malthus

Hi everyone, I'm a Junior looking to apply to HYP and would like to know whether colleges really care about taking a certain SAT II several times.

- I got a 740 on SAT II World Hist last June and plan on retaking it in December in hopes of getting an 800. would it have been much better to just get an 800 on the first try, or will colleges not really care?

- I'm also registered to take SAT II Lit for the first time in December, though I don't think I'll be completely ready for it. With my experience with SAT I Critical Reading though, a large part of it seems to be luck based on what the passages are, so taking the test several times will likely get me lucky sometime. Having said that, I'm not too confident about doing Lit in my Junior year and would like to know if it will look bad if I get below 700 on my first try, or will colleges not really mind and just really consider the top score? Think I can take Lit three times and not look bad?

I'm currently registered for SAT II World Hist and Lit in December, however, if it's best that I don't take Lit until senior year perhaps, should I just not take Lit and only take World Hist in December?

And on a similar note, does score choice work per individual test or per sitting? (i.e. can Isend my World Hist score but not my Lit score from the same sitting?)

Really appreciate any replies guys, apologies in advance for all the questions! Thanks!

hb730

As for your first question, it's a hypothetical that you really can't do anything about right now. Yes, it would have been better to get the 800 on World History the first time, but it didn't happen. So go for it again, and try for that 800.

Literature, on the other hand, I've never taken so I don't know I could be of help on that front. I hear it's very difficult and maybe you could wait until you take AP Lit for practice?
So you might want to hold back on that one. Take it as much as necessary, and do remember that even if colleges only "consider" at the highest score, they do see the other ones if you send them to them.

I think Score Choice is for test dates for the SAT Reasoning, not sure about the Subject Tests so why not check collegeboard.com and see what you can do? Remember that colleges to recognize you're a junior and even if you don't do that great this year they'll see improvement later and that will be a plus.