Should I retake my SAT?

<p>The first time I took my SAT, I got 800-m, 770-writing, 680-cr in November of my junior year. Obviously my CR was bringing me down a lot, but I just took a practice test (an official one of course) and scored 780 for my CR. Even before when did my first practice, I could never break 720, so should I retake in october just before college apps?</p>

<p>Well your composite is a 2250, so I, personally, wouldn’t take it. Unless you’re going into the humanities or something, colleges won’t really care because a 680 is still a good score. If you’ve scored well on AP Lang, AP Lit, SATII lit, or soemthing else across those lines, I especially wouldn’t worry at all. Even if you didn’t score well on those but did decent, I would keep the score. </p>

<p>(sorry for the vague terms like decent and good, but their extent depends on the college and major you want to go to)</p>

<p>If you’re applying to Ivy-level schools, a 2250 will not disqualify you from the applicant pool. However, a 680 on CR is below the 25th percentile for many of these schools, so if you feel the need to retake, go for it. Granted, your Math and Writing are at least above average, so just know that it’s fine if you don’t retake. </p>

<p>I know this isn’t the definitive answer you might have wanted, but basically:
Pros of retaking - More confidence, ability to superscore if necessary
Cons of retaking - Likely to decrease composite score, already competitive enough with 2250</p>

<p>@Zeppelin7‌
I am probably going into engineering or something similar (definitely not the humanities though), and also I have taken the AP Lang and got a 5 on that, so it sounds like taking again won’t affect me too much. </p>

<p>@EngineBus2015‌
That is largely the reason why I wanted to take it again, just because my math and writing are both relatively high at the top schools, but my CR is pretty low and that gets me a little worried when applying.</p>

<p>Getting a much better CR score would push my score to pretty much as high as I would ever want it, but then there is always the chance I get unlucky and have a couple of bad sections on that day I take it. Plus I am already going to be doing a lot of stuff by the time SAT’s come around again, so I probably wouldn’t want to deal with the extra stress. I am leaning towards just leaving my score as it is, as it definitely isn’t bad. </p>

<p>Even though you have an excellent score already, a potential 100 point boost could potentially help your case. Its really up to you though to balance it in the context of all the other items on your busy schedule.</p>

<p>Ugh I hate when people don’t add up their subscores themselves. Makes it so hard to help! waaaaaah</p>

<p>Yours,</p>

<p>ckoepp127</p>

<p>where r u appyling? and are the schools you are applying to using the 1600 or 2400 SAT score? a 800 math scores should make plenty of enginering programs very happy </p>

<p>If your subject tests are solid, you should be good.</p>

<p>@ckoepp127‌ 2250 :)</p>

<p>@ctl987‌
Yes, engineering school is my goal for college.</p>

<p>@deweystront‌
I have 800-math 2, 760-US history, and 710-chem. My chem score isn’t too great but I think my math probably makes up for it, right? And I am happy with USH but no so sure how much engineering schools actually care about that one!</p>

<p>if you are leaning towards not retaking, do that. My son was the flip of your scores, almost, with a 800 Cr and 650 in math but he was going for the liberal arts, not engineering. His W score was also quite a bit lower than yours. the impression we had was he would have no trouble getting into 85 percent of the colleges with those scores, an A average, and a top 10 percent class rank. if that’s you on the other factors, you should be ok with admissions. Also, and i may be wrong on this, but i think enough engineering programs will find your 800M interesting enough that they will not be concerned about “only” a 680 CR. if you have your heart set on the Ivies, Stanford, or similar schools, then consider retaking. otherwise, you should be ok for admissions. another factor to think about is merit aid. pulling your CR score up could be helfpul for any or more merit aid but that is so school by school, it’s impossible to give you good advice on that one. and honestly, you may be good enough there already too as if i am doing my math right, you have a 1480/2250 already. and since your composites are higher than my kid’s, my very rough guess is you should have no trouble getting admitted into 90 percent of the colleges in the country, maybe higher. </p>