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A sensible person develops a strategy designed to help him get admitted to the colleges where he’d like to go. If those schools value high test scores (as many selective schools in the US do), then it’s just sensible to pursue a strategy to get a high test score. It has nothing to do with insecurity–it’s realism. Now, I don’t think it’s necessarily a good strategy to retake at 2360–but I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to retake a 2300, particularly if the sections are lopsided (i.e., two 800s and a 700).</p>
<p>One note: a lot of kids who get these high scores are superachievers who are simply annoyed if they don’t get the score that they believe they are capable of–that’s why we often read about kids considering retaking 2380 and 2390–it has nothing to do with insecurity (or even strategy, in those cases).</p>