<p>WM Admissions,</p>
<p>My 10th grader will take the SAT in May for the 1st time--preparing exclusively on the Math portion (sacrificing Verbal/Writing). We hope that a high Math score in 10th grade will be followed up by a high Verbal/Writing score in 11th grade (or 12th if needed). Are there any downsides to this divide and conquer approach given W&M's stated position (and other colleges too) of looking only at the highest score across multiple sittings? </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>No downside W&M<em>1983</em>grad since we do combine the best Critical Reading with the best math and best writing scores to generate the best composite for your student.</p>
<p>The one caution might be that you generally need 10th grade math (Alegebra II) to complete the SAT Math section so late in the sophomore year may be a bit early to focus on the Math section (depending on your student’s math track). </p>
<p>Most students site for a standardized test the first time in the second semester of junior year. There’s nothing wrong with starting early but you don’t want your student to burn out on standardized tests either.</p>
<p>Thanks W&M Admissions! A 69 on the Math PSAT (from Oct.) combined with straight A’s so far in honor’s Alegebra II gives me confidence that this is a good strategy.</p>
<p>“but you don’t want your student to burn out on standardized tests either”</p>
<p>Good advice. With all of the testing and standardized testing these kids are put through today, (thanks NCLB) starting with Kindergarten…PALS, benchmark testing, SOLs, PSATs, ACT/SATs…I would go nuts personally. </p>
<p>1983_Grad, step cautiously…I learned a lot from our first one going through this. He was pretty spent after going through the sittings (ACT twice and 1 SAT) of these standardized tests in the his junior/sr year. With the workload that is necessary for taking a challenging hs course load, APs and the like, we are going to scale way back for #2. Studying/prepping/taking tests can get to be almost overwhelming for some kids, but yours may be better able to handle it than ours and maybe starting early is the best strategy for your child.</p>
<p>I am of the mindset now that whatever is meant to be with our second one’s test results is meant to be. If she wants to prep a bit fine, but only if she wants to. If she wants to chill and read a book for pleasure instead, that works. There will be somewhere in higher education for her to blossom. If it is at a highly selective college like W&M, fine, if not, that is OK. Happiness is found in many places!</p>
<p>We certainly appreciate that students want to put their best foot forward on standardized tests and starting early is maybe one way to avoid burn out because it’s not all crammed into the end of junior year/beginning of senior year.</p>
<p>In this year’s applications we felt we saw more students attempting standardized tests five and six times than ever before. That’s a lot of money and a lot of time spent on one aspect of the application. Generally speaking after take a test three times increased scores are a rarity. We generally advise students to take one test twice or take each test once. Much beyond that is likely overkill for little payback.</p>