Hi everyone! I’m posting this here since I’m not sure where to ask this question. Let’s say you took the SAT 3 times, and on the third time, you got your best score in both sections, so you don’t need to superscore. When applying to Harvard, will they not know that you took the SAT 3 times? On the common app it only asks how many would you like to report and how many times you want to take in the future. It looks like the SAT can be taken even 6 times and Harvard won’t know. Can someone explain? Thanks in advance!
On the Common App, it asks how many times you have taken it. If you took 3, you put down you would like to report three, but you only put down your highest EBRW and Math scores and their dates.
My friend showed me that the question in the Common App says “indicate all tests you wish to report. Be sure to include tests you expect to take in addition to tests you have already taken.” My friend says he’ll only report his best one since it says “wish to report,” meaning you don’t need to report all of them if one has your highest scores in both EBRW and Math. So colleges will never know that you took it a billion times. Can someone confirm?
The common app only allows you to report your highest EBRW and Math score.
So colleges will never know how many times you took the SAT?
Your friend is correct.
The Common App provides space to enter your highest section scores and the date each of those section scores was taken. That would be at most two test dates. There is no space for lower section scores to be entered.
Some people might indicate that they expect a future test date, if that date is after the app deadline, so that the college is aware that a future score might be forthcoming.
A few colleges still require you to report all scores, either via an official score report (as some colleges want) or by entering them in a form in the admission portal.
Thank you for the clarification! I see that there is no benefit for someone to only take the SAT once.
My D’s HS reported all attempts and scores on their official transcript.
It looks like the SAT can be taken even 6 times and Harvard won’t know.
Yes, if for some reason you wanted to take the SAT six times, the only schools I am aware of that would require you to report all of your scores are Georgetown and CMU.
You could use Score Choice to report only a single date (for the smaller percentage of Single Date schools) or either one or two (for the larger percentage of superscoring schools), depending on how you achieved the superscore.
(Why you would take the SAT six times is a different discussion.)