<p>Our GC has advised D to retake the SAT tomorrow (Oct. 1) in the hopes of slightly increasing her math score (currently 660). D has not had as much time to focus on taking practice tests, etc., and when she took a practice test last night, she did not do as well as the initial 660 score.</p>
<p>Question: if D bombs the math SAT tomorrow, will this adversely affect her college applications? Or, is the GC correct that colleges (whether or not they superscore) will give D the benefit of her highest score? GC says there is no risk to retaking. I am not so sure.</p>
<p>I’m going through this whole process again with my second son. I don’t think there is a downside as far as worrying about a worse score. Most students take the SAT multiple times and the schools understand that there are factors that cause scores to rise and fall. When they say they look at the best scores, that is what they mean. They’ve got thousands of applications to sort through; I’m sure they automatically sort out the best SAT score submissions and leave it at that.</p>
<p>In my experience, however, unless you do some preparation, the score isn’t going to change much. So the downside is wasted time and $$. There is another SAT given in November, why not take that one and spend October preparing?</p>
<p>Every time our D retook the SAT her overall score increased. Subject areas might go up or down, but overall, with experience and more confidence - they do better overall each time. It is rare to have the cumulative score go down and since they look at top scores you have nothing to loose. </p>
<p>If you really think she can’t do any better, you can always not report the scores till after you see them. Of course you’ll pay for that - $10 each, but that’s not much.</p>
<p>I’d let her retake it again, but not tomorrow. Maybe wait till the November or December dates. Gives her a month to focus on the math. Even if you sit down with her for 15 minutes a day and make sure she does a few questions I’m sure her score will increase.</p>