<p>vicissitudes,</p>
<h1>0 does happen in minority but not “almost no one”. It’s not that rare that people score well the first time. SAT I is just one of the many tests for many top-school candidates. There are people who are fine with the first sitting’s result, get that out of the way, and move to focus on other tests like SAT II, and APs.</h1>
<p>I don’t have to make #2 and #3 to have the exact same score in one section while improving in another section upon retake. I could have easily made it 740/710 instead of 740/700 but I used the latter so it’s clearer because of the “40”. The point is most people have both sections improved, some improve more in one section but not much in another while others improve equally in both.</p>
<h1>4, 5, 6 all illustrate where the two practices have differences. While #6 is easily identified, #4 and #5 are there just to show how much one has to improve in one section while having a big drop in another <em>at the same time</em> to just get 80 point difference between two practices (it doesn’t have to be 80…it could be 75…etc but the point is in this case, there’s a big gain in one section and a big drop in another which I think rather uncommon for top students–skilled test takers). Note that #6, like #0-#4, “dilutes” the difference from #4 and #5.</h1>
<p>So let me assume that you took 3 times. If you said #8 happend to you and you said the difference for you was 80, that must mean you gained a lot in one section but a big drop in another in your another retake. Or were you mistaken?</p>
<p>As for people taking 3 times or more; I agree with you that there are “more chances for <em>higher</em> SAT scores through combining from different sittings” but the thing is it may actually <em>decrease</em> the difference between the two practices.</p>
<p>Let’s use #4 again. 700/700 (first sitting), 620/800 (second sitting). If the third sitting is 740/790, your combined result becomes 1540 (an improvement from 1420, consistent with what you said) but the difference between two practices becomes only 10 (instead of 80)!</p>