should i retake my sat? (1510, first time)

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

i’m currently a junior and i took the october 3rd sat, i got a 1510 composite (770 ebrw and 740 math - i got 3 wrong on the math). my goal was a 1550, but i would’ve been happy with a 1530, and i was honestly expecting worse than i did. 1510 isn’t a huge gap from my minimum, but should i retake it since it was only my first try or would that be a waste of time?

i’m not sure what i want to major in, but it will likely be something in STEM and i know if i studied more i could get a 770-800 for math. my dream schools are princeton, harvard, and mit… i’ll be taking the subject tests for math 2 and physics as well, planning for a 780+ for both (not sure if that changes the need to retake the sat)

2

MIT does not accept Subject Tests.

If you think you can boost the 740 with minimal prep, go for it. If it will require a lot of prep, your time is better spent on essays.

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3

I don’t think it would make a big difference, unless you feel like your strongest point is your academics,

4

You’re only a junior and have plenty of time. If you’re planning on STEM and top schools, you should retake it. The math is easy to raise with some studying.

5

For MIT and a very small number of others, I think that improving a M740 to 770+ could be meaningful.

From MIT’s acceptance rate statistics:

Math 750-800 - 10%

Math 700-740 - 1%

There are probably correlations between this score and other application components, but that statistic is hard to ignore (even looking at it as 9.53% vs. 1.42%)

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