Ok I’m confused so please someone experienced answer for me! If you take the SAT & don’t do that great and then take it again and do better, can’t you choose which scores to send to your school? My D 's counselor told them to NOT take the SAT for “practice” as if they don’t score well , some schools will request ALL scores & not superscore etc. so why would a school not look at ALL the scores you choose to send them and use your best? Or why wouldn’t you just choose to not send the lower score? Isn’t it your choice what scores to send to each school you’re applying to? Do the colleges have access to your college board account after you apply thereby able to see ALL scores from ALL your tests?
Depends on the school…some with super score others want them all.
Do they make you send all scores? I just don’t see how they would have access to whether you took it more then once? I was under the impression you get your scores and then choose which colleges get them and that you got to choose which test date you wished to send…
If you did better on Math the first time but better on Reading the second time you would want to superstore that. Superscore means you take one area from one test and another from another test and combine them. If you did better on one complete sitting than another then you would just send in that test. Does that make sense? My daughter’s transcripts from HS showed both times she took the test and what the scores were. So I don’t know how you would hide it from the schools you apply to.
There is a list of schools requiring ALL scores…I would include the link, but not sure if I am allowed to. There are some MT schools on it (Syracuse, CMU, etc.) Google it and it comes right up. In addition, if a college says to send all your scores, and you don’t, then I imagine you are putting your entire application/admission at risk. Why risk it? There are very few MT schools that even care that much about your scores for admissions (NYU and Northwestern are two notable exceptions)…it’s really not worth lying.
I’m an SAT tutor.
Some colleges will ask for all your tests. These are usually the top schools, e.g. the Ivies. In these cases, you have no choice. You must send them all. But this is a choice in my state-- in NJ, transcripts do not show SAT scores. So it’s easy to elect not to send if you have a choice. Does California then legislate showing all SAT tests? Or is this an individual school?
I don’t know the policies in each state. But I’m sure the counselor in the OP’s state did not automatically include all SAT scores on the transcript. This would be why the counselor suggested not to take the SAT 'just for practice."
I actually agree, regardless–there are many ways to take the test under test-like conditions that will not be counted. Here in our area, there is a ‘tutoring club’ that administers the test and scores it for $40. Or if you’re disciplined, you can take a College Board test (from the ‘blue book’ or printed out from their site), under test-like conditions and score it yourself. This would mean taking it at 8 or 8:30 am in a quiet place with no outside interruptions, using their bubble sheets, and timing it exactly as a ‘real’ SAT would.
Outside of the ‘elites’, many colleges allow you to select which test(s). So, let’s say you took it once as the OPs child and you were unhappy. You can take it again. Hopefully you’ll do better 
Then you can select to send only Test #2. The College Board itself will actually recommend which tests to send. Let’s say Test #1: you got 600 CR, 550 M and 450 W. You are very disappointed by your writing especially. You take again. Test #2: You get 610 CR, 500 M and 500 W. So you do better in Writing but worse in Math. Yikes! What to do? College board itself will do an analysis and advise you.
Many people confuse this with the idea that you can pick and choose your Math score from one test and your Reading score from another —You cannot. You cannot, in the above example, ‘choose’ to send the 550 M and the 500W. “Superscore” is not something you can do. It is something the college can choose to do if it wishes. The school itself, if you send them both tests, can elect to superscore the tests to arrive at your top score. It’s not guaranteed the college will do this. And sometimes an individual score is so low you don’t want to send the test at all.
Let’s say you took the test a third time, after studying a lot. And you’re thrilled to get a 650 CR, a 500 M and a 550 W. Whoopee! So test #3 is the best. But should you send Test #1 to show them you can do a 550 in Math? That would depend on whether you want them to see the 450 W.
As you can see there are many possible combinations. Again, once you take more than one test, and then click on to send them to X & Y & Z colleges, College Board’s computer program will advise you on which to send. You can ignore this, but it does help.
So the short answer is that if you are unhappy with your results, yes, definitely 100% take again.
Most colleges don’t ask for all tests-this is usually just the ‘elite’ colleges. But even if they did, it definitely can’t hurt to take the test again.
However, I’d study for it and target your areas of weakness if you want to see a meaningful improvement. Good luck!
Ooops sorry…that’s what I meant to say…Sorry for they confusion…the superscore is done by the school. My apologies.
