Most students who want to go to competitive college end up taking it a couple times

Even then, it isn't always necessary. I only took the SAT once. It was when my high school required us to take it. I don't remember what my exact score was, but I remember being disappointed with it. It wasn't terrible, but nothing to be proud of. Still, I was planning on going to a 2-year community college before transferring, and my score was good enough for that so I never bothered retaking it. After my 2 years of community college I transferred to a fairly competitive university and they never even asked about my SAT score or any of my high school grades. They only cared about my grades at my community college.