We are trying to decide if it will help or hurt or be neutral if my son takes the SAT again in June. He is already signed up but I can pay to cancel.
He got a 1510 on his last SAT (710 reading/800 math), and he got a 1500 on the PSAT (740 Reading/760 math).
He wants to try to raise his english score on the SAT, but my husband thinks a school seeing a perfect math score is more important so he is worried if he takes it again and the combined score is higher (say 1520) but the math score drops, that that wouldn’t be as impressive as a perfect math score with a lower overall scoreof 1510.
What are your thoughts? He will be applying to the UT, A&M, Mines, maybe Michigan and a couple of full ride national merit schools (like UCF and Oklahoma). He might throw in another reach. His goal is engineering.
You can look and see which superscores - UT Doesn’t.
His score is fine though and will get him max scholarship consideration at Mines, UCF, Oklahoma, Alabama (if he added for NM), etc.
If he gets a 750, etc. next day it’s not going to diminish anything - because either he’s going to submit the highest single score (UT) or the highest of each section for those that superscore - and he’s well above where he needs to be.
If you are looking at cost, then you might look away from Mines and Michigan…unlikely to come in at a price like the UCFs, OUs of the world).
Congratulations to your son, that is a phenomenal SAT score!! I hope he felt really great about how the test turned out!
I understand your questioning of whether or not he should take it again, since my S25 is in a similar situation. He’s already signed up for the June test as well, and just got his scores back, which blew my mind, but also leave a smidge of room for edging just a little bit higher.
I expect that taking the SAT again can’t hurt, since a lot of schools accept superscores. You might be able to look specifically at the schools he’s applying to in case they say whether or not they take the highest portions of each section from different dates.
In your case, with your son wanting to go into engineering and getting a perfect math score, I would think he’s sitting in a good place right now. So if he feels like he has the time and energy to sit for the test on June 1, then go for it. If he’s too spent from classes and tests, then I would expect it wouldn’t hurt his applications to not.
But I’ll be interested to hear what other folks on CC have to say.
If there are any automatic-for-stats merit scholarships where a higher scholarship is available if he raises the SAT score, then it may be worth trying again for that.
University of Alabama has a higher scholarship for 1600 SAT or 36 ACT, but if he has National Merit Finalist, that is already a better scholarship than the highest for just the stats.
Many schools will “superscore” – take the best score of all submitted sittings for each section. So if your son scores higher on English but doesn’t make 800 math again, the new score would be the higher English score + 800 math.
In this day and age you probably should take the SAT again and try for a higher score. I have yet to meet an engineer at my public (ranked similar to Michigan) that submitted below a 1500 to anywhere, and most where in the 1550s neighborhood.
Keep in mind, any score above 1500 is respectable. A perfect score even more so. The only person to know if a score can and will improve is your son. How does he feel about the test? Most people who retake the test end up with the same score, unless they spent time and effort preparing.
SAT is only a piece of the pie, what will he have to give up to prepare and will that negatively impact the rest of his application? Spent the summer for a test that he already did well vs some EC that he wants to do, for example.
Ultimately, you won’t know until the Spring of his senior year to know if you made the correct decision…