So, obviously many of you have heard that taking the SATs more than three times is a bad thing to do. It’s over-ambitious, it’s not smart, it’s pointless. I’ve heard all of the advice. This year, I’ve taken the SAT four times. I didn’t do so as an insane attempt to continually get a better score, but rather because I had to. The first time I took the SATs, I got a terrible score. A score that was nothing near my PSAT score or any of the practice tests I had taken. So, I was determined to do my best and learn from that experience by taking it again one month later in January. When I got that next score, I saw I improved by almost 100 points and was right above my PSAT score. While I didn’t love my score, though, I was content. However, as I went to visit colleges, I realized most of the schools I was interested in wanted essays alongside these scores. So, once again, I ended up back in the testing room in order to get an essay score. While I didn’t study or stress much for this test because it was for the sole purpose of getting the essay done, I saw that my score increased by 70 points and I was in a great range for some of the higher-ranked schools. I was officially done with the SATs. I got my essay and I got my good score. However, a few weeks later, I realized that my school SAT day was coming around. Now, I would have not done my third SAT had the school offered an essay portion during the in-school test, but, due to budget cuts, there was no essay offered. So, for the fourth time, I took the SATs. I did not study, and quite honestly, I didn’t really care because I thought I was done with testing. When I got my score back, it was a happy surprise to see I had increased my score (only by 20 points though) this time. Basically, my question is: is it truly bad that I took the SATs four times if each time I did increasingly better and one of those times was to get an essay score and another time was because it was the forced, in-school SAT? I really hope that colleges don’t look at this and immediately reject me, especially since I am a strong student, and definitely did not put all my time into studying for these tests instead of focusing on sports, extracurriculars, and just life. I feel like I should make a note to colleges about this especially if they might believe this is just a rich kid taking it as many times as possible to get any sort of increase, even though that’s far from the truth. Please help (or reassure me)!!!
4 times is medium-high, but definitely not unheard of! I know a guy who’s taken the SAT and ACT probably ten times combined over 2 years trying to incrementally increase his scores (e.g. for +10 on the SAT). That is silly. 4 times with increases like yours is not.
Congratulations on your scores! You should be fine. 
Time has changed. Schools care less about number of attempts since score choice is available. Only schools that want all scores will want to see your score history.
My oldest’s core really jumped the 3rd and last time taking the SAT so I was planning the same with my next kid. But on that D’s second test, she had a hard time focusing and kept zoning out. This sometimes happens to her and we don’t know why. So now I’m already thinking I’m open to a fourth test.
I think it’s fine to do what’s right for you.
Do you think those schools that want all scores will care?
I think if you can afford it then it doesn’t really matter how many times you take it. Obviously it’s best to study a lot for 2-3 tests and be done, but you should do whatever works for you. I often have trouble managing time and taking tests, so I may end up taking the sat 4 times… Look at websites of colleges that you want to apply to. Each college has a different policy but as stated above, most use score choice or superscore, so they only see your best scores. The reason that most colleges state for limiting the amount of tests you take is because they want you to focus on ECs and believe that most students only improve up to their 3rd test. If this is not the case for you and testing is not completely taking over your life, you should be ok.
The question is why do they want all scores?
Obviously those accept score choice do not care. Anyway, taking it 4 times is not too bad. It just looks slightly obsessive.
When I was a senior in high school, I hadn’t taken the SAT (last year they offered the old version) or ACT yet because I was so busy with school my junior year that I never made time to study. I took the SAT twice, the first time without studying and the second time focusing mainly on math to bring that score up, and my overall score only improved by 20 points (math shot up while reading and writing went down). Conversely, I took the ACT once without studying and ended up getting a composite 30, with a 34 in reading and a 36 in writing, but a 24 in science and 26 in math (I’m an English major if you could’t already guess). I still got into a ton of great schools, but chose community college anyways. The number of times you take the tests is irrelevant to me, unless the school wants all of them; even if they do, the upward trend is a positive thing. So I wouldn’t sweat it as long as your most recent scores are great and you’re satisfied with them. And to put it in perspective, the standardized tests are only one component of the many factors that contribute to your college apps.