommends 3 times as the limit. It's not that I believe in what she says, but one should pay attention to how many times a person takes a test. If you take it too many times, it will be seen as excessive and as meticulous to scores.</p>
<p>Anything about testing in that old book is outdated information. And I have heard one recent Stanford admission officer describe that book as the WORST of any on the college admission process today. Besides college admission officers know that a lot of students cancel scores, so it can't look especially good to have "only" one or two sittings of the test on your record of scores, because who knows how many times an actually taken test session was cancelled? </p>
<p>The College Board keeps figures showing some students take the SAT five times or more, just as juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>Colleges say they look at your best scores--Harvard strengthens that to saying "ONLY your highest scores"--so the key idea is to gain the highest scores you can.</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1</a> </p>
<p>But test scores aren't the only thing that matters for college admission, even for the students with the highest scores, </p>
<p>so make sure to take care of everything else that is important. </p>
<p>Where do you plan to apply? That makes a difference.</p>
<p>The information in the old book mentioned above is out-of-date as to testing requirements and use of tests in admission decisions and out-of-date on other issues too. One former admission officer for Stanford, who is now a college counselor at a private high school, described that book (which I have read) at a public meeting for parents as the WORST book available on college admission today. (He recommends a</a> newer book that I have found very helpful.) </p>
<p>The College Board keeps figures showing some students take the SAT five times or more, just as juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>Colleges say they look at your best scores--Harvard strengthens that to saying "ONLY your highest scores"--so the key idea is to gain the highest scores you can, without worrying too much about how many times you took the test. </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1</a> </p>
<p>But test scores aren't the only thing that matters for college admission, even for the students with the highest scores,</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882</a> </p>
<p>so make sure to take care of everything else that is important. </p>
<p>There are a couple more reasons why colleges don't count how many times you took the test as much as some students think. First of all, any student who shows up and takes the SAT for real can cancel the scores. Thus a college admission officer can never give a student a lot of extra credit for "only" testing once or twice, because it may be that that student tested a lot but didn't report all the scores. The fact that all colleges are aware that students can cancel scores considerably diminishes the value of canceling scores and always diminishes the value of only testing once or twice--which, anyway, is something colleges say they don't worry about. Moreover, colleges are also aware that many middle-school-age students take college entrance exams for Talent Search participation (eligibility for distance learning or summer programs and academic awards) </p>
<p><a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm</a> </p>
<p>and thus colleges are well aware that a lot of applicants have experience on the SAT that will not show up on the student's record of scores, because scores from below ninth grade are not saved on the record of scores by default. </p>
<p>Where do you plan to apply? That makes a difference. </p>
<p>It's best not to worry about the number of times you take the SAT, but rather to do your best each time you show up to take the test. You can best prepare for the test by READING, READING, READING, and READING, and one good thing to read is this year's Harvard viewbook section on admission tests, </p>
<p>where you will find out that "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." If that policy works for Harvard, why would you expect any other college to care more about how often you take the test?</p>
<p>i think of course that does with common sense. if you got 2380 or 2390 it wouldn't look sane to take it again, and worse so if the score drops. Senior year retakes of junior year scores are probably fine.</p>
<p>but im sorry, i still do believe that "seeing" and "passively/unconsciously" all previous scores is arguably different from actively "considering" previous scores. they never said they wouldn't see them. the same way that it's difficult for juries to totally disregard a certain argument upon order. unless the applications are read entirely by machines, we can never eliminate the human factor - even if it's policy.</p>
<p>It's different in America.</p>
<p>how is it different? how do they eliminate that human factor? should I retake?!? i got a 2380 on my 3rd try. would a fourth try 2400 be okay? would they think im crazy or something</p>
<p>and would there be any REAL difference between a single sitting 2400 and a superscore 2400? tokenadult, what do you think...</p>
<p>
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would there be any REAL difference between a single sitting 2400 and a superscore 2400? tokenadult, what do you think
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</p>
<p>Either applicant could be rejected by a college that meanwhile admitted lower-scoring applicants, so there isn't any practical difference. I have to emphasize in this thread that Harvard, which ought to care about this issue as much as any college in the country, doesn't care, PERIOD. I've seen a couple of different Harvard admission officers respond to this question, and since then I've asked two more this question directly. The answer is consistent: Harvard considers ONLY your best scores. (That's also what Harvard says in its current viewbook.) </p>
<p>If Harvard doesn't care at all, why should any less selective college care more? What college says that it cares at all? </p>
