Navigating the SAT: What Colleges See and How to Strategize
The SAT is a crucial component of the college application process for many students. Understanding how colleges view your SAT scores, especially if you've taken the test multiple times, can help you strategically approach your testing plan and application submissions. This article provides a comprehensive guide to SAT score reporting policies, the impact of multiple attempts, and strategies for maximizing your chances of admission.
The SAT: More Than Just a College Admissions Test
The SAT® is not just a college admissions test. When students take the SAT, they can use their scores to be seen by colleges and scholarship programs. They also get customized career information to help them understand all their options after high school. Most colleges-including those that are test optional-still accept SAT scores. The test measures the same Reading and Writing and Math skills students learn in the classroom-the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in college and career. The SAT is now in a digital format. Students will have more time per question, shorter reading passages, and access to a built-in graphing calculator that can be used on the entire math section. Students tell the College Board which colleges to send their scores to. In addition to the SAT, there’s another college entrance exam called the ACT.
Understanding SAT Score Reporting
Colleges have varying policies regarding SAT score submission, and the College Board offers several score-reporting options. It is essential to research the specific policies of the colleges you are applying to. Here's a breakdown of common practices:
Score Choice
Many colleges practice "score choice," allowing you to select which set(s) of scores you want to send. This means you have the option to only send your highest score if you take the test multiple times.
All Scores
Some colleges require or recommend that students send all their SAT scores. This gives them access to your entire test record.
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Single Highest Sitting
A few colleges only consider your highest SAT scores from a single test sitting.
Do Colleges See All Your SAT Scores?
The answer depends on the college's score reporting policy. While many colleges allow Score Choice, some require you to send your entire SAT testing record. Even when colleges require all scores, they generally pay most attention to your highest scores achieved. However, when colleges specifically require you to send all of your scores, this means they're considering your lower scores as well.
The Impact of Multiple Attempts
Taking the SAT multiple times is a common practice and isn't inherently viewed negatively by colleges. In fact, it can demonstrate determination and a commitment to improving your scores. Most students get a higher score the second time, and most colleges consider a student's highest SAT score when making admission decisions. Most colleges let students who take the SAT multiple times select which of their test scores, by date, they send to colleges.
Benefits of Retaking the SAT
Improvement Potential: Retaking the SAT gives you an opportunity to improve your scores.
Demonstrating Growth: Achieving higher scores on subsequent attempts showcases your dedication to self-improvement.
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Initial Poor Performance: Retaking the test for the second time gives you a chance to get a better score if your initial attempt results are less-than-impressive. With College Board’s “Score Choice” program, you get to choose which SAT test scores they send to your prospective schools. So, if you retest and do much better, no one at your selective colleges will ever know you did not get a good score the first time!
First-Test Jitters: The first time you take the test is the most nerve-wracking. Even if you’ve prepared, you can never really know how you’ll respond to the high-stress, high-stakes testing environment. Luckily, these nerves tend to be much more subdued the second or third time around.
More Focused Preparation: Once a student gets his or her test scores report from the initial student sitting on the high school SAT, The student can get some great insights into where you need to focus your attention for the test prep retest. To the student your target score, prepare and practice. Focus on test prep and practice tests beforehand. The SAT score report doesn’t just give your total sat score; it will also include individual scores for each of the two sections and, even more helpful, it will present “subscores” to give you an idea of what kinds of questions and topics in each section you need to improve on most. This is also why it’s important to ask the question “when do SAT scores come out?” College Board usually releases score reports around 2 weeks after the SAT. So consider how much time you’ll have to use this score report to prepare for a retest before you schedule it.
SAT “Superscoring”: College Board also offers a nice option called “superscoring,” which allows you to select the best scores for each portion of the test across different sittings of the test. That is, if you retake the test and, say, improve your Reading and Writing score over your first attempt but end up performing worse on the math section, “superscoring” allows you to submit the highest score from each section. In this case, you’d want to select the reading and writing score from the second attempt and the math score from your initial attempt. IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all higher education institutional allow “superscoring”! Be sure to check the admissions requirements for each school to which you will apply to determine whether they accept “superscores” or require only scores from a single sitting of the test.
The Law of Averages: Finally, on a more practical and statistical level, the best reason to retake the test at least once is that, generally speaking, the law of averages suggest that the more you take the test, the more likely you are to eventually get a score that is the most accurate representation of your abilities. That is, the point of the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” (SAT): to determine your real aptitude for college-level study.
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Potential Drawbacks of Over-Testing
Diminishing Returns: There may come a point where retaking the SAT does not yield significant score improvements.
Time and Effort: Preparing for the SAT requires a significant investment of time and effort. Retaking the SAT means dedicating more hours to studying, taking practice tests, and test preparation courses.
Test Anxiety: For some students, the pressure of retaking the SAT can lead to increased test anxiety.
