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College admissions
Course: College admissions > Unit 2
Lesson 4: Standardized tests- Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy
- Facing the standardized tests
- Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy
- How to register for the SAT
- Deciding whether to retake the SAT
- Overview of the ACT
- Deciding whether to retake the ACT
- Preparing yourself for success on the tests
- Student story: Standardized tests
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Deciding whether to retake the SAT
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- do colleges like it better when you stick with one foreign language instead of switching? and also, what are some good extracurricular activities that proves you have leadership skills? thanks!(5 votes)
- Honestly depends on the career you plan on choosing. If you wish to be a doctor, colleges will not pay close attention to the number of foreign languages you take in high school, as long as you meet the requirements. If you wish to become someone like an interpreter, it would be better to take many foreign languages. There are no certain extracurricular activities that proves leadership skills, rather it is the leadership roles you gain in that extracurricular activity that counts. If you wish to show leadership skills try being a president or vice president of a club. Or if you are not able to, simply participate in the club. Make sure you pick a club you have interests in so you enjoy participating. All activities show leadership skills. A good activity could be joining a sport club. Why? Because being envolved in sports shows teamwork. But any club will be fine. Remember it is not the number of clubs you take, colleges look at your leadership roles and participation(6 votes)
- what if you get a worse score the second time? should you take it a third time?(5 votes)
- Just try and try again! it is better to try and fail than to not try at all!(6 votes)
- Do colleges get too see how many times i've taken a test? If I send a score report to the once will they be unaware of the other attempts?(4 votes)
- Taken from the SAT site: https://sat.collegeboard.org/help
"Do you report only the best scores?
If you decide to use Score Choice™, the College Board will not release scores to colleges and universities for admission purposes without your consent. If you don't opt to use Score Choice, all of your scores will be sent to your chosen institutions and programs. Most colleges only look at your highest scores, so you should feel comfortable sending all of them."
So it may depend on the test and the options you choose on the answer sheet. For a particular test I would google it and go to the main website for that test. if you cannot find the answer in the FAQ, why not write them an email asking that question.(7 votes)
- what is SAT actually?
because i dont know much i mean anything about it....but want to know exactly of it!(3 votes)- It's a test of English (reading and writing), and Math. It's very commonly used in American university admissions. There's a short explanation on this website: https://www.khanacademy.org/college-admissions/making-high-school-count/standardized-tests/v/overview-of-sat(5 votes)
- Does colleges see the several attempts you made retaking the ACT?(4 votes)
- Nope, you can choose to send as many or as few ACT attempts as you want.(5 votes)
- Is the SAT more important than the ACT.(4 votes)
- I wouldn't really say either is more important. You'll have to check with individual colleges, but I don't know of any that accept one but not the other.(4 votes)
- what happens if you fail the SAT and the ACT?(2 votes)
- The SAT and ACT are not "pass" or "fail" tests. You just take the test and get a score, which may be above or below average. If you find yours is low, and the college you're applying to wants higher, then it'd be best to retake the exam.(6 votes)
- I had taken SAT(2400) a couple of times. I had a good score. Since the SAT(1600) is now redesigned, would it be ok to take 3 times? I would like to improve. Is there any harm in retaking it?(3 votes)
- After taking the ACT and getting your score back, can I retake it and decide on which one I can send to the college admissions?(2 votes)
- You can retake it and may choose to send as many or as few ACT attempts as you want.(3 votes)
- How many times can you take the act ?(2 votes)
- As many times as you have time for (and transportation to), and as many times as you can afford. But eventually you'll realize that you're wasting time and money.(2 votes)
Video transcript
- Let's talk about deciding whether if you want to retake the SAT or not. If you're on the fence and
you've only taken it once, it might be worth retaking,
probably for two reasons. The majority of students typically tend to improve their score on
the second time around. Colleges will generally
look at your highest scores on the three different sections over a couple of different
tests if necessary. If you're still unsure, there's a few questions to
ask yourself when deciding. The first thing would
be, where do you stand with the schools that
you're interested in. One way of being able to do this is to look at the data
the colleges will publish. Most schools will publish
their SAT data in percentiles What they do is give you a range. They generally give
you the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile. So what that means is
25% of their students fall below this range, who were enrolled at the school, and 25% fall above this range, who enrolled at this school. The numbers they give you are sort of the middle group of students. You can use that then to sort
of benchmark where you are. If you're, let's take an example, say your critical reading score is a 500. The range at UCLA for the
25th percentile is a 560, and for the 75th percentile is a 690. So you're below that. You're in that bottom 25% of the class. My advice to you would be is to study and really try to move that score up. It would be a good idea
to retake that test. If you scored a 600 on the
critical reading for the SAT, then you're certainly
more competitive at UCLA. You are between the 25th
percentile and the 75th percentile. Again, you're more competitive, but it still may be something, a score that you may want to think about trying to push up if you
haven't studied a lot, and still feel like you could do better. The SAT is more than just one section, so obviously UCLA has math
scores and writing scores. The math range for SAT for UCLA is a 610 to a 740. The writing range is a 590 to a 710. Again, you can put your
scores in those ranges and see how they match up. A second question you
may want to ask yourself is what was your initial score. It's typically easier to
bring up a very low score than to get the final few
points on a higher score. A third thing to maybe think about is your results compared
to your expectations. If you did a lot of studying, you took some practice exams, and you did about the same as
you did on the practice test, that may be where you're going to be. If you scored a lot
higher on a practice test, you may want to think
about taking it again. Taking it that second time
may be more comfortable, and you may be able to achieve the results you've done in practice tests. Finally, that preparation
piece is important, so making sure you spend time and really understanding the test, to do the best you can do.