Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn't useful information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that.
1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them "cold."
2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus consideration if the students submit only one test score.
3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores submitted by default.
SAT Younger than 13 Hoagies' Gifted: Talent Search Programs Duke TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students
4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once.
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_dow...rageScores.pdf
5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don't mind students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students prepare for tests.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by New York Times Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.
These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, “People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.” He added that “the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest” to his group. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/ed...gewanted=print
Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period.
A Retake on How Many Times to Take the SAT or ACT http://www.admissions.college.harvar...deApplying.pdf Quote:
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Originally Posted by Harvard admission office If you submit more than one set of scores for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your best scores--even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT Reasoning Test were taken on different dates. |
In the context of this thread, the SAT score paired with the OP's grades will spell L-A-Z-Y to any college admission office. Some colleges may believe that he can turn around his work habits, but most colleges don't need to take the chance on someone with a 2.3 high school grade average, because these days most students have considerably higher grade averages coming out of high school.