<p>I'm a bit confused about this. To my understanding...</p>
<p>SAT I: No matter how many times you take it, colleges will be able to see scores from all the tests and usually take the best combined score. They'll match the official report from College Board with your application materials.</p>
<p>SAT II: Can you choose which top two or three scores to show colleges? Or do they see everything and then consider your best scores? I didn't think that seeing one "bad" score among two or three others that are higher and in different subjects would make too much of a difference...?</p>
<p>AP: Again, will they only be aware of the scores you choose to report?</p>
<p>I would appreciate you guys clearing this up for me. I've never really understood how this works. Thanks.</p>
<p>They will see your whole score report in your collegeboard account just like the way you see it. However, I believe some colleges only pick out the best scores (and ignore lower retakes) for use in admission.</p>
<p>What if i took the SAT 2 Biology Molecular, and got a bad score? If i take the Ecological Biology , and get a better score, will colleges see that i retook the same subject (they have different components though, one is molecular, the other ecological). Will they see the previous, worse score, or will they simply look at the better of the two? Also, what's the general attitude of colleges when a student retakes an SAT 2 in the same subject, and gets a better score ?</p>
<p>Colleges will see all your scores even on retake. If you improve your score significantly, you should be in a good position, since improvement is always good, even if your previous score was bad. Although they see all of the scores, some colleges (eg. the UCs) take your best 2-3 sat subject test scores into consideration.</p>
<p>What if you get a bad score on a subject test but opt against retaking it to take a different subject for a better score? Will it reflect badly on you that you didn't try to bring the score up?</p>
<p>If you think you can do better then you should try to bring it up, otherwise, having a score (even if it is not so good) still looks better than someone who doesnt have a score at all ! So no, it shouldnt look bad to take another subject test rather than retake.</p>
<p>Whether you take another subject test, or retake the same one to try to bring it up is no different. Just choose the one you think you can get a higher score in, or choose the one that is related to your prospective major.</p>
<p>At every information session I have been to, the admissions folks say they take the best scores and that they don't have the time to wonder about the lower scores.</p>
<p>This is usually true, but in a small way it will always affect their decision even if they claim it is not in the admission factor. For example, the dean of admission at U of Chicago said that although SAT subject tests may not be an official factor of admission, they may affect the decision in a small way, so bad scores can slightly hurt and good scores can slightly help. They will see you whole score report, so it will give a general impression to the admissions board. There are exceptions like the UC and ivy league, where they compare each applicants numerically taking only the few best scores, to ensure the fairness to every applicants. If you retake (or in this case, take another subject test) and improve your score, they will most likely look upon it as impressive since they may see improvement as an indication of potential.</p>
<p>as far as i know, colleges do not really take ap scores into consideration for admission purposes, but only that you took that class and you took the test at the end</p>
<p>Thank you for the input. :)</p>
<p>No problem at all ;)</p>