Today is the last day to get on the waitlist to take the SAT this Saturday. I don’t know if it would be worth it to pay the $48 fee since I have not studied at all and I know for sure that I will get a low score. I plan on studying hard for the next 2 months and just take the December SAT. I might take the Jan SAT but half of the colleges I am applying to won’t accept it.
The reason I am considering going in cold to take the SAT this Saturday is because I have heard that colleges want to see you improve test scores. So would it be better to take the SAT and get around a 1500(I got a 1560 on one of those “mimic” SATS) and then the December SAT I get a 2000+? I did pretty bad on the PSAT in 10th(138) and 11th grade(156) so colleges will already see the improvement right when I take the actual SAT right? The PSAT scores is on my high school transcript.I personally would rather not get up early to take a test that I know for sure I will have to retake it again anyways.
I am not applying EA. All colleges will take the December SAT if I pay for the rush delivery right? I was thinking of also paying for the hand grade since I am bad at filling in bubbles so will it still make it in time?
Why would you wait until the last minute to take an important test for admission like that? Don’t you think you’ll learn something from taking it now (like your weak spots and what you have to work on)? And then you’ll have a test in the bank in case something comes up in December (like the flu).
@Erin’s Dad
I did take the ACT twice(both times going in cold) already so I guess that will my backup and also I already registered for the upcoming ACT in Dec. I know for sure that I will do better on the SAT than the ACT because I am horrible at science. I got a 23 and 27 on the ACT mainly due to the science sections messing me up.
So is it true that colleges want to see an upward trend in test scores? Will colleges think I am just lazy for taking the SAT just once even though I took the ACT twice before?
I’ve taken plenty of “mimic” SATs that are timed by teachers and have a real testing environment like the actual SATs so I know my weaknesses and have enough experience.
No a trend is not particularly helpful and if there is too big a jump you risk the College Board cancelling your scores because you’ve cheated. If you think you’ll do much better in a month - seems unlikely - you are better off taking it then.
The Science section of the ACT is not Science. It is logical thinking and reading graphs. The ACT tends to be more time restricted and the SAT more logically tricky (at least the previous version). Maybe that’s why you didn’t do well on the Science.
Colleges don’t care if you take the test more than once. They care about the score.