Should I retake the SAT?

Test Preparation
1

<p>Alright, I'm going to try to not sound extremely pretentious and full of myself, so bear with me.</p>

<p>So, I got back my SAT score for March last week, and I've been wondering if it's necessary for me to retake it to get a better score. My scores are as follows:</p>

<p>720 Math
800 Reading
800 Writing (9 on the essay)</p>

<p>Now, I'm not exactly dissatisfied with my scores, but as my GPA is not as stellar as it should be, and because I'm around the middle of the score range of the colleges I'm looking at, I wanted to ask whether or not boosting that 720 in math up to a 780 or 800 would have an impact on my chances at admissions into colleges.
Also, I'm not sure how SAT scores factor into financial aid after actually getting into the colleges, so I also wanted to ask if a higher score would enable me to get more financial aid from colleges or not.</p>

<p>I mean, my thoughts are that I really have nothing to lose by taking it again, but if it's going to have no effect on admissions or financial aid, then taking it for boasting privileges would be a waste of money.</p>

<p>So, your opinions? And please keep the flaming to a minimum, I'm sorry if I sounded snobbish in this post.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time.</p>

2

<p>It depends. What do you want to do in the future? If it isn’t math related at all, then don’t bother retaking. If it is math related, then you have two potential options. The first is to study and practice more math and retake the whole thing. OR, you could bypass the SAT and go straight to the Math II subject test. Doing well on that will cover for the 720 math.</p>

<p>As far as financial aid goes, I’m not sure.</p>

3

<p>Oh, that’s right, I forgot, I score an 800 on the Math IIC, and I’m probably going to go into engineering or business, so math does have some weight, I suppose.</p>

4

<p>Wow! Your situation is SO ALIKE to mine!</p>

<p>I took the SAT last October, and got 730 Math, 800 Reading, 800 Writing. Like you, I got screwed over by the math section (which was strangely difficult for me).</p>

<p>I, like you, looked around for answers. Many of my friends told me to retake it, but you know, that’s pretty stupid.</p>

<p>Last month, I got a chance to meet with two former adcoms, who now run a program that helps seniors with college applications. I asked them the same question you are wondering right now.</p>

<p>They told me specifically that as long as you have over 2300 (for Ivies) and 2250 (for UC’s or liberal arts schools) that retaking is unnecessary and, bluntly put, a waste of time. Even if you increase your score to 2380, 90, or even 2400, on your next try (and remember, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL!), the increase isn’t sufficient enough to merit a complete different look at your application by the adcoms. </p>

<p>They recommended me, instead, to focus on getting a high score on SAT II to “amend” for the 730 on math. You already did that, so don’t worry about your SATs anymore. Focus on your academia and your extracirriculars! And like cheerios said, it really depends on your field, but since your prospective majors are linked with mathematics, math is indeed important. But you already got 800 on Math II, so no prob! </p>

<p>tl;dr DON’T retake it! 2320 is more than enough for Ivies.</p>

5

<p>If you’re really mathematically skilled, I reccomend doing it and super-scoring for a higher score. If you don’t improve, at least it shows determination and ambition?</p>