Official SAT/ACT transfer retake thread.

[jwlstn]

Dupes: Because the exam is NOT easy to score well on without a significant time commitment. Unless you are naturally gifted(very few) the amount of studying it would take to get an SAT score that would "wow" the Adcom (I'd say 2200 or higher depending on the school) would be overwhelming.

Yes, you can improve your score by a couple hundred points with a little more effort and studying, I even did so myself, but the minimal improvement on an exam for HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS is not worth it imo.

Bait & Switch has got it right. Your time is much better spent writing compelling essays and developing great relationships with your professors.

Many of the top schools I applied to, or was considering, flat-out told me that retaking the exam was unnecessary, I was too boneheaded to listen however.

In all honesty, the SAT should be done away with for all students, its stated goals are not accomplished by the exam now, nor have they been for a very long time. It might have some correlation to how well a high school student might do in college, but it has no correlation for a current college student, especially when you have REAL college grades to look at. Adcoms are not stupid and they realize this.

[ironicallyunsure]

my reading and writing SAT scores were pretty good, but i had a really hard time with math and didn't do well. i could get a near perfect score on the w and cr sections now, and i also think i could improve my math score by at least 200 points i'd say. in this case, i think retaking might be a good idea. it would be awesome if you could pick your highest score to send now because i plan on completely rocking that test. i'll be studying for it either way because my brothers want me to help them all summer. might as well.

[solidblu]

I'm definitely the cliched smart kid. couldn't care less about HS, but somehow walked out with a 3.0 (I have no idea how, I deserved far less).

SAT was 1740.

I re-took it in college after reading a 2 page phamplet with some ideas on better test taking (ie which types of questions to leave out), and I got a 1900. My Verbal score jumped 100 points all by itself. Now I've decided I should actually TRY to re-take it, and am planning on taking the august test, I'm studying about an hour a day for it off one of the Baron's books.

I always felt like I could figure all the math questions out easily if I just knew the 'trick.' (ie how to find all the prime numbers from 1 to 1,000,000 without actually counting them one by one.......ROFL).

Anyway, that's why I did so porrly on the 1900 SAT, I bombed the math.

[Dupes]

If you knew how to find all the prime numbers from 1 to 1,000,000 without actually counting them one by one, then you would be a genius.

[Michiyo]

I'm sorry for bumping this. I hope no one minds me asking this, but..

I got a 2000 on the SAT. If I decide to transfer from a top 25 liberal arts college to a top tier research university for junior year, would it be advantageous to retake my score? I froze up on one section and didn't even complete half of it, I know I could get a higher score if I took it again. Would it even be worth it though? It would be a top tier school, after all.

[arcadefire1027]

I'm bumping this thread so hopefully I can get an opinion on my own situation. I was lazy in high school, and had a low GPA and a 1900 on the SAT's. In college (at UCR), I've changed my whole attitude and got a 3.94 the first year, and am applying as a transfer student for fall 2010 (for junior status). The main schools I'm looking at are Brown, Rice, and Columbia. Should I retake? I'm almost positive I could score much better now, but the effort and studying would be very time consuming.

[Spin03]

^ Some schools will not accept SAT/ACT scores taken after enrolling in college. Be sure to check if the schools you want to apply to will or will not take a new score.

In my Junior year of High School (June 2008) I took the ACT with very little studying and received a 29. I retook it this past June at the end of my senior year after doing some individual studying for a couple weeks leading up to the test and I scored a 33.

@Arcadefire1027: If those schools listed will take new SAT scores, I say absolutely take it again. Honestly, you probably don't need to put in too much study time in order to raise your score by 100+ points.

[arcadefire1027]

Well it looks like I have no choice but to retake. Thanks for the advice!