How often and when to start taking SAT?

lolilaughed
Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:31:06 +0000

^ You’re entirely generalizing your comment now on people who take it to look like they’re smarter.

What about people who genuinely do poorly to other external conditions? Are they also morons? And yes, you said that makes them a moron earlier by directly saying:

“Anyone (that means anyone, meaning 100% of all people who take the SAT twice) who takes the SAT more than twice [well more than once really, but I’ll give everyone an extra try] is a complete moron.” I fail to see how you gave any exceptions.

So as I understand it, you’re arguing that the SAT is standardized and not accurate of somebody’s real abilities at life; fine. So as I understand it, you’re also arguing that a higher SAT may or may not get people into their dream schools; fine. So as I understand it, you have no argument.

Also, you’re wrong about the importance of having only one try (or in this case the second or third “moron” try) to accomplish a good score on the SATs.

"Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn’t useful information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that.

1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them “cold.”

2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus consideration if the students submit only one test score.

3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores submitted by default.

[SAT Younger than 13](Additional SAT Registration Options – SAT Suite)

[Hoagies’ Gifted: Talent Search Programs](Talent Search Programs | Hoagies' Gifted)

[Duke TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students](http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-ACT_scores.html)

4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once.

5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don’t mind students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students prepare for tests.

From the New York Times: "Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.

“These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, ‘People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.’ He added that ‘the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest’ to his group.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/ed...gewanted=print

6) And now the College Board is back in the business of letting students choose which test scores to send into colleges,

Score Choice

so now there is less reason than ever to suppose that colleges care how many times you take the test, because the colleges have no way to know how many times you took the test officially.

Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period.

A Retake on How Many Times to Take the SAT or ACT

http://www.admissions.college.harvar…deApplying.pdf

From the Harvard admission office: “If you submit more than one set of scores for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your best scores—even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT Reasoning Test were taken on different dates.”"