That’s it, really. If you pay the fees and, you know, don’t make a nuisance of yourself, can they stop you from taking the tests?
WAG: I’m gonna say no. Doing so would be pretty much on par with retaking your driver license test when you already have a valid driver’s license.
While most places would be happy to part you from your money just for the “lulz”, I don’t think this is true for tests relating to government agency.
The SATs are private, not governmental. Since people go back to college at all ages, I don’t see why they would reject anyone. Even if you’ve taken them before, they might be decades out of date and unacceptable to modern admissions offices.
I know high school students looking for a better score can retake the SAT as many times as they are willing to pay for it.
And plenty of students take them multiple times, hoping for a better score. I took the SAT for the first time as an eighth-grader, as part of some special program offered through my school, and then again at the normal time in 11th grade. It really takes a lot of the stress out, to know that no matter how you do on the “for reals” time, there’s an absolute floor you can’t go below.
I took the SAT in 8th grade as well. And then again in 11th grade of course. I did so well in 8th grade I was already getting literature from tons of schools, so there wasn’t much room to improve (which I didn’t), and it probably won’t change much regardless since it’s a test of aptitude, not knowledge.
ETS doesn’t know, doesn’t care, why you’re taking the test. You fill out the forms, pay the money, you take the test.
There is no place on the forms where you have to justify the why of taking the test. There is a field for where you want copies of your scores sent. But that can be left blank. Doesn’t matter at all.
Someone might take the test to see how they’d do on it. If it’s good, go to college. If not, do something else.
My old GRE score is good enough to get into Mensa. But I don’t think I can get a copy of a score that old sent to anyone now. So I could retake the test for that reason.
And a thousand other reasons to take it.
As long as you pay the fee, you can take the test. They may be nonprofit, but College Boards are not going to turn away paying customers.
The Colllege Board(maker of the SAT) also administers the CLEP tests, which they make quite clear are available to anyone.
I don’t know about GED but I knew an SAT prep tutor who takes the SAT every year. As has been said, there are no qualifications necessary to take the test except to have green money.
The only restriction is that if you are younger than 13 you must register by mail, not online.
I took the SAT in the mid-1970s and ordered a copy of the results just a couple of years ago. Got them in about a month since I was overseas. I bet you would have no problem getting another copy sent out.
By the way, one of my current stressors is prepping to take the GRE. How was it when you took the thing?
When I took it, I didn’t find it terribly difficult (note this is 25sh years old memories):
- the vocabulary parts had a lot of grecolatin words. I understand speakers of Romance languages tend to do better in those that most Americans, because we actually use those words. You guys go to the foot doctor, we go to the podólogo, so a test saying “mouth is to dentist like foot is to…” is easier for us.
- the math was all stuff you could solve with the four rules. You needed to know what the heck a % is, and fractions, and your basic trig… but it seriously wasn’t what I’d think of as “high math”.
When you register for the SAT, you agree that you’re taking the test solely to get into college. (I forget the exact wording.) This language is occasionally used to prevent private SAT coaches from taking the test, but it’s unusual enough that it was considered not quite cricket when they refused registration to tutors for the first administration of the new version of the test last year.
Missed the edit window.
I had forgotten the important detail that those coaches were merely transferred to a later test date. This is obviously quite different from having registrations completely canceled.
Another 25+ year old memory, but what I remember was that the math section was pretty much the same as the SAT math (I already had a masters in electrical engineering, the math part was so trivial that I had time to triple check every answer and walked out 100% sure that I had answered every question correctly).
The verbal section was the same sort of questions as the SAT, but considerable harder. I went into the test hoping for a 1600, but ended up a bit short on the verbal.
The funniest part was that I was taking the test at Williams College with a roomful of liberal arts graduates. On the way out they were moaning about how hard the math section was…
Actually we go to a podiatrist. I’m sure some people here refer to that as a foot doctor, but I suspect some Italians call them medico de piede (that’s a guess as to the proper usage). The type of doctor that comes most readily to mind who has an “ordinary” name is “Ear, nose, and throat doctor” I had to look up that their “official” name is Otolaryngologist.
The test changed a few years ago and is now graded 130-170 quant, 130-170 verbal, and 0-6 analytical writing.
It wasn’t terribly bad - the most difficult thing for many bright test-takers is to train themselves to read more literally than is normal, since common reading comp distractor answers are based on reasonable, but unsupported, assumptions many people make when they’re reading out in the real world. This can be hard for people who are used to reading “between the lines;” they often feel as though they’re being punished for “knowing more.”
I don’t know your field, so I’m not sure how heavily your programs will weight the quant section. The math is all high school level or below. Most students from non-quantitative majors get their biggest bump from reviewing special right triangles (isosceles right and 30-60-90, as well as the first few pythagorean triples).
The writing section is extremely straightforward; spot logical fallacies and provide evidence for your claims.
- Ace309, former GRE(/SAT/LSAT/MCAT) tutor; most recent GRE score was 167 quant, 170 verbal, 6.0 writing from early 2016
I took it in fall 1988 and there was an analytical section then (in addition to verbal and math). I can’t find when it was added. It was not analytical writing; it was logic puzzles like Anna, Bob, Carl, Debbie and Edward in five apartments. Anna does not live next to Eddie…
Might vary by region.
Never met a Spaniard who did; at most, one who couldn’t remember the right word and asked for it.
Wasn’t there a case (England?) a while ago where some pediatrician was attacked after appearing in the news because someone thought it mean pedophile?