How many times is too many to take the SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having to PAY my kid to even take it a second time. And she's not prepping. How do you people convince your kid to take it five or six times? With threats?

You bribe your kid?

Guess what, it is their future and you definitely are doing something wrong if that is the only way to motivate them to care about their future prospects. (How do you see this continuing in college? The workplace?)

Talk about a flawed approach to parenting!

It's a reward, not a bribe. Like giving them money for good grades on their report card.

But keep talking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure that back when we went to college every attempt was represented on a score report: you could not pick and choose, and you had to decide before you took the test which schools to send the scores to (or not). Same thing with AP exams: there was no suppressing anything when you sent a grade report out.

Surprisingly, things may have changed in 25+ years.

And even more surprisingly, these changes aren’t improvements.

Precisely my point. College and university professionals know even better than we all do how game-able this is now. Doesn't provide the same data about student potential as it used to. (Notice I've said nothing about student intelligence or preparation, only that the tests are not the same kinds of indicators. Better or worse is open to debate.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC took it 5 or 6 times. Seemed stuck in the high 1300's on the real tests, but did well 1500s on the practice tests. We did use a private tutor for a few months who was very helpful, and the final time DC took it scored over 1500. But it was heartbreaking for DC to keep taking the SAT and not improve their score, and in some cases had a lower score, and then finally succeed! We suspect text anxiety was the issue, which was finally overcome.

Or she needed the questions and answers soon fed to her which happens when you use an SAT tutor for months, practice tests and then take the real test 5 or 6 times.