<p>My son, a current junior, took October SAT and got 2300 (800 CR, 780 M, 720 W, 10 Essay). We are agonizing over if he should retake in November to bring up his writing score. He had consistantly scored higher in practice tests, almost always getting 12 in essay. So I think the chance of him scoring better in writing is quite high. Of course CR and M may go down. He has great GPA so far and is considering applying to ivies, with Yale being his dream school. Is 2300 good enough? Is Writing score important? What are the pros and cons of retaking?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!!</p>
<p>Is 2300 good enough?
YES
Is Writing score important?
not NEARLY as important. In fact many U’s ,like Chicago, ignore the writing score entirely.
these are the scores that REALLY matter-800 CR, 780 M, and you cant do much better than those scores!</p>
<p>RELAX mom!</p>
<p>How do you score a 12 in practice essay?</p>
<p>Practice essay scored by his test prep program counselor</p>
<p>“So I think the chance of him scoring better in writing is quite high. Of course CR and M may go down.”</p>
<p>The written score report provides the chances – in percentages – that a student’s particular scores will go up or down if he/she should retake. Although you think chances are good that his writing score will improve, chances will be equally good if not better that an 800 CR and 780 Math will go down.</p>
<p>If he has great SAT II scores I would rest with 2300.</p>
<p>I believe that top schools like Yale have a cut off point and after that they look at other things. You son has already made the cut off point. In other words, they aren’t going to take a kid with a 780 over a kid with a 720 just because of the scores. </p>
<p>Harvard admissions explicitly says they don’t expect students to get uniformly high scores (they mention Howard Gardner’s office nearby- creator of multiple intelligence theory) but your son already has pretty uniformly great scores.</p>
<p>No offense, but the word “agonize” is a little strong here. I know this time is stressful. Your son will be fine. If he enjoys tests, he can take them for fun, but he surely doesn’t need to. Mainly, I hope he what’s left of senior year.</p>
<p>I asked my DD2 if she wanted to retest with a slightly lower score. She asked me why in the world would she want to give up a Saturday morning when the score was perfectly good. I thought that was a very rational answer.</p>
<p>Check SATs off your list of things to do, move on and spend the remaining time left productively on another aspect of the application. You’re good to go!</p>
<p>In addition to the arguments posted above, I would say the adcom is going to look at other writing markers: did he have good grades in English classes, particularly (if they were offered) AP? The limitations of the writing SAT are well-known. With a score over 2300 to start with, the differentiation is going to be made in GPA and extracurriculars, and he is lucky to have a great score so he can focus on those.</p>
<p>It is also true that the other scores may well drop, which might make the initial high scores look flukish.</p>
<p>Step away from the SAT books…</p>
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<p>I agree with others…step away from the SATs and concentrate on other aspects of his college application process. No point in agonizing over scores that are in the very top %ile of SAT scores country wide.</p>
<p>If he has nothing better to do, it doesn’t hurt, but a 2300 is extremely solid as it stands</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, for all the information and advice… much appreciated!</p>
<p>The way I would put this is that 2300 is really good, but 1580 CR+M is really, really good. It all depends on the distribution (disclosure: my daughter retook a 2310, but it was because M was lower–on retake, she got 2310 again, but with a different distribution, so the superscore went up somewhat.)</p>
<p>No (10 char.)</p>