Should I Retake?

<p>Okay, here's the deal:
I took the SAT on March 1 and got a 2290 (yeah, I know, 10 friggin points away from the 2300 club... crap...) My individual scores were 800 critical reading, 770 math, and 720 writing. My theory on why I got a slightly lower writing score is that I just got lazy and figured that since I was better at writing than reading or math I didn't have to study for it. Heh. As it turns out, SAT writing, like SAT reading and math, is different than the regular kind, so some studying would have been helpful. </p>

<p>What I am wondering now is whether or not to study up on that writing, retake the SAT, and see if I can't squeak out a 2340 or so. 2290 is plenty good enough for all of my in-state safety schools, and maybe even enough for my sort-of reach school (Rice), but I want to see if I can make my uber-reach (Princeton) not so much of a reach after all. </p>

<p>There is one teensy-weensy problem with a retake: Due to copious amounts of application-padding summer camps, I probably won't get a chance to take it before the start of my senior year. This means I will have to take the SAT on a Saturday after a football game, when I will be dog tired from getting beat on by 250 pound manimals for 3 hours. Now, that may not hurt me too much, since I did pretty well on my first SAT after getting about 20 total hours of sleep that week, but I still don't want to jack up my scores and end up looking even worse to colleges.</p>

<p>don't retake...a 1570 is good enough for any school, and writing doesn't matter for most ivies; AND even if it did matter, your score is still good enough...</p>

<p>go to that football, and then go home and relax. You are officially done with the SAT I...</p>

<p>OMG I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!!!!!!! I got a 2500, only 100 more than the max!!! =-( Should I retake it???@?!@!?#@!#$!</p>

<p>And about the football game, I didn't know that your school played three football games before 8:00 when the sat is given. Who knew? Our school played the games at 2.</p>

<p>az1698, you better be joking. :P</p>

<p>Man I feel stupid on these forums, a 1710 must make me look like a moron to you guys.</p>

<p>Okay az, I get the point. About the football games, we play at 7:30 P.M. on Friday, and the games usually last three hours, or until 10:30 (7+3=10! Hard SAT math!) We get back on the bus by 11:00, and, since the game before the October SAT is an away game in a town 120 miles away from ours, we will get back to the school in our slow freakin bus by about 1:00. I will get home from school at 1:30 or so and get to sleep by 2:00. That leaves me 5 hours of sleep after a game in which I played all three hours. (I go to a small school, so the good players play both ways AND sometimes special teams.) Most of the time I sleep until about noon on football Saturdays. I do NOT want to get up at 7 AM to take a three hour test. Thank you, everyone, for letting me know that I don't have to.</p>

<p>2290? Retake? Are you kidding me? :) Although, here's one way to look at it: If you end up being rejected from Princeton, is it going to bother you, knowing that maybe you could have gottenin if you'd retaken the SAT? </p>

<p>Oh, and katcarp, don't feel too bad. I'm a 1930. :)</p>

<p>I agree with you'llsee. The best thing about your great score is that your lowest subscore is in writing, which is much less relevent than the other two. I think your getting all your "points" for standardized testing with your current score, and I don't think even a perfect score would do much to increase your chances. I see no point in retaking.</p>

<p>You definitely don't need to retake it. </p>

<p>I know someone who had a 2270, retook it, and dropped 50 points. An admissions officer will NOT see your 2290 and be like "I'd accept this kid, but he's 10 points under 2300. REJECTED!"</p>

<p>Your score is stellar already, and after a certain threshold colleges really don't care.</p>

<p>The whole "2300 club" mentality is insane. Really, you don't need to retake. I'm so glad I never knew about College Confidential in my junior year when I was dealing with the SAT. I would've freaked out about everything.</p>