<li>M 750, CR 730, W 730 (E: 11)</li>
<li>M 760, CR 770, W 710 (E: 10)</li>
</ol>
<p>Right now, I’m considering retaking the SAT a third (and definitely final) time in order to raise my writing score. What do you think I should do?</p>
<p>Things to keep in mind:</p>
<ul>
<li>Whenever I’ve taken a practice test, I’ve always gotten a solid writing score (typically 750+, sometimes even 800), but that doesn’t appear to have applied to my real scores.</li>
<li>I’m worried I might see a drop in my reading and math scores if I retake the test.</li>
<li>I’m a student from Canada, and my US college list will only consist of top colleges. My first choice is currently Yale. Many top colleges will require applicants to submit all test scores regardless of the new “Score Choice” thing. I don’t know what colleges would think if they looked at my transcript and saw that I retook the test a third time even though all of my scores were relatively good.</li>
</ul>
<p>The writing section is quite subjective and sometimes arbitrary (essay-graders often grade on length, not on substance and logic as college board purports). The adcoms know this.</p>
<p>I would suggest you not retake. Your math and verbal scores are very good and within the average of most Yale students (might be a little higher than average, I don’t remember) and the fact that a score so high was achieved within two sittings will definitely be looked upon favorably by adcoms.</p>
<p>Obviously, you know yourself better than I do so if you suspect with sufficient confidence that you will score significantly higher if you retake then go right ahead.</p>
<p>I’m confident that the essays I write will be great from a grammatical/“SAT writing” point of view, so will that make up for my slightly deficient score?</p>
<p>“I’m confident that the essays I write will be great from a grammatical/“SAT writing” point of view, so will that make up for my slightly deficient score?”</p>
<p>The thing about SAT essay grading is that even if your essay is a 12, it can still get a grade of 9 because of the sloppiness and inefficiency of the SAT essay grading system.</p>
<p>So, I really would recommend you don’t retake. Yale and other top schools are very understanding when it comes to the writing section so long as you don’t score below 700.</p>