<p>How you use your time IS important. If you don't have extracurricular activities or challenging classes keeping you busy on your Saturday mornings already, you aren't preparing for the top echelon of colleges. That's the more "natural" reason many successful applicants only submit two or three sets of SAT scores total: they are busy with engaging activities that cause their intellectual growth, so they take the SAT just often enough to show what they have learned about reading, math, and writing, and spend the rest of their time pursuing those activities. It is pointless to take the SAT a lot of times without preparing well beforehand, and it is definitely a losing strategy to apply to the most selective colleges with only test scores and no other desirable characteristics in your application file. </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882</a> </p>
<p>But if what you need to improve on your application is your test scores, and you still have an opportunity to retake the test, you may as well retake the tests. You have to be reasonably sure that you will improve your score, and you have to be reasonably sure that nothing else you would do with the same amount of time would be better preparation for a successful application, but you can take colleges at their word that they aren't counting the number of times you take the test so much as looking at the total picture of how ready you are to contribute to the college communities.</p>
<p>Hmmm... you're ignoring our basic human emotions. All the test scores taken within five years will show on CB's report to colleges. What admission officers do with those scores we have no control. One cannot assume that they will ONLY look at high scores. It is better to take safe route.</p>
<p>I know a former Ivy admissions officer. According to him, most admissions offices have someone who inputs the information from CB to the file as scores are received en masse from CB---and they superscore and report only that one score onto the file. If this is true, committees do not even see or know what other scores an applicant may have had.</p>
<p>That's actually quite true, and if one takes too many times, the people who are doing the input will also make note of that. Princeton I heard, considers all SAT II results - correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>Princeton writes about its own policies on its website. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/ai/PU_adminfo_0708.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/ai/PU_adminfo_0708.pdf</a> </p>
<p>The implication of that sentence is that more SAT II tests than the required minimum of three different subjects will more likely help you than hurt you. </p>
<p>See also </p>
<p>for the same implication.</p>
<p>If they don't know (or care) how many times you've taken the ACT, why would they care how many times you've taken the SAT? To my knowledge, all schools now equally accept the ACT (with score choice). If they don't treat them the same it implies there's some sort of "free pass" given to those who take the ACT while the number of times you've taken the SAT is carefully scrutinized - which seems quite ridiculous.</p>
<p>
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If they don't treat them the same it implies there's some sort of "free pass" given to those who take the ACT while the number of times you've taken the SAT is carefully scrutinized - which seems quite ridiculous.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's an important point. Indeed, every college in the United States now accepts the ACT. </p>
<p>Because </p>
<p>a) the ACT has always allowed score choice, </p>
<p>b) the SAT has allowed cancellation of scores for a long, long time, </p>
<p>and </p>
<p>c) young people taking college entrance tests for Talent Search programs number in the tens of thousands each year, </p>
<p>there is no reason to suppose that colleges are in the business of counting how many times a test-taker took an entrance test. Get a competitive score for the colleges you desire to apply to, and then move on fearlessly to doing other worthwhile things that prepare you for college.</p>
<p>i agree that the human component is a part of not only this discussion, but the whole college application process. the student needs to know his/her strengths and weaknesses BEFORE test results, and in that frame think what is best for THEM. would repeated 500s be best served to continue, if that is the probable direction? and for those already very high, would a few points really matter? one of my kids once said , "mom, any school that can't forgive a B on my transcript is one i don't want to got to..." also consider the stress of repeat testings and cost. and lastly, collegeboard reports, along with the scores, the taker's own analysis of likely score changes over # of repeat testings. look at that!</p>
<p>ever since i joined collegeconfidential i have seen so many posts about asking how many times is to many times to take the sat so i asked college admission officers for fordham and for nyu and both told me THAT THEY WILL NEVER SEE HOW MANY TIMES U TAKE THE SAT ... AND THAT YOUR HIGHEST SCORES WILL COME UP ON THE COMPUTER .. THATS ALL THAT WILL COME UP ... UR HIGHEST CR SCORE MATH AND WRITING
:) doesnt that make u all feel so much better?</p>
<p>Thanks, sheena87, for sharing the answer to the question you asked. Yes, often in college admission offices a data entry clerk who is NOT part of the formal admission committee writes a summary of scores on a cover sheet to the application file. That summary of scores, at all the colleges where I have asked about this issue, includes the student's highest scores, period.</p>
<p>iAppler, I checked with him just now. He said NO----the input clerk does not make any notes concerning number of times the test is taken---JUST the highest score. They are inputting thousands of scores and have no time to add extraneous information. He even said the software they use highlights the highest scores on the CB reports to make the input clerk's job easier.</p>