It Gets Expensive Quickly: You really must consider the time and money of retaking the test multiple times. While it’s a good idea to retest, it can be prohibitively expensive to take it frequently. In 2018-2019, the cost for each sitting of the SAT was $47.50 ($64.50 if you include the optional essay section). But there are other potential costs involved, like phone registration fees, late registration fees, rescheduling fees, and more. Even if you don’t run into these fees and do opt to take the essay version of the test, $64.50 per exam for, say, 6 testing's brings your total to a whopping $387! Are you willing to fork over that much cash to take tests?
You Can Only Improve Your Scores So Much: The fact is, no matter how hard you study, what test prep and practice test you did and how many times you take the exam, there will come a certain point where you will simply plateau. There’s only so much improvement you can make in order to boost your scores. Why is this? The SAT is an aptitude test, meaning it’s not designed to measure the amount of “things” you know; rather, it’s purpose is to gauge your intellectual potential and reasoning skills. That is, many students can’t improve their SAT scores by learning more “stuff”; they can only improve the scores by getting better at taking the test. So, once you’ve mastered the skills and strategies for taking the SAT, it’s very unlikely that you will improve your overall SAT or ACT score beyond that point.
Admissions Committees Don’t Like Over-Testing: Perhaps the most important reason for not retesting too frequently is that the people who will decide on whether to admit you to their schools don’t really like it. At best, these admissions officers will begin to discount score improvements after a certain number of retests; at worst, they might even develop an unfavorable opinion of you and your application if they see you’ve retested repeatedly.
How Many SAT Tests Is Too Many?
While you can take the test repeatedly, this isn’t entirely true in practice. The exam is offered only seven times per year, in March, May, June, August, October, November, and December. So, unless you begin taking the SAT as a high school junior, you’re basically limited to 7 attempts. Moreover, do you need to carve out time to do other standardized tests?
There’s no real definitive answer to the initial question, as individual experiences and circumstances vary from tester to tester. Yet, a reasonable maximum number of attempts is no more than 4 times. Any number of attempts beyond 4 can lead to some potential negative consequences for your admissions prospects.
Strategic Considerations for Test-Taking
Here are some strategies to consider when planning your SAT attempts:
Preparation is Key
Since it’s so important for students, it’s crucial that you thoroughly prepare for the SAT, whether it’s through SAT online preparation programs and seminars or even just a good SAT prep book. There are also words you need to know for the SAT, as well. And perhaps just as critical to your SAT success is determining whether you need to take the SAT more than once for college admissions.
Focus on Improvement
If you are concerned about taking the SAT four times, you should focus on your preparation for the upcoming test dates in October and November to maximize your chances of achieving the score you desire. If you do significantly better on one of these attempts, you can prioritize sending that score to colleges. As long as there is an upward trend with your SAT score, even 4-5 times seems acceptable. So let's say you have 1380/1420/1430/1460/1510. That looks good to anyone reading your file because it speaks volumes of your determination and commitment to keep improving.
Consider Conflicts
While it is rare for the SAT and ACT exams to fall on the same Saturday, it’s still important to think about how you can split your study time to sufficiently prepare for each exam. And, unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to study for both simultaneously, as they are such radically different exams. If you intend to take both the SAT and ACT in your junior year or senior year, be sure to focus your attention on preparing for one at a time to guarantee you’re in the right headspace for each when test time rolls around.
Don't Take the SAT for the First Time as Practice
We recommend taking the PSAT your sophomore and/or junior year to get the experience of taking the SAT and to receive a score without compromising your actual SAT score. If you have to retake the SAT, be sure to continue to study for both sections (Reading & Writing and Math), even if you're only trying to bring up one section's score.
Understand Superscoring
Colleges use various methods to consider multiple SAT scores during the admissions process. Superscoring involves considering the highest section scores across multiple SAT test dates. For example, say you scored higher in the Math section on your second attempt but performed better in the Reading and Writing section on your first attempt. By using superscoring, colleges acknowledge that students have strengths in different areas. They aim to evaluate applicants based on their best performances. Note that not all colleges practice superscoring.
Test-Optional Policies and COVID-19
As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, many schools broke with their normal testing policies and went test optional. That means schools with temporary test-optional policies will not require you to send your SAT scores as part of your admissions application, and not submitting SAT scores will not adversely impact your chances of getting in. Check out this article for more a list of every school that's temporarily test optional during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Colleges That Require All SAT Scores
If you're reading this and aren't sure which schools you're applying to yet, we recommend taking a careful look at the schools that require you to send all scores. Below is the complete list of four-year colleges and universities that require you to send all SAT scores, grouped by state. Look through this list carefully. St. Not sure if you need to retake the SAT or ACT? Find out what a good, bad, or excellent SAT/ACT score is based on the schools you are applying to.
Georgetown University does not participate in the Score Choice option available through the College Board. Georgetown is unique among top universities in the US in that it requires you to send every single SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject test scores in with your application.
Holistic Review and Beyond the SAT
Before you stress about your test-taking history, remember: colleges evaluate applications holistically. Though great SAT scores can boost your chances of getting into a top university, they are not the be-all-end-all of your application. This is why we align our college admissions services so that they support every aspect of a selective admissions process.
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