My husband has been on admission committee for a small college (this college is listed as moderately competitive--they don't take students that they don't think can do the work, but they also don't start each year with a completely full freshman class, so if you meet their standards, you will get in). He says that in his experience, when students take the SAT multiple times, it is surprising how similar their scores are. Of course, there are exceptions, where a kid was sick or had some reason to have an off day. But usually the scores are all in the same ballpark.
From this perspective, he said, it looked like it was a waste of time, money and energy to take them multiple times. That is just the experience of one professor at one college who was on a committee for 3 years--so it's hardly a scientific study and I'm not sure what people think at the really competitive colleges where they aren't taking everyone who qualifies.
