I took the SAT twice. The first time I took it I was very sick and tired and I didn’t prepare going in at all because it was my first time and I knew that I was going to take it multiple times. I took it with the essay. The second time I took it without the essay. I am looking at pretty selective schools, so brace yourself for this first terrible score: I got a 1260. My second test, I raised that by 220 points, putting me in the range for my schools. Although none of them require the SAT with essay, in the first test (the one that I did awful in) I got a perfect essay score (24/24). This is because essay writing comes very natural to me, and although I didn’t prepare for the rest of the SAT (it was my first and I just wanted to feel things out), I have been preparing for the essay essentially all year for my AP Lang and Comp class.
The bottom line is: should I submit only the second SAT score to colleges that I will apply to (without any essay), or should I submit both so they can see my perfect essay score and hope that the first SAT score doesn’t hurt my chances?