<p>Now that you can take the SAT 20 times and colleges would never know, you might as well keep taking it until you crack your goal. It might cost a lot, but the benefit of scholarships(leading to lower college tuition) might outweigh that. If I had a children, I wouldn't necessarily overwhelm them, but I would slowly prep them(few tests in 9th grade) with the ACT and SAT, and when they break 2300 or 34 on the ACT, you're all set. Consider this scenario as well: get 800s on all 3 sections throughout 2-3 years. You could send that score report from way back in 9th grade as well as one from 11th grade and superscore it till 2300. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I read somewhere that generally, people improve very minimally after the 3rd time of taking the SAT, if they even improve at all.</p>
<p>I took my first SAT test sophomore year, then again junior year, and I will be taking it a third time this fall in my senior year. I actually really liked that my dad made me take it sophomore year. At the time I would've much rather been sleeping in, but then in junior year when everybody was stressing out about the test I already knew what to expect.</p>
<p>I think taking the test once sophmore year can be a good idea for a lot of students. Especially those on honors, AP, or IB tracks like I am. I didn't study my first time taking it, but I still did pretty good on it and it definitely made me feel more comfortable taking it my junior year. So if someone is dedicated to studying for it their sophomore year, I know it is not too much to take on.</p>
<p>However, I think taking the test more than 3 or 4 times is wasteful. but that's just my opinion. I am sure there are some people who would benefit, but I think the majority of people would stop improving their scores and simply become stressed out or irritated with taking it too much.</p>
<p>I think it depends what your reasons for taking the test are and how much time there is between each test. If you take the test for the first time in 9th (or earlier), there is plenty of time to take it again. You might want to take it annually to monitor your progress. Your score should rise as you get farther along in school, and if you are not happy with your progress, you will have an early indication of where extra work is needed which could be useful (if you actually do the work). Taking tests with just weeks/months between administrations seems less useful to me, unless you are determined to work and prepare. I could also understand taking the test again right away if you need a certain score for a scholarship or program and are close enough to think that taking the test again might get you the score you need.</p>
<p>Maybe once in 9th and twice in 10th, and then it's go time starting in 11th grade. If you really wanted to, you could teach your child like 5 words a day starting from 10th grade, though I probably wouldn't do that. Standardized testing will definitely change in 10 years because many colleges aren't requiring it anymore. Still, a 34+ or 2250+ will always be good marks on anyone's resume.</p>
<p>"It might cost a lot, but the benefit of scholarships(leading to lower college tuition) might outweigh that."</p>
<p>I have applied to MANY scholarships and I know firsthand that SAT does not play an important part in most scholarships, most don't even ask for SAT scores. It would be much more efficient to seek out and apply for a lot scholarships than to take the SAT a billion times, only giving you enough time to apply for a few scholarships</p>
<p>The consensus here on CC is that practice improves scores, and I agree--regardless of what CB's statistics say. I think CB will catch on to that. Does anyone think they'll start raising the difficulty of their tests?</p>