Canceling SAT Scores: Everything You Need to Know

Every SAT test-taker has the option of canceling their scores for a given test date.

This means that the College Board will effectively erase your scores. They will not appear on your record in any way, and you won’t be able to report these SAT scores to colleges.

This is a permanent move! So why might you want to make it?

There are several reasons why canceling SAT scores may be a good idea, which we discuss in this post. If you do opt to cancel your scores, however, you have to act quickly and follow very specific guidelines.

Here’s what cover in this post:

• Canceling SAT Scores: What It Means
• How to Cancel Your SAT Scores
• Should I Cancel My Scores?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Next Steps

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Canceling SAT Scores: What It Means

Yes, it is possible to cancel your SAT scores. But what does this actually mean?

Canceling your scores means all of the following:

• You will not receive official scores for the SAT you’ve taken
• The College Board will essentially not score your test 
• If it has already scored your test, or part of it, the College Board will cancel those scores
• Colleges won’t ever be able to see these scores (and you won’t either!)

Once you have submitted your request for cancellation, that’s it–you won’t be able to change your mind and request a rescoring. Because you’ll never see these scores, they are also not eligible for SAT Superscoring or reporting to colleges.

It will be as if you never actually took the test itself!

This might sound like a pretty big decision to make, rare as it might be. We’ll walk you through how to cancel your scores and then we’ll discuss reasons why you might go this route after taking an official SAT.

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How to Cancel Your SAT Scores

There are two ways you can cancel your SAT scores:

• At the test center itself (on Test Day)
• By mail or fax up to four weekdays after Test Day

1) At the Test Center

If you decide to cancel your scores on Test Day itself, all you need to do is ask the on-site test coordinator (often a proctor) for a Request to Cancel Test Scores form.

Fill out this form completely and return it to the test coordinator. The form requires students to submit all of the following information:

• Official test date
• Name and address
• Birthdate
• Registration number
• Test center number and name
• Name of the test you are canceling (includes SAT and SAT Subject Tests)
• Signature and date

If you are canceling your scores due to sudden illness or equipment failure (such as a calculator malfunction), your proctor will have to fill out this little box at the bottom of the form:

2) After Leaving the Test Center

Some students decide to cancel their scores after they leave the Test Center, either that very afternoon or within the next few days. You can still cancel your scores at this point, provided you do so by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on the fourth weekday following your test day.

The College Board encourages test-takers to confirm this deadline with their test coordinator.

Most students take the test on Saturday, so this would mean that you have until Thursday of the following week at 11:59 p.m. to cancel your scores.

There is an exception: if you are a student with disabilities testing in a school-based setting, you have until the next Monday after this official test date to cancel scores.

If you decide to cancel your stores after you’ve left the test center, download the Request to Cancel Test Scores form, complete it fully, and submit the form by fax or overnight mail delivery.

Canceling by fax:

610-290-8978

Canceling by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail:

SAT Score Cancellation
P.O. Box 6228
Princeton, NJ 08541-6228

Canceling by any other overnight service:

SAT Score Cancellation
1425 Lower Ferry Road
Ewing, NJ 08618

Why can’t you cancel online or over the phone? The College Board requires students’ actual signatures for score cancellation, so this necessitates a paper submission.

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Should I Cancel My Scores?

Now comes the big question: should you cancel your SAT scores?

On its website, the College Board states that you can cancel your scores “If you feel you didn’t do your best on the SAT.” This is a rather vague stipulation, however.

What does “your best” look like on the SAT? And how do you know if you’ve reached it without a score report in front of you?

These are tough questions to answer, especially because it’s fairly normal for many test-takers to feel uncertain about their performance after an SAT. It’s also virtually impossible to predict test scores based on “how you feel.”

You may feel that you’ve bombed the SAT, for example, when the opposite is the case; conversely, you may feel that you’ve aced it, when, in reality, you haven’t surpassed your goals.

We also like to remind students that many colleges allow students to Superscore, which means that they will only officially review a student’s highest SAT section scores across test dates.

You might feel that you haven’t performed to your full potential on an SAT. However, you might have done exceptionally well on one individual section (such as SAT Math), which can be valuable for Superscoring down the road. In this case, canceling your scores would be unwise, as it would preclude you from a potentially awesome Superscore.

So is there a situation when a student should cancel their scores?

Yes!

Some students may fall ill during the exam itself or arrive at the test center very much under the weather. While it is possible to take the SAT when sick, illness can profoundly impact student performance. We’ve seen it happen time and time again.

The same goes for any equipment malfunction, such as a calculator going wonky or testing accommodation supports malfunctioning.

Thus, feel free to cancel your scores due to:

• Illness or
• Equipment failure / malfunction

These are unfortunate scenarios, and ones that definitely merit a score cancellation. But if you feel like canceling just because you felt it didn’t go so well, hold off for now.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Students often have a few more questions about score cancellation. Here are our answers.

Can I still cancel my scores if I took the test with accommodations?

Yes! It is possible to cancel scores from SATs taken with accommodations.

Your deadline for submitting a score cancellation form may be different, however, if you take the SAT on a non-standard Test Date. School-based test dates typically require submission by the Monday after the published test date.

What if I don’t have access to a fax machine?

You can still send your cancellation form via overnight mail. Just make sure you use the right address based on the carrier you’ve chosen.

How many times can I cancel my scores?

The College Board does not state a limit to the number of times you can cancel. However, from a time and cost perspective, we caution students against canceling SAT scores more than once (and only due to illness or equipment failure).

Will I ever get to see the scores I’ve canceled?

Unfortunately, no. You won’t be able to view these scores, and colleges will not be able to do so either.

What if my college(s) do not Superscore?

This is a good question.

However, many colleges encourage applicants to submit all of their official SAT scores. For this reason, we still encourage students to cancel their scores only due to illness or equipment failure.

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Next Steps

It is possible to cancel your SAT scores, but we urge students to use this option only if they’ve experienced sudden illness or equipment malfunction.

Remember: it’s perfectly natural to not feel as confident about one particular Test Day, especially if you are just starting your SAT journey. That’s why we recommend that all high school students set aside the right amount of time for preparation and frequent practice tests.

What counts as a “good” SAT score? This is a natural next question to ask. Find our answer in this post here.

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Kate

Kate is a graduate of Princeton University. Over the last decade, Kate has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay.