Is anyone's kid not taking the SAT or ACT at all?

[Anonymous]

DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

[Anonymous]

My kid wishes she weren’t

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

I think she should at least try prepping and taking the test, and if her scores are low she can use TO as a fall back position. If she's only a junior now, she has more than enough time to prep. I'd suggest she take a practice ACT and practice SAT (not PSAT) under test conditions at home with no preparation but only to see which testing style and content suits her more. If she's not strong in math, she could just skip that step and focus exclusively on the ACT. Math is only 25% of the ACT and is 50% of the SAT. Also, the math on the SAT is harder and more sophisticated. Most of ACT is 8th/9th grade math and is more of a speed contest. Once she's made a ACT vs SAT choice, she should prep and take official practice tests before planning to take the ACT or SAT at least 2 times prior to senior year beginning (Spring & Summer).

My view is that even at TO schools they may be secretly test preferred. And SAT or ACT is a great way to validate a strong GPA of mostly As from a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

I think she should at least try prepping and taking the test, and if her scores are low she can use TO as a fall back position. If she's only a junior now, she has more than enough time to prep. I'd suggest she take a practice ACT and practice SAT (not PSAT) under test conditions at home with no preparation but only to see which testing style and content suits her more. If she's not strong in math, she could just skip that step and focus exclusively on the ACT. Math is only 25% of the ACT and is 50% of the SAT. Also, the math on the SAT is harder and more sophisticated. Most of ACT is 8th/9th grade math and is more of a speed contest. Once she's made a ACT vs SAT choice, she should prep and take official practice tests before planning to take the ACT or SAT at least 2 times prior to senior year beginning (Spring & Summer).

My view is that even at TO schools they may be secretly test preferred. And SAT or ACT is a great way to validate a strong GPA of mostly As from a public school.

Thank you. This is my concern. I'll try to encourage DD to at least prep and try both tests to see how she'll do.

[Anonymous]

My kid really didn’t want to do all the test prep and repeated testing and stressing about whether he’d get a better score. He said senior year and college applications are stressful enough and he was happy with the test optional options, included a couple of true safeties. So we said fine. He ended up at the school he wanted, a target/match and he’s happy as a clam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

Has she taken either test yet? Everything points to your DD being able to get a good score.

[Anonymous]

They will offer the SAT for free at your MCPS high school in the spring for juniors, so she'll have one opportunity to take it without paying and, if she choses, without prepping. OTOH, just enough prepping to familiarize herself with the questions, and the morning spent taking it at school with all of her peers, might result in a decent score that she'd be happy to submit. I wouldn't force a second sitting or intense prepping, but if if were me (and I also have a junior with good grades who's not great at standardized tests) I'd definitely require her to sit for the free school SAT.

[Anonymous]

SEVERELY limiting? No. There are thousands of schools that will happily take a TO kid.

[Anonymous]

She should do it.

[Anonymous]

Outside T50, not at all an issue.
For T50, there are still quite a few would take TO kids.
Only for T20, severly limited for unhooked.

[Anonymous]

We paid for a lot of tutoring my daughter ending up test optional and going to UCLA, which doesn’t take tests. That being said, I think she ended up on many waitlists due to TO. She would have submitted if one more pt on ACT.

[Anonymous]

I really would not go TO unless you have tried and been unsuccessful to get a score on par with your academic profile…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

I think she should at least try prepping and taking the test, and if her scores are low she can use TO as a fall back position. If she's only a junior now, she has more than enough time to prep. I'd suggest she take a practice ACT and practice SAT (not PSAT) under test conditions at home with no preparation but only to see which testing style and content suits her more. If she's not strong in math, she could just skip that step and focus exclusively on the ACT. Math is only 25% of the ACT and is 50% of the SAT. Also, the math on the SAT is harder and more sophisticated. Most of ACT is 8th/9th grade math and is more of a speed contest. Once she's made a ACT vs SAT choice, she should prep and take official practice tests before planning to take the ACT or SAT at least 2 times prior to senior year beginning (Spring & Summer).

My view is that even at TO schools they may be secretly test preferred. And SAT or ACT is a great way to validate a strong GPA of mostly As from a public school.

Not correct on the new ACT.

[Anonymous]

A high GPA student with 4/5’s on AP tests needs to take the SAT.

Period.
You can always go TO, but she needs to prep for and take it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a good student with mostly As as well as 4s and 5s on AP tests. She would like to apply only test-optional. Do you think this is going to be *severely* limiting when it comes to applications next year? Will more and more colleges require scores? Or do you think that the "demographic cliff" will cushion requirements for testing? She is at a MoCo public HS, and we are full-pay.

I think she should at least try prepping and taking the test, and if her scores are low she can use TO as a fall back position. If she's only a junior now, she has more than enough time to prep. I'd suggest she take a practice ACT and practice SAT (not PSAT) under test conditions at home with no preparation but only to see which testing style and content suits her more. If she's not strong in math, she could just skip that step and focus exclusively on the ACT. Math is only 25% of the ACT and is 50% of the SAT. Also, the math on the SAT is harder and more sophisticated. Most of ACT is 8th/9th grade math and is more of a speed contest. Once she's made a ACT vs SAT choice, she should prep and take official practice tests before planning to take the ACT or SAT at least 2 times prior to senior year beginning (Spring & Summer).

My view is that even at TO schools they may be secretly test preferred. And SAT or ACT is a great way to validate a strong GPA of mostly As from a public school.

Interesting! This explains why so many kids in our circle are getting low SAT scores but high ACT scores.