Q. Should I Retake the SAT and/or ACT?

A. For many students, it makes sense to retake the SAT (or its counterpart, the ACT). After all, most colleges explicitly say that they'll look at your best score--in some cases, they'll even take your best score in each section.

If you've already taken the SAT or ACT and are trying to decide whether to retake the test, here are some questions to ask yourself.

• How many times have you taken the test already? SAT scores all get reported to colleges, and three times is generally recognized as the limit before admissions officers might start asking questions. On the ACT, you can report only the scores you want.

   

• What will be different this time? If you're planning to take the test for just the second time, odds are decent that you'll do better. After that, you need to ask yourself why you think you'll get a higher score after several attempts. Have you conquered a problem of anxiety or nerves? Have you been studying or getting tutored?

   

• Do you have time to prepare? Test scores are important, but so are grades. The last couple of years of high school are also very stressful. If you're going to sacrifice school work to prepare for the SAT or ACT, you should be confident that you're going to improve your score.

   

• What do your target colleges want? If you've already got the score you need, you can stop taking the test. If you don't, you should probably try again. But be mindful of application deadlines, and that at schools with rolling admissions you want to have your application (including test scores) complete as early as possible.

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