Too Many SAT Scores?

<p>Elsewhere in cyberspace, I got into a discussion about whether there is ever any risk in reporting more than previous SAT I score if at least one of the scores is competitive for the applicant's desired college. The two positions that have come up in online debate are</p>

<p>1) it makes no difference how many SAT I scores you report, as long as one is a solid score for the college of your choice,</p>

<p>and</p>

<p>2) it's better not to report another SAT I score, lower than your best, because that might cause your best score to look worse.</p>

<p>What do you think? I see a lot of people worrying about issues of this nature, but I haven't seen a published statement by a college that its admissions officers even care about this. What does any college of interest to your family say about this? Is it best to report only one SAT I score? Is it a risk of being rejected for admission to have both an amply high score and also a lower score? </p>

<p>Thanks for all advice and links you can recommend about this issue.</p>

<p>The College Board sends all of the student's previous scores each time it is asked to report a new score.</p>

<p>So the student does not have the option of not reporting a previous score.</p>

<p>The only way in which a student could avoid reporting an inferior score is to 1) report all existing scores to all colleges that the student will apply to before taking the SAT again, 2) take the SAT again, and 3) don't report the new score unless it is dramatically better than the previous scores.</p>

<p>tokenadult-
How can you not send all SAT 1 scores unless you take it a second time after you've already sent the first set? If you send the scores, Collegeboard will send all of the last 5 administrations. The only strategy around this is to send the scores to the schools before new scores are released. Then, if you don't lind your new scores, you don't have to send them. We are thi8nking of doing htat. S. took the SAT1 in October. Did well, but could pull up his Cr. Reading a tad. He plans to take the SAT-2s in May, and then the SAT1 again in June. He'll send out the May socres (that will include his existing SAT1 scores). If he likes the second SAT-1 scores, he can send them later.</p>

<p>Looks like Martian and I were on the same page-- cross posted!</p>

<p>When my son took the SAT a second time hoping to improve his writing score we just went ahead and sent them everywhere anyway. He's a pretty consistent scorer and as it happened the writing score didn't budge. I've heard admissions officers say that if they saw more than three SAT 1 scores they'd probably start wondering why you didn't have something better to do with your Saturday mornings. I don't think it would be cause for rejection per se, but it might reinforce negative impressions from the rest of the application that you were too much of a grade grubber, or didn't have a life.</p>

<p>At DS1's HS, the program director <em>strongly</em> recommended that kids take the SAT I only once, twice at most. </p>

<p>The director said not to count SATs taken for talent searches in middle school. If those scores are reported, the colleges will realize their purpose. The director's point was that kids shouldn't spend all that time and energy trying to raise a 2340 to a 2400. The program's experience is that one great score packs a bigger wallop.</p>

<p>On a related question -- if one sends SAT/SAT II scores to a college, do AP scores also transmit? The question came up last night at a parent meeting.</p>

<p>No, AP scores are transmitted separately. Most colleges accept them as self-reported on the application, and you only send them to the school you're ultimately going to attend.</p>

<p>Now I have a question, my d is part of a pre-college program and they required her to take the SAT in her sophomore year. My D also took the SAT for an admission to a boarding high school. She is now a junior and took the SAT 1 time. She will not take it again until October of her Senior year. Since this will be her fourth time, what is the best method to let admissions know why she took it so many times. Also, will this hurt her chances? </p>

<p>Any advice. Anyone else in this situation.</p>

<p>Sounds like this would be a great thing for the GC to mention in his/her recommendation letter. Since there were legitimate reasons for taking the SAT (other programs that required it), it shouldn't be a problem.</p>

<p>Based on everything I've heard and read, it does not matter how many times one takes SATs (taking it multiple times does not hurt, and getting higher scores does help with admissions.)
I agree that kids shouldn't spend all that time and energy trying to raise a 2340 to a 2400. But as far as I know, no college would "punish" them for doing so...</p>

<p>Thank you. I'm hoping she will have the same GC next year. She seems to have a good idea about my D backgrounds and her future interests. Thank you for the suggestion. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, my D is not the best test taker. She has increased her scores over the year. </p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>CountingDown...
Your child's program director is giving very poor advice to most kids. There is a standard error of measurement to these tests. Your child is very likely to be helped taking the test more than once, provided he or she didn't score say a 2350 or more the first time.
Just generally, schools want a way to (1) compare apples to apples, and (2) usually choose highest individual score on each section because the accepted and enrolled students they report on the common data set and to the media report the highest that way.
The most important major exception to "highest individual score on each section" is the University of California system. Even then why not take the test more than once on the chance that your second overall score may be higher?</p>

<p>danas</p>

<p>My son got 2340 the first time and the college board site said he'd be more likely to go down than up in a retake. Every GC we asked said the same thing. He didn't retake.</p>

<p>I wouldn't disagree with that call at all!</p>

<p>Danas,
Probably should have clarified. The kids in this program score extremely well on the SAT (about 40% are NMSFs), so they discourage multiple attempts to help reduce the pressure on the kids (and to send a subtle message to the parents that a 2340 is JUST FINE! ;)).</p>

<p>Your son who got a 2340 isn't "most kids".
One of my kids got a very uncharacteristic score on one of the sections the first time out. I say "uncharacteristic" based upon practice tests taken at home. This was "fixed" by spending another crummy morning at a SAT testing site.<br>
Unless your son got a 740 on a section he normally aces, I wouldn't even consider a retake. Even so I would choose to sit on the 2340. Wow!
Congratulations to your son!</p>

<p>
[quote]
The College Board sends all of the student's previous scores each time it is asked to report a new score.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is indeed the general rule, and in fact the question I am posing here came up on Brand X in the context of a student asking if he should cancel a score from an earlier test date after learning that a more geographically convenient test center offered a later test date. He couldn't decide if he should take the test twice "for keeps," and if that would have any downside. I expressed the opinion there that here is expressed by nngmm: </p>

<p>


</p>

<p>As far as I know, it hurts a LOT to neglect extracurricular activities to push up SAT scores a little higher, but it doesn't hurt at all to incidentally take the SAT I two or three times at high school age, even if one time has low scores. A Harvard admission officer who spoke at my town said that "Anyone can have a bad day" when explaining that Harvard considers a student's highest scores section-by-section (as do most other highly selective colleges). This seemed to me like a complete non-worry issue, but I occasionally hear contrary opinions. No one has ever cited to me any college Web site that claims that it is disadvantageous to test up to three times, as long as one time yields scores that are competitive. </p>

<p>P.S. for extra info: The major exception to the general College Board rule that a student's records include all SAT I and SAT II scores is that scores from eighth grade or below are removed from a student's records at the end of each school year, making most Talent Search scores vanish unless a parent acts affirmatively to preserve those scores. I found out that even applies to SAT II scores taken at that age, and I thought after initial contact with College Board that my son's SAT II Math Level 2 score from less than a year ago (eighth grade) had vanished, but I eventually talked to a supervisor with enough authority to restore his scores. I don't see any point AT ALL in taking an SAT II test twice: prepare well for it once, and then just leave well enough alone. </p>

<p>Thanks for all the interesting comments.</p>

<p>Are the PSAT scores also sent along with all of the SAT scores?</p>

<p>Just a thougt, because I didn't see this mentioned. You can take the ACT as many times as you want and chose only one score to be sent. Nobody will ever know how many times you took it or see any results you don't want to be seen.</p>

<p>PSAT scores are not included with SAT scores.</p>

<p>That is a more user-friendly feature of the ACT.</p>