SAT subject tests--questions
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Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks for the info. I just heard a story on NPR last night about changes to the SAT in light of the news about its decline in market share. I was going to have my 10th grader start prepping this summer; now I wonder if that is a waste of time if the test is going to change before next spring. |
Anonymous
| OP again with another question if anyone is still reading. DC will be ready to take three tests at the end of this year. Should I register DC for all three tests on the same day or one test a month earlier (before the class is over)? Thanks. |
Anonymous
I think you can only do 2 on a given Saturday morning. I could be wrong. But three tests on the same day seems exhausting, anyway, and DC would probably not be at his peak by the 3rd test. |
Anonymous
Unless DC if applying to Georgetown I'd just do 2 tests. Pick the 2 he thinks he'll do best in. If he is applying to Georgetown then maybe do two and two - he can take one twice to see if his scores improve. You pay for the test date rather than by the test so might was well make use of it. I don't think taking 3 at once is the end of the world either - it's shorter than the SATs which presumably he will have done once or twice by then. Where is your college counselor? They really should be giving you some guidance on this. Our SAT tutor has also been helpful in telling DC which subject tests he thinks DC will do best on. DC is planning to apply to Georgetown so is stuck doing 3 but did one in 10th grade so will do the other 2 in June. The challenge with the May test date is that it is just before the APs start and DC will have so many of those tests to do it would be a distraction. So that's another consideration. |
Anonymous
| PP here - just saw you are talking about a 10th grader. Definitely just do 2 this time then. He can do a third if needed next year. The english one is probably best done after he's done SAT prep anyway. |
Anonymous
| DC wants both her SAT subject tests to be in the humanities. Is that OK? She has great math and science grades but she doesn't really care for those classes and has to work harder, she's really a humanities person. |
Anonymous
Look at the websites for the colleges she is interested in to see what they request. I think some may request math but maybe not. Generally I don't think it matters what 2 they are. |
Anonymous
| A few years ago, when DC was applying, I do remember that a few very selective schools wanted math and the humanities. I guess you'll have to check each colleges website. And good luck with that. Most schools have atrocious websites. In this college admissions climate I wouldn't do anything to decrease chances. I'd make sure to take the humanities and math or science. |
Anonymous
+1. I do think Georgetown is one of just a few universities, or maybe the only one, that requires 3 SAT subject tests. I'm pretty confident that most of the ivies require only 2, for example. The ivies and SLACS that DC looked at only require two subject tests. I suppose there is a risk, though, that some schools your DC wants would start to require 3 SAT subject tests in between her junior and senior years. |
Anonymous
| Also sign up early as there are not as many testing sites for subject tests as SAT's. |
Anonymous
| Just a reminder that test flexible schools (Middlebury, Hamilton, Colby, Colorado College, Bryn Mawr) now allow 3 subject tests in lieu of SAT reasoning or ACT. It is expected that more colleges will be following this trend. If your DD does better on SAT subject tests than she does on SAT reasoning it could be to her benefit. My DD had a 2060 SAT reasoning score but got an 800, a 780 and a 700 on her subject tests. They were the better scores to submit. |
Anonymous
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I will add one piece of advice to this discussion that has not been mentioned - score choice. Schools that follow it let you pick and choose which test results you send, so if you have a child who takes a test as a fresh/sophmore but doesn't do well, you can forget about it and try another. But, some of the most competitive schools do not follow it (Harvard, Yale, and some others). For these schools, there is actually some risk in just taking the test less than fully prepared. So it's very hard, but helpful, if you can have some idea of whether your child may be applying down the road as you consider this. SAT IIs are generally harder than AP tests -- much harder to get a high score on SAT II than to get a 5. When our DC the SAT II after 9th grade bio, we discovered that a lot of kids taking the test had already completed AP bio in upper grades. Most colleges let you pick whatever you want your SAT IIs to be in, but if a student is applying for an engineering school or similarly intensive science program, then it is fair to assume that admissions officers will be scratching their heads if a kid doesn't take an SAT II in the math/science relam. MIT has the most stringent requirements I've seen -- they require all applicants to take both (1) a math SAT II (either version); and (2) either bio, chem or physics SAT II.
I also read the story about SAT announcing revising the test down the road, but no timetable was given. It could be a few years. |
Anonymous
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MY DC took an SAT subject test, without prepping, at the end of sophomore year and scored a 580, and is certain that it would go better the second time around. Any advice on whether to take it again? Will schools know that it was taken twice?
Also, those who applied to the flexible score schools by only sending in 3 SAT subject tests....did your kids get in? Just curious how that worked out. |
Anonymous
Yes, I would retake. My DC got a 640 on one sophomore year and will retake it, or not use it. 640 is too low to submit. Some schools require seeing all testing done, with others you can use score choice to only submit certain test dates. The schools that require all testing say they really only look at the high scores. |
Anonymous
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http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-subject/scores/average
Here are the averages for the subject tests. For the sciences, 580 would be low. |