So I took a subject test on the 6th and goofed up. I didn’t realize points were taken off for wrong answers from your final number correct, so I may be getting a lot lower score than I thought (who knows though, hopefully maybe I guessed right. Pray for me please). I apparently get 4 free reports sent to colleges if I choose them in the next few days. Otherwise I’d have to pay at a later date and I really don’t want to have to. How does this work exactly though? If I end up finding out I did bad on June 8, can I quickly decide not to send them to these 4? I already passed the score canceling deadline (Wednesday), but can I cancel the reports themselves? I now know some schools have a policy were you have to send all, unfortunately.
More specifically, I’m a sophomore and want to know how this process works. If I take advantage of these 4 free score reports, will the colleges just keep them on file until I actually apply to them in senior year? Do I have to notify them I’m doing so as a sophomore or would they just be able to tell?
As you can tell I’m very confused and this post was probably a little confusing too. I would greatly appreciate anyone’s insight and some help! Thanks!
If you designate four colleges for your free sends, the designation is irreversible after the second Monday after taking the test – you have until that second Monday to designate free sends or change or remove them. Thus when scores come out they will be sent to the four colleges and you will not be able to stop that from happening.
And yes, colleges that receive sophomore year scores just hold them and match the scores later when an application shows up.
Note, if you intend to send any future scores, like from unior year, to the same colleges, you should be aware of College Board’s usual sending process. You get four free sends for any test taken. Those have to be exercised by the second Monday after the applicable test. Whenever, you do choose four free sends, College Board will automatically send colleges the score of the test to which the free sends apply plus all prior SAT or subject tests that you have taken. You can prevent that from happening only be exercising score choice when make the free send designation and choosing to exclude one or more prior tests.
In essence, if you intend to take the SAT next year and send it to those four colleges as free sends, you can hold off sending the subject test scores now because they will be sent with the junior year SAT test (unless you choose to withhold a test) for no extra charge
You should also be aware that some schools require you to send all scores, see discussion of issue here http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/1912440-must-you-submit-all-sat-act-or-sat-subject-test-scores-p1.html and thus you will not be able to withhold subject test scores from colleges that require all such scores.
Also be aware that your high school might obviate all your attempts to withold scores from colleges. That is because many high schools put all your scores on the offical high school transcript sent to colleges when you apply for admission, so you need to check what your high school does before deciding to withhold any scores.
@drusba Thanks for your response. I wasn’t aware you could send previous subject test scores with a future SAT all together with score choice. In that case, I think I’ll hold off on sending this year’s and just send them with my SAT junior year so I can have more time to consider where I should send these scores.
It’s a bummer that some schools require you to send all scores. As for my high school, they don’t put scores on our transcript.