SAT/ACT strategy

[Anonymous]

What was your SAT/ACT strategy and was it successful?

My sophomore will complete Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry this spring. Next year he'll take an IB Math Course (likely Standard Level). I suspect the verbal part of the SAT will be the lower score, and that's where he'll really need the prep and the most time possible to keep working on his reading comprehension and other verbal skills. His GPA will likely be above 4.0 when he applies to schools and right now would like to be accepted to UVA, William & Mary, and the like.

Questions:

1) How did you decide whether or not to have your child take the ACT or SAT?

2) When did your child take the SAT/ACT? I am thinking end of summer after junior year to maximize opportunity to study but that only gives one more opportunity for a retake. Or maybe he should do end of junior year with some prep and then re-take it end of summer?

3) Any test prep you recommend, especially ones that can help verbal scores on the SAT?

[Anonymous]

Sign up for 3 dates. Choose between August, November, December or March of Junior year. (I think the first three are best because they’re close together and your student will be on a roll).

Prep the summer before Junior year. We hired a one on one tutor. But a motivated organized student can be successful using online resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sign up for 3 dates. Choose between August, November, December or March of Junior year. (I think the first three are best because they’re close together and your student will be on a roll).

Prep the summer before Junior year. We hired a one on one tutor. But a motivated organized student can be successful using online resources.

Just curious, why not wait until summer between junior/senior year to give the student more academic experience and time? I am worried about balancing junior year workload with test prep.

[Anonymous]

Another option is the prep during winter break junior year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sign up for 3 dates. Choose between August, November, December or March of Junior year. (I think the first three are best because they’re close together and your student will be on a roll).

Prep the summer before Junior year. We hired a one on one tutor. But a motivated organized student can be successful using online resources.

Just curious, why not wait until summer between junior/senior year to give the student more academic experience and time? I am worried about balancing junior year workload with test prep.

No, you do the test prep in the summer. Before 11th. So it doesn’t interfere with school.

As for why not wait until the summer before 12th, your child will be busy that summer working on their college essays and apps.

[Anonymous]

To add: if your student needs more time academically my advice might be different. But I assume they’re a strong student based on their math placement.

[Anonymous]

DD (class of 2026) did prep in July/August before junior year and took ACT in September. Got a 35 and won't retake, though we did reserve spots at two later sittings just in case.

We did it this way because she is really busy during the school year so we wanted to hopefully knock it out over the summer.

In her case we decided on ACT because SAT only recently went digital and thus is a little more of a wild card and harder to prepare for.

With DS (now a freshman in college), we did prep in Jan./Feb. of junior year and took SAT (then on paper) in March. That was fine for him, but DD is busier, so summer was better.

[Anonymous]

My kids both took the SAT the August of Junior year. I had also booked in the December date, in case either wanted to take it again.

Over the summer leading up to the SAT we hired a tutor thru Princeton Review. She gave some useful tips on answering questions / saving time. But she had very little math knowledge, so was unable to answer some key questions on the math side of the test, which was singularly unhelpful.

My DD took a practice test right at the start and scored almost exactly the same as she got in the August real test. She didn't want to take it again so we cancelled the December date.

My DS took a practice test and did really badly because he fluffed the answer page. He did the same thing again in the August test for real. He took it again in December and got about 250 more on that, so was done.

It was a laborious pain in the ass.

[Anonymous]

Practice test on both. It was explained to me:
25% do better on SAT (kids who have a problem with time, kids who have pretty good reasoning and inferential reading skills)
50% do the same
25% do better on ACT (kids who have trouble with non-calculator math, kids who do better on reading bc no inferential skills are required - the answers are there if you have time to get through them; kids with time extensions do VERY WELL on ACT because time is eliminated as a factor).

My first found SAT to be his natural test. He did not study for ACT.

My second did pretty bad on practice teste for SAT and ACT, but coaching thought ACT was much more teachable. Ended up with a 32.

My third did same on both. Decided to move forward with SAT because had the added advantage of prepping for PSAT as a subset of SAT prep. 1500+ and national merit commended.

Find out your test! Even if your kid hates having to sit at a testing center for 5 hours on a Saturday.

