<p>Why on earth wouldn’t retaking the test be a good idea? My S had a point difference between his first and 2nd tests. A 33 is more impressive than a 32, and your child might even get a 34, which is VERY impressive, to me at least.</p>
<p>I have a feeling that top colleges really don’t like to see multiple ACT/SAT tests. Yale, for example, says they take the highest SAT scores from multiple tests, but they want you to send in all your scores because they would like know whether your SAT scores are achieved from a single test or from multiple tests. This tells me they prefer high scores that are achieved from a single test.</p>
<p>What happens if your first test score is low? Take it again! But, you should treat the next test as though it is your last. Prepare and then prepare some more until you are confident that you can achieve your desired score before you take the actual test. Don’t take the pre-November tests as practice tests, thinking there are still two more opportunities.</p>
<p>You can pretty much ignore the above if you are not aiming for top colleges.</p>
<p>For DS it was 2 yrs ago, but even in your post it states they superscore for the SAT. Also they will take the best composite score for the ACT. We went to a ND meet and greet in Raleigh, 9/07 with a ND recruiter, that question was directly asked, and the answer was the best composite using the same stds as the SAT. If they superscore the SAT, than I assume they superscore the ACT. DS had a very strong ACT, higher than the OP, and 3 pts higher than the median for ND., thus he never took it again. With that fact I will step out.</p>
<p>One look at any common data set will give you a very clear answer. Retake. Your number 1 point–that a score is good enough and other things take over, is just not the case. Chances go way up as the score does.</p>
<p>If your DS is white/Asian, from a well represented state and does not have a hook, a 32 would make most T20 schools hard.</p>
<p>Taking any test more than twice will hurt you at schools that want all scores, but not as much as a low score. In the end, schools care about their stats.</p>
<p>Paper chase, my brother has a vision issue, and he had a horrible 1st SAT score(980). Princeton, and Upenn were actively recruiting him prior to his SAT. He took the 2nd, with a medical variance, not timed due to vision. He scored 1580 out of 1600. The board made him take it again for verification since he had an 800 on his math…took it again for the third got 1580 again, this time 790/790.</p>
<p>Some times the school wants to see that there is no large swings in the score.</p>
<p>Schools want to take the best score…it’s a win/win. Few care how many times you take the exam since some kids start taking the ACT in the 7th grade!!! </p>
<p>Retake the test, but don’t put down any schools to receive the test. Then, if she does better, pay to have them sent to her fav schools. IF she does worse, you never have to send the score…I don’t care what the colleges “ask for”.</p>
<p>^^^ totally agree with mom 2!</p>
<p>I’m with SGTH and nngmm -
And if your child is truly burned out on taking ACT tests, a 32 is great.</p>
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<p>Don’t agree with this at the top schools. There’s a reason that several are not accepting score choice. When you’re rejecting 85%, and you need reasons to eliminate students, a high score after multiple attempts is just another way.</p>
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<p>Only scores from 9th grade forward are reportable. </p>
<p>There may be another reason schools reject Score Choice, one that has nothing to do with evaluating individual applicants. For purposes of creating the Common Data Sets that form the basis of rankings created by US News and others, these colleges want to be able to cherry-pick matriculants’ highest test subscores. </p>
<p>Here’s an example: At one sitting, a student earns a Math subscore of 750 and a composite of 2200. At another sitting, the same student earns a Math subscore of 720 but a composite of 2300. Given the choice, the student would send only the score from the 2300 sitting, lower Math subscore notwithstanding. But some colleges still want to see the lower composite with the higher Math subscore, not to penalize the student at the admissions table, but to factor that subscore into its CDS in the event the student attends. It wants to see that score to boost the average of the scores it reports publicly, not to take the lower composite score into consideration for admissions purposes.</p>
<p>Wjb, if that were their reasoning, surely all colleges would reject score choice. When I worked in admissions we officially counted one score but looked at all. A one test high score was seen differently than one that came after several months of apparent test prep.</p>
<p>^^Every college admissions office operates differently.</p>
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<p>That doesn’t negate my point. If a child takes the ACT (or SAT) in the 9th grade, and then once in the 10th grade, and then twice in the 11th grade, and then twice in the 12th grade…a school isn’t going to penalize the kid for taking the test too many times. Some claim that schools “average your scores” - so not true. They would never average scores taken from earlier years…that wouldn’t be fair. </p>
<p>Schools want to take the best score. </p>
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<p>Schools who want to “look at other scores” STILL want to use the best score since that is what they use to make themselves “look good” when they announce what the avg SAT/ACT for their incoming freshmen class is…so that they can get a better ranking. </p>
<p>Believe me…if they have a child with an ACT 28, an ACT 30, an ACT 31, and an ACT 32, they are going to use that ACT 32 when they are figuring their OWN brag stats for rankings. They aren’t going to average them all and submit that they accepted a kid with an ACT 30…they will say that he was an ACT 32.</p>
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<p>The fact is, we have no way of knowing exactly what policies are in place in any admissions office. We also have no idea how any particular admissions officer will view an application. They’re human, not brains in a jar. Every reader approaches an application with his/her own set of preferences and biases. </p>
<p>So I guess you could be right that some admissions offices might not penalize a student who took the SAT 5 times. And most schools probably don’t average an applicant’s scores for admissions purposes. But we can’t know that with certainty. And human nature being what it is, I bet that most admissions officers would view an applicant who took the ACT or SAT more than three times as somewhat obsessive. And I bet some admissions offices, even if they don’t average scores, do indeed take note of all scores. You can’t expect admissions officers to wipe this stuff out of their minds in evaluating a candidate. As someone on CC once said, college admissions office is not like a courtroom, where the jury can be instructed to disregard testimony!</p>
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<p>It’s like throwing a skunk into the jury box. You can get the skunk out with an instruction to disregard, but the smell tends to linger. ;)</p>
<p>I’m one who thinks that human nature will control. If the adcomm sees it, they’ll consider it. </p>
<p>(But I agree they’ll report whatever score makes them look best.)</p>
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<p>Sure, but is Harvard going to let Yale get a statistical advantage? Bottom line, I don’t think that’s why they are doing it and I don’t think we’ll see a difference in average scores between peer schools who reject score choice and those that don’t.</p>
<p>Let’s be honest, HYP are not going to take a 32. You need to be at least a 34 straight across the board with all APs, a ton of ECs and a hook to get in on a 34, let alone a 32. This is all just spinning wheels.</p>
<p>^^correction, a 32 is fine for a HOOKED candidate to HYP. To parapharse, Tedd Roosevelt, ‘Walk softly but carry a big hook’. 
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<p>hey cur, no self-respecting skunk I know would be caught dead hanging around with lawyers! :D</p>
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I don’t have a proof, but I very much doubt that any student who got rejected with a score of 32 would have been accepted at HYP if s/he had scored 34.
At these schools you would need the same “extras” with 34 as you would with 32. Numbers alone do not get anyone accepted.</p>
<p>An ACT 32 is 99 percentile…but…for HYP…even an ACT 36 is no guarantee for admittance. I would be willing to bet that for anyone with an ACT over 31, they could get accepted to HYP if they have the right hook.</p>
<p>HYP certainly do take ACT 32s…check out their stats.</p>