Should You Retake the SAT?

One of the biggest parts of junior and senior year is taking standardized tests, since college applications become increasingly important toward the end of high school. Your teen will want to have the best possible test score to go along with his or her applications, so these years can be a stressful time in your teen’s life. Since there’s so much pressure to achieve a top score, your teen may feel the need to do a SAT retake. It can be tough to know whether or not a retake is worth it, so you may want to talk over the decision with your teen.

SAT Performance

A good way to begin deciding whether or not your teen should retake the SAT is by looking at average SAT scores for his or her top college choices. It’s important to remember that these scores are averages, so if a school routinely accepts students with 1300s, you should keep in mind that students with higher or lower scores also get accepted. If your teen’s score falls pretty close to these averages, he or she may want to focus more on boosting grades in school than on retaking the test. However, if there’s a sizable score gap, it may be more helpful for your teen to study and retake the SAT in an attempt to get closer to that school’s average score. Just make sure to remember that high school performance, extracurricular involvement, and SAT scores all matter, so your teen shouldn’t focus on one of these areas at the exclusion of the others. A well-rounded student is always preferable to an applicant with great grades, but no activities and awful test scores, or any other combination of performance in these three areas.

The ACT Option

Perhaps you and your teen just don’t think that the SAT was a good fit. The ACT can be a better option for students, especially because the essay section on the ACT is optional. The ACT also has more straightforward questions, while the SAT can be a little more difficult to understand. However, the ACT has an optional Science section, which the SAT lacks. Depending on your teen’s particular strengths, you may want to think about suggesting the ACT instead of an SAT retake. Most colleges accept SAT and ACT scores equally, so there is no penalty for choosing one test over the other.

Private SAT Tutoring

Standardized tests are high-stakes in NYC, and you probably have questions about how to best prepare for the SAT. You may have asked yourself whether you would benefit from a private test prep tutor. Origins Tutoring, a NYC test prep and tutoring company specializing in customized, one-to-one test prep tutoring, can help address these concerns, and guide and support you through the sometimes stressful standardized test preparation process. Our test prep tutoring approach is simple: each student will receive the undivided attention and the expertise of a dedicated, experienced tutor who places a premium on delivering the highest quality test preparation tutoring in the most effective and time-efficient manner possible. Please call 917.287.7927 for a complimentary consultation now.