So I got a 1270 the first time I took the SAT (after prepping for a few weeks) and then a 1210 the second time (I signed up later and didn’t have much time to study). I badly want to do better and feel like I could, but don’t want to get even lower the third time and look bad when applying to colleges. Would it be smart to retake it, or would it be better to stick with the 1270?
Only take it if you’ve invested sufficient time into fully prep for the exam, taking full advantage of College Board offerings to help students prepare for the exam. Take several timed tests, go over all the questions you guessed on (even if you guessed right) and all the questions you got wrong and understand why you got them wrong. Review some prep books if you think that will help (Meltzer Reading, PWN Math are good ones).
Agree with Post #1 - you won’t do any better unless you study and prep. You could consider a prep class to keep you on track with studying - although they may be pricey. Certainly, you could study on your own with College Board’s practice tests or buy a review book at the book store.
No. Unless you do REALLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY well. It’s better to pick the better of the TWO scores, so no. NO SWEAT! College isn’t an SAT filter!
Prep very seriously and then retake. There’s no harm in it since most colleges will superscore or consider your highest score or let you send the highest score.
SAT scores often make the difference in scholarships so investing time now may mean thousands of dollars in difference.
thanks for the input everyone! 
I think you should if you want a higher score than 1270. But I do agree with other posters, study study study. There’s no point in taking it again if you aren’t going to seriously put in the time to improve your score. However, you don’t necessarily have to take classes. You could use books or do online preps like UWorld SAT or Khan Academy. But 1270 is a fairly good score, so really it’s just up to you if you’re happy with that or not!
You may want to study for and give the ACT a try if you do another round of standardized testing.
A late switch from SAT to ACT is not really a good idea for senior if he/she has not tried the other test at all. One may do better in one test than the other, but one would also get better score after getting more familiar with one test. There is not much time for a senior to prepare for a new test. One should try both ACT and SAT practice tests early on to see which one may work better. For my Ds, they prep for both and took both and then decide on which one to retake.