Thanks so much @connections and everyone else. It’s my D that’s getting ready to take the March SAT . I thought she was waiting till May but she wants to do March and then again in June . I did go on college board and read the info about how you can select the score date you wish to send and then yes, of the school wants all then you need to send all. My D is not applying anywhere academically selective lol so I’m thinking she’ll be ok with just sending best but yes I see what you mean about one score is up & then down etc! Whew. When I applied to school we took ACT once & that was that. My score wasn’t great but my college took it and it was over! Welcome to 2016. A lot of her schools we saw DO offer super scoring which they told us they would take the best score from math and best score from reading and combine regardless of test date. But then we’d need to send all scores to those schools then if we want that option done.
A bit more clarification, if it’s the same as it was years ago, SAT/ACT offer an optional service called Score Choice (for which I assume you pay a bit extra) that enables you to send only select test dates. If a school doesn’t accept Score Choice (usually the top academic schools) then you are physically unable to pick and choose which scores to submit, so there is no fudging. I think we were warned that those schools typically prefer no more than two attempts at either test.
Here is some SAT data from the National Center for Educations Statistics that I compiled last year for 80 schools with MT programs. The SAT score shown is the average of the 25th and 75th percentile numbers reported. Since these routinely get modified, and I looked these up one year ago, no doubt there will be some differences in the numbers shown vs. current numbers if you look them up now.
Below 1000
Montclair State University - 970
LIU Post - 970
Buffalo State SUNY - 975
Catawba College - 985
Point Park University - 985
Colorado Mesa University - 985
Northern Kentucky University - 990
Western Kentucky University - 990
Coastal Carolina University - 995
1000-1099
Sam Houston State University - 1005
Bowling Green State University-Main Campus - 1005
Shenandoah University - 1005
The University of the Arts - 1010
Lindenwood University - 1015
Fairleigh Dickinson University-College at Florham - 1020
University of Northern Colorado - 1020
The University of West Florida - 1025
Western Carolina University - 1035
Texas State University - 1035
Rider University - 1040
Pace University-New York - 1040
Marymount Manhattan College - 1040
SUNY at Fredonia - 1045
East Carolina University - 1050
University of Hartford - 1050
Western Michigan - 1050
Molloy College - 1055
University of Memphis - 1055
Savannah College of Art and Design - 1060
The University of Tampa - 1065
Abilene Christian University - 1070
Ball State University - 1070
Roosevelt University - 1070
Baldwin Wallace University - 1075
Wichita State University - 1075
Otterbein University - 1078
1100-1199
Nebraska Wesleyan University - 1100
University of Arizona - 1107
Oklahoma City University - 1110
University of South Dakota - 1110
Webster University - 1120
Saint Edward’s University - 1120
The University of Alabama - 1125
University of Utah - 1126
University of Cincinnati-Main Campus - 1130
Ohio Northern University - 1145
James Madison University - 1150
Syracuse University - 1155
University at Buffalo - 1155
Christopher Newport University - 1160
Wagner College - 1160
University of Alabama at Birmingham - 1165
Belmont University - 1170
University of Colorado Boulder - 1170
Indiana University-Bloomington - 1175
Texas Christian University - 1180
University of Central Florida - 1180
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus - 1195
Florida State University - 1195
Drake University - 1195
1200-1299
Elon University - 1220
Illinois Wesleyan University - 1220
Baylor University - 1225
Emerson College - 1230
Pepperdine University - 1235
Muhlenberg College - 1240
Brigham Young University-Provo - 1255
University of Florida - 1265
University of Tulsa - 1265
Boston University - 1285
1300+
University of California-Los Angeles - 1300
Southern Methodist University - 1305
Tulane University of Louisiana - 1320
University of Miami - 1325
New York University - 1355
University of Southern California - 1380
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor - 1380
Carnegie Mellon University - 1435
Northwestern University - 1470
NYU does not require you to send all scores. Most schools do not.
D did take the SAT and ACT as a “practice” in September/ October of Junior year. We did not send those scores to any schools. D had done an SAT class late summer into fall and she took the tests for the first time after her class was finished. As a result of seeing her actual scores on both tests, we decided to do private tutoring in math to get her score to over 600. We also decided not to do any more preparation for the verbal section–and D’s scores went up without additional prep when she took the test again in early winter and the spring.
