The Student Room Group
Reply 1
I'm from the US, so I'm assuming international students would have the same rules we did. Also, I took the SATs before the new format (when it was two sections, out of 1600).

Generally we take the SATs senior or junior years of high school - age 17/18. You can take it as many times as you're willing to pay for it. But there are some things to remember (keeping in mind I'm referring to when it was two sections).

If you take the SATs one or two times, most schools will take your highest math score and your highest english score (and your highest writing, I guess) and combine them to get your highest possible SAT score -- this is the number they will count for admissions even though they see all the scores from each time you took it.

Some schools though, if you take it 3 times or more, will ONLY accept your most recent scores -- which means, even if you get close to a perfect score your first two times and then suddenly go down 100 points on your third try, they will only use that lower score for admissions purposes. Other schools will continue accepting your highest score in each section, no matter how many times you've taken it.

Was that confusing? I hope not.