<p>I have a 740 in CR and I’m debating whether to retake the SAT. I realize that a higher score is always better, but is there any truth behind the supposed thresholds? I heard that an MIT admissions officer considered any scores >=750 to be essentially the same in subject tests, and it somewhat worries me that they chose a specific score to draw the line. </p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>800 is significantly better than 750. MIT’s 25th-75th percentile range for Critical Reading is about 100 points (the College Board website lists 650-760). This means that, very roughly speaking, 50 points is the difference between the scores at the 25th percentile and the 50th percentile, 50th percentile and 75th percentile, etc. This is very inaccurate but it should demonstrate that the range is tight and therefore every small improvement has some sort of distinguishing effect. Going from a 750 (~75th percentile) to an 800 (presumably a very high percentile) in just one section should boost your chances.</p>
<p>This is all assuming you can pull off an 800. If you go up to a 760 from the 740, then the improvement is probably negligible. This is not because of some “cap” or “threshold.” It’s just statistics (albeit very rudimentary).</p>