<p>My daughter took the ACT and SAT in the 7th and 8th grades as part of a talent search. Her scores were ACT 24 and SAT 2110 (CR 760, M 620, and W 730). She is now a junior and took the ACT in Sept. (32 composite) and SAT in March. Her SAT scores this time were CR 730, M 680, and W780. She was very unhappy with the CR score since it went down. Should she retake the SAT in June or October? If not, would colleges care if she used her 8th grade CR score? (We had CB keep it just in case) She is planning to go to a state school and both scores qualify her for scholarships, we just didn't know which scores to use or if she should retake either test to see if she can get higher scores, thus becoming more competative for scholarships.</p>
<p>If the scholarships are not “automatic”, I’d recommend retaking. She has nothing to loose by doing so, and she can probably improve both CR and Math scores if she goes through several practice tests.</p>
<p>Her scores are similar to my D’s. She was a NMSF so knew she could do better. When she retook them she got 800W, 780M and 800CR. Yes, it was worth retaking. She did not study or prep either time.</p>
<p>*My daughter took the ACT and SAT in the 7th and 8th grades as part of a talent search. Her scores were ACT 24 and SAT 2110 (CR 760, M 620, and W 730). She is now a junior and took the ACT in Sept. (32 composite) and SAT in March. Her SAT scores this time were CR 730, M 680, and W780. She was very unhappy with the CR score since it went down. Should she retake the SAT in June or October? If not, would colleges care if she used her 8th grade CR score? *</p>
<p>I would have her take the SAT again. She may have just had a bad day that day. Since her CR score went down, that can just mean that there was a boring/odd story in a CR section.</p>
<p>I don’t know if colleges will use an 7th/8th grade score…maybe???</p>
<p>How was her PSAT score? Is she a likely NMSF?</p>
<p>Definitely retake, she should do better. If you can get the detailed score report it might be worth looking to see what sort of questions she got wrong, but she may just have been unlucky and spaced out on something. Whenever my older son looked to see what he got wrong it was always careless mistakes. You should be able to get the College Board to release the 8th grade scores if you need to, but I bet she’ll do better on a retake.</p>
<p>She is not likely to be a NMSF as her score is 2 points below last year’s qualifying score. Would you suggest retaking it in June or October? She did go through practice tests for math, so I don’t think she would improve a whole lot. Math is her worst subject. I’m concerned that her CR and W scores would go down instead of up. She only missed 4 on CR and 1 on W with a 10/12 essay (she was also unhappy about this as she got the same essay score in 8th grade…what does this say about writing instruction at our HS?)</p>
<p>SAT essay score does not say much about HS instruction, or anything else for that matter, other then the ability to write the SAT essay…</p>
<p>I think finishing all testing in junior year is a huge advantage, so I would retest in June. Plus, if she is applying to a rolling admissions school, it will also be an advantage to be done earlier. If the score goes down, she does not have to report it.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about the writing score; my daughter got the same essay score in
9th, 11th and 12th grades despite great scores on every other standardizd test she took that required writing, including 5s on the two AP English tests. That one is subjective. Sometimes I think smart kids overthink that darn thing.</p>
Some colleges, like the UCs for example, don’t ‘superscore’ - i.e. they don’t take the highest components from multiple sittings to come up with the highest combined SAT score. Some colleges however, including a number of privates, do superscore (which is one reason why looking at the ‘average incoming SAT scores’ for a college can’t necessarily be directly compared with another college if one superscores and one doesn’t). </p>
<p>However, some colleges (UCs included) will take the highest combined score from a single sitting - i.e. if the person took the test 3 times, they’ll take the highest combined score she achieved in one of the three sittings. They’ll also take the ACT or SAT - whichever is the highest score (there’s an equivalency chart between the ACT and SAT). This means that there’s nothing to lose in taking the SAT or ACT additional times other than a bit of money and some hours of fun for your D.</p>
<p>Also, I thought the SAT now sent ALL scores from all sittings each time they sent the scores to the colleges. I don’t know if that might have changed since it’s something that’s changed before.</p>
<p>Note that the above is referring to the SAT - not the SAT II subject tests which are different.</p>
<p>You might want to check these points with the particular colleges she’s interested in.</p>
<p>Definitely re-take. Ask yourself, do you want be sure she puts her best foot forward, or not? I’d consider retaking in both months, unless you feel a score received is truly her very best.
Student may do better in high school. Do not have test results automatically forwarded to any schools. Wait for results then decide.</p>