Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would disagree about waiting until March of junior year, if at all possible, getting SATs out of the way in January really helps decrease the incredible stress and time crunch of the spring of junior year, if your child has AP exams to take, likely SAT subject tests as well, and junior year grades are critical, so being able to put SATs behind the child is incredibly useful, in our experience with our two DDs in the last 4 years. Particularly if in any sort of accelerated math, he/she will have covered all the math that is on the SATs by the end of 9th or 10th grade or even earlier. I am sure verbal in terms of vocab and writing does improve with maturity to some degree, but really doubt January vs March will make a difference in that respect and getting it out of the way is so beneficial if possible. Plus everywhere seems to "superscore" so one lower score or even the entire test being not so great can be overcome if scores higher on the next sitting. One of our kids took SATs in 9th grade with no prep at all because needed to have for entry to a summer course she wanted to take at a college, she had never taken a long standardized test even, and she didn't do very well at all, didn't seem to be an issue when the next time she took the test junior year (plus PSATs) she was a NMSF and Presidential scholar nominee.
I posted earlier that my DC took it in January and March and I agree. Most kids, at least at our school, are taking them at least twice. If you wait till March for the first one you have to use May or June for the second. My DC is using May/June for subject tests (not to mention APs stuck in the middle there).
We are doing our second in the fall. Plenty of time for applications and leaves the summer to study. Much less pressure from other things.
The other benefit of starting in January (or even December - lots of kids at our school took the December test) is that if you are using spring break for college visits you have a sense of realistic fits based on scores and can schedule your visits accordingly.
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