PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jacob L. Vigdor
AU  - Charles T. Clotfelter
TI  - Retaking the SAT
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.XXXVIII.1.1
DP  - 2003 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1--33
VI  - XXXVIII
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXVIII/1/1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXVIII/1/1.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2003 Jan 01; XXXVIII
AB  - Using data on applicants to three selective universities, we analyze a college applicant’s decision to retake the SAT. We model this decision as an optimal search problem, and use the model to assess the impact of college admissions policies on retaking behavior. The most common test score ranking policy, which utilizes only the highest of all submitted scores, provides large incentives to retake the test. This places certain applicants at a disadvantage: those with high test-taking costs, those attaching low values to college admission, and those with “pessimistic” prior beliefs regarding their own ability.