So in total I took the SAT three times (Old ver. once and New ver. twice) and the ACT once. Now as a senior I totally regret wasting the money… I got a 2220 my first time with the old one but took it again because reading CC made me think it was an average score. Then I did super bad on the new one because I took it at the same time as my AP’s so I felt like I had to take it another time. I went up but it was whatever. Thankfully I only took the ACT once.
My advice to any junior or sophomore: study hard and take it once, then move on to other things. Your wallet will thank you.
I agree with this. Its wasting money and your time… who wants to be sitting in school taking a test on a Saturday? I practiced for the ACT till I got scores I liked on my practice tests then took the real thing and was done. I’m probably going to have to take the SAT (yuck) to make NMF but I’m super glad I got the ACT done in one go.
It depends on what your first score is. If you prepare very well initially and score 1560+, there’s no need to retake it. But if it’s under that, “your wallet” won’t mind taking one for the team for you to get above that range. It’s injudicious for you to hurt yourself by not pushing your score above that threshold. If/when you get rejected from some/most/all/however many of your reaches, you don’t want to have that feeling of “If only I’d taken the SAT again…” You need to go into the college admissions process having sealed any holes in your resume, so that if you do get rejected from some nice schools, you can say “Fie on you, CB! My high SAT didn’t matter! It’s a crapshoot!” and do so with a clear conscience. Or, even better, if you get accepted, you’ll know that your high SAT score, while it definitely wouldn’t be the reason you got in, would not have hurt your application. In this climate, you don’t need more things to hurt your application/make you less attractive than someone who synthesizes monoclonal antibodies at a local cancer research facility for fun and casually gets 5s on AP tests, and perfect scores on the SAT I and a handful of IIs.
If you’re strapped for cash, there are fee waivers. If you’re strapped for time, I’m sure you can give up a few weekends to bump your score up past the 1560/35 mark. If you honestly, truly and candidly don’t have time to retake it, then that’s unfortunate.
If none of those apply to you (this is directed at anyone reading this thread, and not the OP, by the way): take the SAT/ACT until you get above/at the 75th percentile at the colleges you’re aiming at, so you can go into the process confidently.
@mohammadmohd18 I agree with you but at the same time I don’t.
There are litterally only a couple of thousand kids who get a 1560/35, and it isn’t a reasonable goal for everyone out there. And if someone is aiming for a school extremely different from their scores even after taking the test three times then maybe the issue is their list and not their test prep.
There’s only two fee waivers available for the SAT. So at most you can take it twice, and if SAT II are in your future it’s better to use at least one of your waivers for those because they’re more expensive.
Also unless the scoee is a perfect one (Which only a fraction of a percent of test takers get) then the top score bands are pretty indistinguishable at most “elite” schools. You need to prepare obv, but at a point it’s time better spent doing something else
Ok I have not had the greatest experience with these tests, I got took the ACT four times and SAT once. I got a 23 on my first ACT, was like alright fine I didn’t study and didn’t know what to really expect coming in. My next three ACTs following that were all 25s. This was really annoying because I actually did study( did an after school program that was 3 hrs a day 8 weeks for test prep from September to November to study for October test. The SAT that was also October I think, I got an 1180? Somewhere in 1100s so yeah not amazing.
Things seemed to click when I was there and felt I was learning, but I guess I choked on the test. Oh well. I applied EA to my reach(was part of the bottom half of applicants in tests) Got in! I would’ve taken December, but thats when they sent out acceptances so I said screw it.