taking SAT 4th time to improve from 2290 to 2300?

Unless you are seeking a special scholarship with a 2300 cutoff point, then I think you should be satisfied with what you have.

^ I agree. Only if it is for a merit aid purpose and you are sure you can improve your score, otherwise, it is just a waste of time.

Nobody is going to be rejected for having a 2290 instead of a 2300. A student may well be rejected for being the sort of applicant who worries about those extra 10 points enough to take the SAT 4 times (as others here have noted).

Schools will also mistrust a 4-sitting superscore because that would allow a student to “target” a specific section each time, with an extra retake thrown in for good measure.

Do something fun during the Saturday morning of the next SAT sitting with the money you didn’t waste.

Here’s what the Harvard Admissions dean would say about your strategy:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18237227/#Comment_18237227

Specifically from a Stanford rep, schools do not want SAT testing to be an extracurricular activity.

In the old days, when you would get your scores on paper in the mail, the letter would tell you that when your scores were at a certain level–which yours are–you are just as likely to go down as to go up if you take them again. Why do you assume yours will go up just because you take it again? Also, not all schools go the superscore route, do they? Some might require you to send all your scores, and you might come across to those schools in a way you won’t like, i.e. as that obsessed person who took the test 4 times!

Why would you waste a whole Saturday morning, $52.50, and a chance to sleep in, just so you can make a trivial difference to your score?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this kind of post, it used to be more frequent. I thought people have learned that this is not a wise thing to do. Apparently not.

Last year my DS and I were told by a counselor that NO WAY would DS get into his top choice college with a 690 math score. Best we could hope for was wait list despite other great qualifications such as 4.5 GPA, high 700’s in other two SAT sections, great activities and recs, etc. So we spent a bunch of $$ prepping DS for SAT #4 and then when he finally did take the test for the 4th time he got another 690! I would definitely say it’s not worth it based on our experience. (He had been scoring in the 700’s on practice tests but it just didn’t work out for him that day, and in fact he went down in every section).

PS, he was accepted ED to his first choice Ivy League university, 690 and all.

Focus on essays, at 2250+ it doesn’t really matter