Another question about SATIIs and APs

[Anonymous]

My junior is signing up now. We are not sure what SAT IIs he should take. For schools that "strongly recommend" two or three SAT IIs, should he just take them in the same subjects as his APs? Combined with the one SAT II he took as a sophomore, this would give him a mix of science, humanities, and language. I don't see why a college would want the SAT II if you can demonstrate competency in the same subject through the AP exam. It seems redundant. How important are the SAT IIs at the schools that recommend them, particularly if a student will also be submitting (I hope) several good AP scores? Also, my DC did not take his counselor's advice to take the Math 2 test after Precalculus sophomore year (he just wasn't ready to dive into the whole college process at that point, not surprisingly!). He doesn't want to go back and relearn that material now that he is in Calculus, but one school on his list specifically recommends an SAT II math. Is it worth doing the work just for that school (probably not his top choice), or do colleges allow some flexibility here?

[Anonymous]

Some colleges want to see SAT Subjects in specific subjects. Check each college's website for details.

The time to take Math 2 is after pre-Calc. The counselor was right. This is another unintended consequence of pushing math down into lower grades. If DC is looking at a STEM major or school, a Math Subject test may be required. It depends again.

[Anonymous]

Take the test he thinks he'll get the highest scores on. Math tends to be a high scoring test. I think it's fine to take it after calc and if he's on the accelerated track he should do well on the test. There's not much connection to AP content so you need to prep separately.

I think other than Georgetown you only need 2 so unless Gtown is on his list he should only need one more.

[Anonymous]

OP -- if your Junior wants to major in Engineering and possibly other STEMs, he likely will need math and science SAT IIs. If applying liberal arts and uncertain, then he has flexibility. Many kids today take SAT IIs after taking an AP class (math is the exception), so your son may be at a disadvantage otherwise -- the best example of that may be The bio test. Take the tests he will do best on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take the test he thinks he'll get the highest scores on. Math tends to be a high scoring test. I think it's fine to take it after calc and if he's on the accelerated track he should do well on the test. There's not much connection to AP content so you need to prep separately.

I think other than Georgetown you only need 2 so unless Gtown is on his list he should only need one more.

I wonder why Georgetown insists on three.

[Anonymous]

Good question. To tell you the truth, I had the impression when we toured Georgetown a couple of years ago that they were going out to their way to tell applicant families just how hard it is to get in there (projecting graphs of SAT scores and admission rates on a screen) and had the sense that encouraging three SAT IIs was part of the image they were trying to create. The feel was very different than sayPrinceton, where the admission's office talked openly about trying to find reasons to accept applicants. It may be semantics, but it did make an impression.