How to Cancel Your SAT Registration or Test Scores

In 2019, a record 2.2 million students took the SAT. With such massive amounts of students filling test centers, it’s natural that some students will have a conflict on the day of the exam, while other students may decide they don’t need to take the SAT anymore. Consequently, the College Board, the organization that administers the SAT, has made it fairly straightforward for students to cancel or reschedule their SAT. 

How to Reschedule Your SAT 

If you have a conflict with the day you’re scheduled to take the SAT, but you still want to take the exam, you can reschedule it. The cost to reschedule the SAT is $28, which applies even to students who received a fee waiver when registering for the test. For the rescheduling fee, students may change their test date, the location of their test, or both. It’s even possible to reschedule after the original test date has passed, provided you didn’t show up for the scheduled test. 

Since rescheduling is a more cost-effective solution than canceling and re-registering, canceling is an option more suited to students who don’t want to take the exam at a later date. 

To reschedule your SAT:

• Log in to your College Board account
• Your My SAT page will show the test(s) you’re registered for; select the test you want to reschedule and click Change Registration 
• This will bring you to a page showing your SAT admission ticket information; click Change my test date at the bottom of the page
• On the new page, you’ll see the SAT date(s) you can change to under Test Date; choose the date that works for you
• You’ll then select your test center, confirm your information, and pay the rescheduling fee
• Once completed, you’ll receive an email with your new admission ticket and updated test date 

How to Cancel SAT Registration Before Test Day

There are two ways to cancel your SAT registration before test day. You can call in advance of the test and formally cancel, or simply not show up for the test. For added clarity, it’s worth reiterating: there is no difference between calling and canceling your SAT and not taking the SAT on test day; no score will be recorded either way. The only disparity between the two options is your potential for a refund. 

No Refund: If you have no desire to reschedule your SAT, or in receiving a refund, the easiest way to cancel your test is to just not show up. According to the College Board, if you’re not planning on attending the exam, you “don’t have to notify us of your absence; we won’t send any score reports for that day.”

Refund: If you cancel your SAT at least five days in advance of your exam date, you qualify for a nominal refund of up to $10. If you want to cancel your SAT within five days of the test, there is no chance of a refund. Otherwise, to cancel your SAT, you’ll need to contact the College Board’s customer service department. It’s recommended to do this by phone for the fastest response.  

If you ordered Question-and-Answer Service or Student Answer Service, it is only refundable if your order has not yet been fulfilled or if you missed your test date (for example, you were absent or you had to take a makeup test). Contact Customer Service for this as well.

College Board Customer Service Contact Info: 

• Domestic: 866-756-7346
• International: 212-713-7789
• Services for students with disabilities: 212-713-8333
• TTY (for deaf or hearing impaired) Domestic: 888-857-247
• TTY (for deaf or hearing impaired) International: 609-882-4118

How to Cancel SAT Test Scores

If you took the SAT but feel the need to cancel your scores, you have a couple of options. Both options require you to move quickly, and you won’t get your registration fees refunded. 

At the test center: Your first opportunity to cancel your test scores is at the test center on exam day. To do so, ask the test supervisor for a Request to Cancel Test Scores form. Fill out the form, sign it, and return the form to the supervisor before leaving the test center. We suggest that students avoid this option. Stress, self-doubt, and exhaustion from the SAT are not conducive to sound decision making. Before making a big decision like canceling your test score, it’s best to speak with your parents, mentor, or guidance counselor. After all, you just sat through a 3-4 hour exam; you don’t want to cancel your score and later regret it.

At home: The other way to change your test scores is to download and print the Request to Cancel Test Scores form, fill it out, and overnight or fax it to the College Board. You can’t cancel your SAT scores online or via email. This path to canceling your test scores is also time sensitive; the College Board needs to receive your score cancellation request no later than 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on the Thursday following your test.

Should You Cancel Your Test Scores? 

Why You Shouldn’t Cancel Your Test Scores:

• Self doubt about test performance is common 
• It’s common for students to have performed better than expected
• You can always retake the test if you did poorly 
• You can cancel the free score reports so that they don’t go out, letting you decide whether anyone sees your score  

Why You Should Think About Canceling Your Test Scores:

• You felt overwhelmed and missed a considerable amount of questions 
• You ran out of time on multiple occasions and didn’t complete one or more sections
• You were sick but decided to take the test rather than forfeit the registration fee
• Something distracted you, like the person next to you or the snowstorm raging outside 
• You were rushed getting to the test because you overslept, hit traffic, or encountered some other circumstance, and it affected your performance 
• You’re positive you bombed and your top-choice schools require applicants to submit all of their standardized test scores—Yale and Georgetown are two examples of schools that require all scores submitted 

What if I Miss the Deadline and Can’t Cancel My Score?

If you’ve missed your opportunity to cancel your scores, or if they didn’t meet your expectations, don’t panic. You still have options.

Score Recipients: One way to protect yourself from a bad SAT score upsetting your odds of acceptance to your dream school is elect not to send out the four free score reports to colleges when taking the SAT. For more info on whether or not to send your scores directly to the schools on your list, read our blog Should You Send SAT Scores Straight to Colleges on Test Day?

Even if you score well, according to the College Board, “2 out of 3 students in the class of 2018, a total of 63%, increased their SAT score by taking the test more than once.” By not sending your SAT score to colleges right away, you’re guarded against an unflattering score automatically getting sent to a school and can put your best foot forward with the College Board’s Score Choice program. 

There’s only one way to ensure that your SAT score will not be sent to a college, and that is to not sign up for free score reports when registering for the SAT. If you feel like you aced the exam, you can still send four free score reports to colleges up to 11:59 p.m., U.S. Eastern Time, nine days after the test. Again, you still won’t know your score even 9 days after the exam, so it is still a risk to take advantage of the free score reports.

If you’re very confident you did well though, you can send your free reports either online through your College Board account, by calling customer service—866-756-7346 (toll free) or 212-713-7789 (international)—or by completing and mailing the SAT Additional Score Report Form. Because of the time-sensitive nature, we encourage students to do this either online or over the phone.

Score Choice: Score Choice is a free program that allows you to choose which test scores you send to colleges. For example, if you took the SAT in January and again in April, but scored much higher the second time, Score Choice lets you send just the score from April. If you don’t use Score Choice, the SAT will send all of your SAT results to the schools on your list. What you can’t do with Score Choice is select individual test sections, such as the Math section from your January test and the Reading section from your April exam. 

As mentioned earlier, some schools—like Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins University—require you to send in all of your standardized test scores. That said, it’s more than likely that most of your schools will allow you to use Score Choice, so this is still a viable option for those schools.

Want to know how your SAT score/ACT score impacts your chances of acceptance to your dream schools? Our free Chancing Engine will not only help you predict your odds, but also let you know how you stack up against other applicants, and which aspects of your profile to improve. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to gain access to our Chancing Engine and get a jumpstart on your college strategy!