<p>Hi! I have taken the SAT two times, and I am not satisfied with my score. I always do poorly on Critical Reading (low 600's) and 700's on CR and M, and therefore am deciding on giving the ACT a chance. I still want to take the SAT one more time though, and hopefully study a lot of vocab and get better on CR over the summer. However, I know colleges do not like it when students take the SAT more than three times. Assuming I take the SAT one last time in October, can I still take the ACT at least once or does taking the ACT basically count as a SAT. For example, if I take the SAT three times and the ACT once, would colleges think of it like I took a standardized test four times or would they give me three tries on my SAT and my ACT. I really want to do well on the SAT, but I know vocabulary and reading comprehension is my weak point, and want to give the ACT a try. Would colleges be fine if I take the SAT three times and the ACT more than once also? Or would they think I took it too many times.
Thanks!!</p>
<p>The ACT doesn’t count toward you SAT total officially, and it doesn’t count in an admission officer’s opinion. If I were you, I’d take both tests and go from there. I think the main reason for the imposed SAT limit is for the purposes of superscoring; since the ACT doesn’t count toward your superscores, I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with you taking it.</p>