ACT dilemma! please help!

Test Preparation
1

<p>basically it’s this:</p>

<p>1) I’m from a low-income family
2) I want to go to one of the US news top 20 schools since I would have the highest chances of getting the maximum financial aid
3) I’m a junior. </p>

<p>I took the SAT three times:</p>

<p>1) 2170 (w/essay 8)
2) 2190 (w/essay 10)
3) 2260 (w/essay 12 and 80 mc)</p>

<p>the composite score is 2320. </p>

<p>My question is, should I take the ACTs in June or September to maybe see if I could score a 35 or 36? I know that 2320, even 2260, is a very good score. However, I don’t want to regret anything when the financial aids I receive wouldn’t be enough. I personally think I could do much better on the ACTs because I do pretty well in school. I took one real practice test and scored a 29 without really studying. Will studying for it substantially raise the score?</p>

<p>Also, let’s say I do take the ACTs. Would it hurt my application if I score, for example, a 32 or 31? Or what if I get an 8 or 9 on the essay? Would colleges hold it against me that I scored a 12 on the SAT essay but scored much lower on the ACT essay?</p>

<p>thanks for the help!</p>

2

<p>Chill. I’m sure that you are fine, honestly. They might think you are weird if you retake after a 2320…
Have fun and make sure your extracurriculars and grades are good. </p>

<p>If it makes you feel any more confident:
I am nothing special and got into a top 10 USNWR school with a 2060 composite.</p>

3

<p>i wd not take it. you’re not supposed to take these tests more than 3 times …since you have a good sat score it will not look good 4 u to try again to score higher with act. besides , if u do worse than your sat score it will not look good. U almost need to have a perfect act score to do any better.</p>