I’m so old I took the SAT only once.
That was the way we did it back in the middle of the last century. My score had room for improvement. So did my friends’ scores. But we would have been stunned if any of us tried again. We were regarded as nerds already. Taking the SAT twice would have ended any chance of a girl ever talking to us.
Times, as you know, have changed. The hot topic this year is not whether to try the exam twice, but whether you should be able to hide the worst of the two or three tests it is assumed nearly everyone will take.
The right to obliterate the results of a bad testing day is called Score Choice by the College Board, owner of the SAT test. Some say it is a marketing device to respond to the SAT’s rival, the ACT, which has had such a policy for years. The first group eligible under the new rules will be members of the high school class of 2010 participating in this March’s test administration. If they don’t like their scores on that or any subsequent testing day, they may tell the College Board not to send them to any colleges.