<p>Hello! So I took the October SAT and I got a 2320. I'm wondering whether it would be a good idea to retake.
Now what you need to know is I'm a female Asian from an extremely competitive area (CA Bay Area). Lol.
I would like to apply to the Ivies (welp) and I'd at least like my SAT score to make me competitive. I've heard different things about what Ivies actually consider competitive, ranging from anything above 2250, anything above 2300, to anything above 2350.
Is it actually worth it to try to retake the SAT or is my score good enough? If I were able to, would raising it 20-30 points make a difference?
Thank you!</p>
<p>Same boat as you. Exact same score. And the answer really lies in the question of which schools you’re looking to apply to. Some schools use quotas to evaluate scores I.E above 2300 = 10/10, above 2200= 9/10, etc (for instance, Duke). Most schools use it as an initial filter (not an inherent measure of intelligence), but will always take it into consideration while evaluating the rest of your app. Some schools will let you pick which scores to send, so that if you run into the obvious issue of dropping in score, it wouldn’t matter. Others want to see everything, and a drop in your score may not be the best for your application.</p>
<p>So really, the answer is, it depends. But keep in mind. a 2380 is to a 2320, what a 2260 is to a 2320.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s worth retaking a 2320. It’s already a pretty high score, and if you get rejected from a prestigious school, it’s most probably for some other reason than the SAT.</p>
<p>Definitely not worth retaking, even in the Bay Area as an Asian (I am too!). You should spend that time on either essays or extra-curriculars. </p>
<p>Imo, SATs are never worth retaking if you scored 2300+ on your first try. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I retook, but I was extremely lucky to score higher than I did my first time, because I went in cold with no preparation. I was being stupid. Because you already scored so highly, your chances of scoring lower on a retake are probably equal if not higher than your chances of scoring higher.</p>
<p>Btw, I’m assuming you’re a junior. If you want to retake just for the sake of it, go ahead, but don’t be surprised if you do worse than you did the first time. Tests vary in difficulty each time, even if they’re mostly consistent. If you score lower than you already have, highly selective colleges see that you have a downward trend because most if not all of them require ALL scores to be reported. You want to avoid that, obviously. </p>
<p>If you’re a senior, then I say definitely DO NOT retake. It’s not worth the time and energy you could be spending working on your college applications instead. Any senior that’s taking standardized testing this late into the game should never consider retaking anything unless they performed horribly.</p>