SAT SCORE (retake?)...I'm very confused, please help!

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I took the November Sat and got a 2280:</p>

<p>800 math
800 writing
680 critical reading</p>

<p>I'm a HS junior, and this was my first try on the SAT. My aim is to go to good private colleges such as ivy leagues, stanford, or usc. </p>

<p>SHOULD I RETAKE THE SAT, OR IS MY SCORE GOOD ENOUGH?</p>

<p>I'm worried about my critical reading score as I heard that colleges count and look at that category the most.</p>

<p>Please advise asap...thanks so much for your help, and happy holidays!</p>

<p>Your CR score is a little low. Usually anything below 700 is somewhat sketchy. It depends on what you want to major in, as well. Humanities? You should try again. Math? Maybe not.
I would retake it, but that’s just me.</p>

<p>A 680 CR is a problem at the schools you are interested in. Retake.</p>

<p>Yeah, definitely retake the SAT-the private colleges you’re applying to will take the best scores anyway, so if you can get your CR score up, you’ll be good.</p>

<p>take will colleges still except if you take in jan?</p>

<p>Just to be clear, the SATs are actually not as big of a deal as everyone seems to think they are. People actually freak out about them for nothing. Ideally, you want 700+ in everything but after that, it’s all the same. Go look at any of the ivy admissions threads and you’ll notice that SAT scores and acceptance bare suprisingly low correlation. Granted, most people who get in are in the 2150+ range, but being a 2400 does NOT get you into an Ivy or good private university. Colleges are much more interested in admitting an interesting person, not a good stat. Just a thought. So, if you want to retake, go for it since you’re only a junior! But, I wouldn’t stress about it. Your scores are great. Just make sure your essays and ecs are just as great and you’ll be in good shape.</p>

<p>especially with Stanford, they dont take your scores into account very much. I got 730, 690, 680 and was accepted, so Im envious of your very nice score.</p>

<p>^ That’s true.</p>

<p>You don’t really have anything to lose, besides $50 registration fee, if you decide to take it again. Even if your other scores drop, colleges usually take your highest section scores.</p>

<p>thanks for the help guys. </p>

<p>i’m signed up for the january sat, so I’ll work hard and hopefully improve my critical reading score. as a lot of you said, there’s nothing to lose, only to improve. </p>

<p>hopefully, this time will be good and help me get into the colleges of my dreams. thanks again, and wishing all of you a happy holidays!</p>

<p>OH MY GOD
this place is ridiculous.</p>

<p>your scores are incredible. don’t bother.</p>

<p>if you are interested in HPY (i assume you are), i’d retake. you have time, so why not?</p>

<p>Would you retake:</p>

<ol>
<li>If you had a superscore of 2050 (640 CR 730 M 680 W)</li>
<li>Were a senior</li>
<li>Were applying to Cornell, Chicago, Vandy, URochester, UVA, Boston U, Lafayette, Syracuse.</li>
<li>Knew there would be a significant improvement</li>
<li>It cost you $130 and for standby?</li>
</ol>

<p>^ahsanxr: If I knew 100% that I would do a lot better in CR, I would definitely retake.</p>

<p>One bit of information you might want to consider is whether or not the colleges you are applying to allow for score choice. Or score report. Whatever it’s called. If they don’t, then you have to send ALL your SAT scores to the colleges, and lets say in January you do worse. That will probably turn colleges away from you rather then them seeing you do remarkably well for the 1st time…</p>

<p>Just something to think about</p>

<p>Ali, I definitely think that there is a lot of room for improvement for me in CR. The second time I took the SAT I was scoring around 680-700 in the practice tests and I will also have more time to further work on my vocab so I could improve even more.</p>

<p>Also, across ALL the SAT practice tests I’ve done there have been maybe 2 or 3 math questions which I got wrong that were not a silly mistake/misread so I think I can pull off an 800 or at least 760 in it. I just tend to make a lot of careless mistakes.</p>

<p>As for writing, on the actual test in October I got 2 paragraph improving ones wrong, which I ALWAYS got correct at home. That’s about 30 points right there. I think that those were due to pressure of less time and reading the paragraph.</p>

<p>2square, I’m not worried about that because only Cornell out of those doesn’t accept score choice and I would almost be certain that I’ll improve.</p>

<p>The main things which are stopping me are:</p>

<ol>
<li>The fact that colleges might not see it since it the scores would reach them sometime around late February-early March.</li>
<li>It would cost me $130 and I still might not be able to take it since it’s standby (there is no late registration for me since I’m an international). $130 and about $60 more to send them to schools, when converted to my local currency comes up to a lot of money. (16000).</li>
<li>I wanna be done with SATs and wanna move on and start concentrating on my A’ Levels because my grades have dropped a bit because of SATs and college searching/applying etc.</li>
</ol>

<p>What would you do?</p>