Taking the SAT too many times?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Is taking the SAT 3 times considered too many times by colleges and will they look down upon this?</p>

2

<p>No, its fine.</p>

3

<p>1-3 is fine. at 4+ you start getting iffy.</p>

4

<p>The College Board just published a new chart of how many times members of class of 2007 took the SAT in junior or senior year. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/average_scores_testing-1-5_times_during_junior_senior_years.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/average_scores_testing-1-5_times_during_junior_senior_years.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>As you can see from the chart, the majority of high school students who take the SAT at all take it more than once, although the modal number of times to take it is just once. Because colleges see a lot of College Board score reports listing more than one set of test scores, they all have to have a policy for how to deal with an applicant who reports more than one set of scores. I have looked up or asked about those policies (as you should too, yourself, if you are applying this year), and the colleges generally consider an applicant's best scores, sometimes saying they consider "only" an applicant's best scores, and sometimes meaning by that that they "superscore," that is take the highest score from each section of the SAT (from whatever administration of the test) as the student's scores are compared with those of other students considered in the admission process. I have posted some more details in an earlier post: </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4198038&postcount=1&lt;/a> </p>

<p>If you'd like to check current information about this, write to college admission officers via college Web sites, or visit regional college information sessions </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=376775%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=376775&lt;/a> </p>

<p>and ask the question in person. Oh, and please report back here what different colleges tell you. </p>

<p>As one applicant among many, your goal is to have a competitive application at your favorite college. Maybe your strongest point is your grades and your extracurricular activities. Maybe you've already done as well on the SAT as you ever are likely to, in which case it's a "no-brainer" not to take the test again. But maybe you can raise your SAT score SIGNIFICANTLY by giving the test one more try, and you are still devoting time to schoolwork and activities, and you'd just like to submit the scores that best represent your CURRENT abilities. (High school students learn during high school, and colleges aren't put off by a rising trend in scores, especially if the first test or two were early in high school.) There is great advice in another thread </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377882&lt;/a> </p>

<p>(which goes on for pages and pages with lots of interesting posts) about what else matters in college admission besides test scores. Consider the possibilities, and then decide what makes sense in your case.</p>