^^Also, Carnegie Mellon is misleading on the above list, because they have much lower academic standards for talent-based programs like theatre, music and art.
Hee hee we managed to hit one in each group:) Not on purpose, just the selection our daughter came up with. She does have good grades and scores and we did not think of using it as a way to help her. Might have been smarter to to have a few more of the “more difficult” schools to get into score/grade wise in hindsight.
Thanks for the added info, MomCares.! Just a bit more clarification You don’t have to pay extra to send your preferred scores (Score Choice). It’s free. This is what I was referring to-- You can choose to send x, y and/or z test (see my very long post above!).
Bissou said that in her D’s school, all the SAT tests were listed on her D’s report card. In NJ this isn’t done. It’s not procedure in most schools, as far as I know, but I don’t know what all states do. Is it done in all of California, or in just a few schools? Anyone know? If your school does this, this might impact your choices.
I have no idea about the rules of thumb for how many tests an elite school will want. These would be only the top colleges (elites) that require all tests. My D ended up taking her SATs 4 times for her 2300 (that was her own being driven; I thought she’d stop at 3). She got into NU, but didn’t get into the Ivy she applied to, although who can tell.
Many students elect to take the test 3 times; this is fairly standard, at least around here. Occasionally a kid will take it once and be done, but that is unusual.
In most cases for MT, the colleges applied to will accept whichever scores you choose to send. It’s totally true that many have lower academic standards for admission. But the higher the score you have, the higher your chances of getting money (as well as getting in). This is not to stress kids who just aren’t going to get a tippy top score, but just to put it out there as far as why to prepare for the test.
We were told never to send more than 3 takes for either test. We ended up sending 2 sat scores and 1 act score even though D took the sat 4 times and the act 3 times. As crazy as that sounds, the tests were spaced out, so it wasn’t insane.
She took a “practice” sat and then another sat aiming to get her math score up after 3 months of private tutoring. (She went up by significantly in math, but reading stayed the same.) She took it a 3 rd time hoping the verbal would budge, but she only went up 10 points in March. In June she decided to take it one last time-- no practice, but hoping for an increase in reading. And we were so happy she took it! Her reading randomly went up 50 points!
As for act, d initially scored very high in verbal, but in order to send score her math and science had to increase. With tutoring the math did go up somewhat ( she did much better on sat) and science went up a lot. So we sent only that 2nd test.
I’m a stirong believer in taking them as many times as possible without stressing out. Scores for both kids had random jumps that were significant without any additional studying.
Tulane’s median SAT for admits for the class of 2020 is 1390, quite a significant difference from the data reported above.
@connections. Unless they changed things up, with each test you take you can chose to send the score to several schools for free.
But if you decide to do score choice, you would not send scores without deciding what scores you want sent (after getting all your test results. )
So that means you are paying to send your scores to every school on your list, rather than sending some for free.
So those fees do add up, but to me it is an important investment.
I knew I had seen some discussion on this subject before and in particular about how to really control the process of which schools see what with respect to a school’s transcripts. See post 29 and on here http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1796378-acceptd-uploads-unifieds-and-in-person-auditions-p2.html
Thanks @halflokum for reposting that thread. I remember now about the question of whether SAT scores get listed on the transcript. D registered for SAT last night & they only tell you they send the scores to the high school but I’m emailing the counselor to find out if the score gets transferred onto the transcript. Each high school is different so who knows. Seems like they should NOT be listed on it. I agree it’s not the high schools business and D wants to see them first as do I! Plus I can see where the school may not have the updated one on there if you retake the test. Therein you are doing what I dread the most…babysitting the process to make sure everything is accurate ugh! when if you just have the college receive the scores from college board it’s always going to be accurate.
We definitely aren’t doing the free scores either… Who does that? I mean why on earth would you send scores before you know what they are??
Just a little tip in case you’re interested in possibly saving some money: We saved a bit of money (at least $100) by calling the schools on D’s list to see if they needed the scores sent if they were already on her transcript. (We chose which were on her transcript–2 tests so they could superscore if the school did that.) Most schools did not require the scores to be officially sent unless D decided to matriculate there. Scholarship offers were made off of the scores on her transcript. It only took about 20 minutes to call the schools, so it was worth it. Every little bit of saved money helps in this process!