Would it be a good idea to take the SAT again?

It can’t hurt. Or else, you could wait until you leave the Air Force in two years. College admission officers will read an application from an Air Force vet with a very different eye than one from an 18-year-old high school senior, under any circumstances.

You are now permitted to choose the scores you want sent to particular colleges so if you have a bad day, you can omit them.

“Select which scores you want to send to your score recipients
Score Choice gives you the option to choose which scores (by test date for the SAT and by individual test for SAT Subject Tests™) you send to colleges — in accordance with an institution’s stated score-use practice.” SATS

You can also pick up some practice tests and take them in a stringent manner…having someone proctor and time you….to see how they feel.

All colleges look for the highest SAT score that they possibly can. So there is no harm in trying again. to get admission in topmost colleges you should have a GPA that’s well above the median and SAT score that’s 50 points above the “Top 25%” mark.

I took it in my junior year in high school, and nearly aced the verbal part because I had a great English teacher that year. I took it again in my senior year, and happened to have a slew of advanced math classes all taught by a great teacher. I nearly aced math that year. At that time, if you took it more than once, you got the better score on each section. Your counselor can tell you if it still works that way.

After you get out of school, it’s unlikely the score will increase by much. @ETpro‘s example shows how additional classes may help improve your score but after a year or so of not taking classes, you’re simply out of practice, and it’s doubtful you’ve gained any SAT-worthy skills.

I agree with @gailcalled that it can’t hurt, but I doubt it would help either. We tend to get smarter after high school, but the SAT doesn’t measure real-world intelligence, it measures how much you remember classroom skills. If you’re willing to pay the fee and spend a few weeks with your head in SAT practice booklets, go for it.

May I ask why you want to do this? You can get into a decent school with the score you got. 100 extra points (I’m being generous here) won’t make much of a difference to admissions.