<p>Would this be complete stupidity or almost necessary? I'm an international applicant from Finland applying to the top Ivies and MIT. My SAT I score is not so great: 640 CR, 720 M, 650 WR (=>1360 and 2010). I am retaking this, hoping to get around 2150. I have a solid IB GPA (predicted 44/45), but some lack in ECs by US standards.</p>
<p>I also have a 680 in French, which I am most likely retaking.</p>
<p>The international pool of applicants for those schools are extremely competitive, and without strong ECs you might want as much of an advantage as you can get. However, I wouldn’t recommend retaking a 790 in any subject test, as 1) there is no guarantee that you’ll do better and 2) the disparity between a 790 and a 800 is so mall that they won’t make much of a difference, if at all, in your application. </p>
<p>It would be more reasonable to focus your efforts on Math IIC and French; you want three SAT subject tests that are as high as possible to be competitive among other applicants. Your 770 still leaves you room to improve, and you should absolutely retake French. The Ivies take into consideration your highest 3 SAT subject test scores, and since you have exactly 3, definitely retake French.</p>
<p>If you’re going to retake the French one anyway, retake the Math one if you must. But I agree with shirker that it isn’t a good idea to retake a 790. I would spend more time focusing on the SAT Is, though, since I think they’re more heavily looked at.</p>
<p>You see, you dont have much time for the october test
so focus most of your time on the SAT REASONING</p>
<p>I’ve got 800 chemistry and 790 math 2 c ( and im internatinoal applicant from Korea) and i decided that retaking a 790 is the difference of only one question…so just forget it. RETAKE FRENCH FOSHO! That will help you. Plus it’s a foreign language…that does help distinguish you from other applicants.</p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>
<p>Don’t retake the 790. Retake French, and I see no harm in taking math along with French to try get a perfect score</p>
<p>Well, the “score range” for a 770 goes up to 800, which means that the test-makers believe that is how much your score can vary from one test sitting and another (with no prep). Based on that, retaking your 770 isn’t necessary</p>
<p>Of course, if you’re taking French anyway, you could just sit the extra hour…</p>
<p>no retake on the 770 or 790 because the score range falls in the 800 category anyways
but retake french
and maybe try a different test if you want another good score but dont retake 770+ colleges know you’re capable of an 800 because of the range</p>
<p>yea retake french</p>
<p>but they wont care about a 770 or 790 because they know that people are capable of making a few careless mistakes (the only difference between 790 and 800 is one careless mistake…its not like the problem you missed you completely didnt know how to do)</p>
<p>Aim for 700+ on any section of whatever test you take (French, CR, WR, whatever else!) Concentrate on the REST of your application!!! Good luck!!</p>
<p>“complete stupidity”? No, but a total waste of time and money. Much better to focus on raising a humanities/lit Subject Test over 700, and your SAT (or ACT) above 700.</p>
<p>You’re SAT I’s are much more important and need improvement a lot more than you SAT II’s, so take those first before you take any subject tests again. Also consider the ACT - I did quite a bit better on the ACT than the SAT (2090 SAT, 33 ACT a week later). Plus if you take the ACT you can use the SAT weekend to take subject tests.</p>
<p>On the physics score, I disagree with everyone else, actually. The SAT subject tests are curved; meaning you don’t have to get the test 100% right to get an 800. The physics is one of the most curved out of all of them. You can get 9 or 10 wrong out of 75 (it varies slightly how much they curve it from test to test) on the physics and still get an 800. Which means a 790 is very good, but not amazing. And considering that MIT accepts like 3% of its international applicants (hope you have some safety schools somewhere else lol) I would want to be as “amazing” as possible. It’s only an hour and 20 bucks. If you think you can improve your score one question or more, I would take the physics test one more time.</p>