Reply to SAT/ACT test strategy

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "SAT/ACT test strategy"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I’d advise doing the main prep the summer before junior year, especially if there’s a chance they may do well enough on the PSAT for NMSF. Particularly if math is less likely to be an issue.

The PSAT verbal score is weighted over the math, so getting that prep in beforehand will 1) increase their chances of a good PSAT score; and 2) provide a good diagnostic for any remaining tweaks needed before taking the real thing.

Then I’d take the first SAT no later than early spring of junior year. Many schools now have an in-house test date, so that’s a good place as any to start, if it’s available. If one or two spring sittings give good results, then you’re all set for applications in the fall.

But if they still need more prep, that can happen over the summer, and they can retake in August before senior year (it will fill up fast, so register as soon as it opens!), so results will be back in plenty of time for a potential ED application.

So many kids are doing ED/EA applications these days, it’s good to have that test score in nailed down before fall of senior year. Even if you’re only doing RD applications, it’s still hard to even start narrowing your likely/target/reach lists if you’re unsure what the test scores will ultimately be.

My kid is a senior, and I can’t imagine being where we are right now with their SAT scores still up in the air. The only reason I could think of to wait is if they were taking less-accelerated math classes, and might not have covered some key concepts yet. So not the case for OP’s kid.

Mine took the ACT pretty much cold, “just to see,” and ended up doing comparably better than their multi-sitting, prepped SAT. So you just never know—it really depends on the student’s strengths and weaknesses. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics