Should You Retake the SAT’s to Improve Your Score?myredkite.com /blog/should-you-retake-the-sats-to-improve-your-score/

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether to retake theSAT’s or not.

This question comes up quite often: should you retake the SAT’s to improve yourscore? And the reality is, there is no simple answer. There are a lot of factors toconsider when deciding whether to retake the SAT’s or not.

There are some pretty simple questions you should ask yourselfbefore you retake the SAT’s.

Do you have a target SAT score that you are striving for and have fallen short of? Haveyou scored well below your scores on your SAT practice tests? Have you only taken theSAT test one time? Are you a junior or just beginning your senior year, and think youcan increase your SAT scores?

If you answered yes to these, you should probably retake the SAT.

But what about the more complex situations?

First, take into consideration what we already know about juniors who retake the SAT asseniors from the pros over at College Board:

55 percent of juniors taking the test improved their scores as seniors.

35 percent had score drops.

10 percent had no change.

The higher a student’s scores as a junior, the more likely that student’ssubsequent scores will drop.

The lower the initial scores, the more likely the scores will go up.

On average, juniors repeating the SAT as seniors improved their combined criticalreading, mathematics, and writing scores by approximately 40 points.

About 1 in 25 gained 100 or more points on critical reading or mathematics, andabout 1 in 90 lost 100 or more points.

This information brings a few things to light. More than half of juniors retaking the test asseniors improve their SAT scores. If you feel you scored lower than your potential andhad a low initial score, take it again. You have a better chance of increasing your SATscore than scoring lower. So why not take it again?

Still, there are some scenarios where it may not make sense for you to retake the test.For example, if taking the test again will not give you enough time to submit your scoresto colleges. Or if you are not able to put the necessary study efforts into the next test,including meeting with a tutor or taking SAT prep courses. It also doesn’t make sense toretake the SAT if already scored high on a previous test. Check to see if your scoremeets the requirements of all the schools you’re applying to. If so, maybe taking it againisn’t the best choice for you.

If you are still on the fence and not sure what to do, here are a fewthings to know when deciding if you want to retake the SAT’s.

Schools do not see how many times you took the test so taking the test manytimes does not hurt you.

You can submit the test(s) of your choice to the schools of your choice. Thisallows you to cherry pick the exact scores you want schools to see.

“Score Choice is a score-reporting feature that gives students the option to choose theSAT scores by test date and SAT Subject Test scores by individual test that they send tocolleges, in accordance with each institution’s individual score-use practice.” –

CollegeBoard.com

Some schools use a SuperScore. This is the practice of taking the highest scoreper section across all your submitted SAT’s. It does not matter if it is a part of thesame test on the same date or not. And it does make sure that you get credit forthe highest possible integrated score.

For a list of how specific schools use SAT’s scores, click here for Score Choiceparticipating institutions.

There’s not always a clear cut “yes” or “no” answer to whether or not you should retakethe SAT’s to improve your score.

There are some definite times when the answer is “yes.”

There are also times when the answer is “no,” because it just doesn’t make sense toretake the test.

But there are also a lot of scenarios that fall between.

At the end of the day, you can take the SAT test as many times as you like withoutpenalty. And with the Score Choice scoring system in practice, what do you have tolose? It all comes down to a personal choice. You may have to ask yourself howdedicated you are to studying hard and working to improve your score in the timeleading up to the test.

Whatever you decide, good luck and study hard!