Retake SAT Math 2 thrice?

My sophomore daughter is currently doing AP Cal BC. She took the SAT Math 2 in her freshman year (after Pre-Cal) and got a 750. She repeated it this last Sat after prepping really well with 800 on most practice tests. However, it seems this test was unusually hard (heard this from several other students too) so she thinks she may get in the 770-780 range and maybe an 790/800 if there is a generous curve.

She is looking to apply to selective STEM schools so was hoping for an 800. The question we have is that should we wait and see what she gets and repeat if necessary? Or play safe and cancel these scores and repeat in May? A couple of colleges on her list (CMU and Georgetown) require all subject scores to be sent. Should we worry that showing 3 attempts for a subject test may work against her? Alternative would be to cancel these scores and retake the test in May. Thanks!!

Wait and see what she gets. For the level of CMU/Georgetown (indeed anything other than MIT and Caltech) if she improves over her last score she should consider herself done. If she gets rejected, it will not be because of her M2 score. And yes, taking 3 X is setting her up as the poster child of overtesting.

I would not cancel due to hypothetical concerns about a curve.

Hi, just a follow up qs on this. Schools like CMU seem to look at scores only from Junior year on (they will consider the summer before junior year). I gave them a call yesterday and admissions confirmed that.
CMU is definitely a target school for my daughter. In this case, is it better to just cancel this score and take it again in May/June?
Very conflicted - I think my daughter gave it all she had this time. The questions she missed, according to her, were pretty esoteric and she feels she could not have prepped for those. So not sure if she would do any better in the retake…
We have till noon tomorrow to decide whether to cancel or not!!!

Again, would not cancel due to speculation about the curve. My child just took it also for the second time and felt it was just as hard as the previous time. Not sure what you think will happen the next time.

“Schools like CMU” is only CMU. And they have recently softened their language about pre-Junior Testing. And it now specifically states only SAT/ACT, not Subject Tests. And many members have been accepted to CMU with Freshman year Math 2 tests, despite what they used to say.

The idea that a student with multiple years of Calculus may not be ready for Freshman math because their pre-Calc-based Subject Test was a year earlier than normal is ludicrous, IMHO.

I suggest not trying to guess that a test was “hard” based on “several other students” or get caught in the entire “curve” nonsense. If the test was harder, then more questions wrong will correspond to the same score compared to other instances of the test.

Also, CMU does not require all Subject Tests to be sent.

I actually took the same math 2 subject test and found it to be normal difficulty. The difficulty is definitely subjective so I wouldn’t worry about the curve. As others have said, I would not cancel it and would only advise retaking it for a third time if she will take others at the same sitting.