to take or to not take

Applying to College
1

i already posted this in the SAT forum

well im currently a senior (international student - China) and i am likely going to take my IB exams next year due to medical reasons.

so i applied to top schools (ivies, stanford, CMU, berkeley)
and i intend to apply again. thus, i believe taking the SAT or ACT and scoring better would improve my chances.

i took the sat thrice and i didn’t take the ACT
SAT november 2013 - 1890 - (math 770, CR -520, WR - 660)
SAT may 2014 - 2070 - (math - 800, CR - 570, WR -700)
SAT november 2015 - 2190 - (math 800, CR - 650, WR - 740 (8 on the essay and 1 mistake - so the scaling was hard))

so is it worth taking the SAT or ACT worth it. i would have three solid months for it
i would like to apply to stanford rea - they dont have score choice.

so my questions are

  1. is it worth taking the sat a 4th time and is there a realistic chance of improvement(logically and practically i would be looking at a 2300 + on the SAT or a 34+ on the ACT)
    ?
  2. would colleges frown upon taking the sat again?
  3. if im retaking the test, would it be better to take the SAT or the ACT?

im science student btw and wouldn’t have a problem with the graphical analysis or science questions

all opinions are welcomed.
thank you for your time CC community

2

I’d try to increase the Critical Reading score. If you work really hard, I believe you’ll be able to get it above 700 and really increase your chances, because Critical Reading is considered the most important / hard part of the SAT and 650 isn’t that high…

Also, you do have a perfect Math score but a lot of applicant have that and it won’t really sand out. As for your writing score, it’s not perfect but you don’t really need to increase it at all, as long as it’s above 700.

3

I would reccomend taking the ACT, just to see if you test better. A lot of science oriented people tend to score better and find the ACT an easier test.

4

If you really want to go to school in the US, apply to other schools than those. You have pretty good scores, but so do all the other people applying.

5

The key question is: are you full pay or do you need financial aid?

The second question is: your ECs. You can retake the SAT, but it’s not going to make or break your application at this point. Do try the ACT, you never know, it may work better for you and you may score a 33 or 34.
If not, remember to work on your essay, to do the interview (especially important for over represented countries), and to apply to a variety of colleges (ie., Top 25 + Top 40 + top 75)

6

Before taking another SAT or ACT, do some practice tests and see where you stand. You should treat each test attempt as your only/final attempt. There is no point to take a real test to find out how you did in that test. It is not only a waste of money and time, it may ruin your opportunity too. As your SAT score was still increasing, you probably have not reached a plateau yet. Some student may do better in ACT or SAT, so do give it a try on some practice tests.

7

It may be important for you to understand that the most-selective universities have substantially different policies regarding standardized test results:


[QUOTE=""]

Some SuperScore and some do not
Some allow the results form any single sitting to be submitted
Some sanction Score Choice and other do not
Some REQUIRE every result from every SAT or ACT (or even both) examination to be provided

[/QUOTE]

It may be wise for your to ascertain your target schools’ specific polices before making your re-test decision.