[Anonymous]

Started practice test between sophomore and junior year summer. Tested junior year. One kid was one and done. The other two went til about February because they kept getting a point or two out of the super scoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Practice test on both. It was explained to me:
25% do better on SAT (kids who have a problem with time, kids who have pretty good reasoning and inferential reading skills)
50% do the same
25% do better on ACT (kids who have trouble with non-calculator math, kids who do better on reading bc no inferential skills are required - the answers are there if you have time to get through them; kids with time extensions do VERY WELL on ACT because time is eliminated as a factor).

My first found SAT to be his natural test. He did not study for ACT.

My second did pretty bad on practice teste for SAT and ACT, but coaching thought ACT was much more teachable. Ended up with a 32.

My third did same on both. Decided to move forward with SAT because had the added advantage of prepping for PSAT as a subset of SAT prep. 1500+ and national merit commended.

Find out your test! Even if your kid hates having to sit at a testing center for 5 hours on a Saturday.

This is the hack used by half the kids we know. ACT with extended time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was your SAT/ACT strategy and was it successful?

My sophomore will complete Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry this spring. Next year he'll take an IB Math Course (likely Standard Level). I suspect the verbal part of the SAT will be the lower score, and that's where he'll really need the prep and the most time possible to keep working on his reading comprehension and other verbal skills. His GPA will likely be above 4.0 when he applies to schools and right now would like to be accepted to UVA, William & Mary, and the like.

Questions:

1) How did you decide whether or not to have your child take the ACT or SAT?

2) When did your child take the SAT/ACT? I am thinking end of summer after junior year to maximize opportunity to study but that only gives one more opportunity for a retake. Or maybe he should do end of junior year with some prep and then re-take it end of summer?

3) Any test prep you recommend, especially ones that can help verbal scores on the SAT?

1.) Your son should take practice tests online of both and compare results and preferences.

2.) Our school advises most students to target the spring of junior year. My DC studied the summer before junior year and took in the fall and had a successful score, but had finished PreCalc.

3.) If he likes the digital SAT, he can try the free Schoolhouse peer-based prep courses early and then see if he needs paid test prep.

[Anonymous]

Mine prepped in the summer before junior year and took the test August and November of junior year. If needed, they would have done March of junior year. May and June are just too hard with APs tests and finals.
Don't wait until beginning of senior year. That summer is for college essays and applications. Plus, you need to know where to apply and your score can help guide you in making your list of targets and reaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Practice test on both. It was explained to me:
25% do better on SAT (kids who have a problem with time, kids who have pretty good reasoning and inferential reading skills)
50% do the same
25% do better on ACT (kids who have trouble with non-calculator math, kids who do better on reading bc no inferential skills are required - the answers are there if you have time to get through them; kids with time extensions do VERY WELL on ACT because time is eliminated as a factor).

My first found SAT to be his natural test. He did not study for ACT.

My second did pretty bad on practice teste for SAT and ACT, but coaching thought ACT was much more teachable. Ended up with a 32.

My third did same on both. Decided to move forward with SAT because had the added advantage of prepping for PSAT as a subset of SAT prep. 1500+ and national merit commended.

Find out your test! Even if your kid hates having to sit at a testing center for 5 hours on a Saturday.

This is the hack used by half the kids we know. ACT with extended time.

Seriously. My third kid is now going through admittances and doing well, so I'm no longer having the frustrations associated with knowing others 35s and 36s are not created equal.

[Anonymous]

+100 to the great advice above. Your student should prep over the summer for a fall junior year test. Then, if the score isn't what they were hoping for, take one or more additional times, with the latest time being Aug/Sept/Oct of senior year. Having the score by the end of junior year is very helpful in making the college list.

You can find free official practice tests online to see which is a better fit. If your student took PSAT and/or pre-ACT, these can also be helpful in determining fit. ACT tends to be more straightforward but has less time per question. SAT has more time per question but may be trickier.

If your kid is likely to score high on the SAT, prep the summer before junior year also doubles as PSAT prep. The junior year PSAT is what makes a kid eligible for the National Merit competition.