<p>Many CC parents and students espouse the "test often" paradigm on SAT's. Some even treats early tests as practice for ones they will take in their junior or senior years. In general scores from tests taken in freshman and sophomore years tend to be lower, sometimes much lower, than the scores from tests taken in junior and senior year.</p>
<p>Many colleges claim they will only use the highest set of scores from the applicants. I suspect in reality some do care about low scores from earlier tests. They may even attribute later sharp increase to pricey prep work.</p>
<p>How much do colleges really care about low SAT scores from freshman and sophomore years?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that SATs from 9th or 10th grade mean much since they would’ve been taken before some higher math and English classes were taken.</p>
<p>My advice: Buy some old PSAT booklets available from collegeboard and administer them to your freshman or sophomore under controlled conditions. They are shorter than the real SAT, which can be a good thing for the young 'uns. Later, you can buy the Blue Book and take some of those tests. Wait until the practice tests are at least in the ballpark of where your kid would like to be, then let them take the actual exam.</p>
<p>For the school that require you send all scores send them - they are smart enough to figure out how old the scores are. For the schools that highly recommend that you send them all, I wouldn’t send them, unless of course one of the subtests is higher than any on your child’s more recent SAT tests.</p>
<p>vicariousparent - I am with you on this, but I may change my mind if we have more posts like the one below.</p>
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<p>If the above is true then there is no downside to taking these tests in 9th or 10th grade as practice. In fact, high schools ought to encourage their freshmens and sophomores to take the SAT as training for the real one in junior and/or senior years. Schools that currently encourage their freshmen and sophomores to take the PSAT should instead encourage them to take the SAT.</p>
<p>Score choice was not available yet when my D was a sophomore and I went through a similar logic as what mathmom posted in encouraging her to take the SAT. But I already knew from practice tests that she was going to score around 1900-2000, not at all bad for a sophomore. She scored a 2250, so that was a pretty big relief. Made junior year a lot less stressful, though she was able to take it again in junior year to superscore it to 2340.</p>
<p>So definitely have your kid try out the practice tests, but ONLY from the official collegeboard tests. Don’t go for that Princeton Review / Kaplans stuff.</p>
<p>“In fact, high schools ought to encourage their freshmens and sophomores to take the SAT as training for the real one in junior and/or senior years. Schools that currently encourage their freshmen and sophomores to take the PSAT should instead encourage them to take the SAT.”
Whoa!! Hold on PCP. Talk about diving off the deep end! Colleges ALSO can take a not so favorable view of students who SEEM obsessed with trying to increase their scores by taking the SAT over and over and over again. 2-3 time is the MOST any student should ever take that test,[ numerous studies have shown that SAt scores don’t change that much ON AVERAGE between the Jr and Sr year] and since a students scores will almost always be higher the more classes they have under their belt, the earliest a student should even THINK about taking that test is in their JR year[ the exception would be if the SAT was necessary for qualifying for a program such as CTY, etc ]. Encouraging schools and 13 year old students to REPEATEDLY take an exhausting 4+hour test starting in Freshman year is way over the top and unnecessary to boot. If parents want students want to have the best chance to do well on the SAT, then they should be encouraging READING, not obsessing about test scores . And as much as possible students need to work hard to make sure they understanding their precalculus class work . Lighten up on this obsession with SAT scores.</p>
<p>I must be in the CC minority, because I am not a “test often” proponent.</p>
<p>I agree with post #9 – that there are colleges – especially some of the most selective —that look unfavorablly at taking the tests more than 2 or 3 times. I think it’s why some of the school are insisting on seeing all of the scores. They are probably superscoring…but want to know how obsessed the student and family have been. </p>
<p>Some of the “up and coming” schools may have a different point of view if they are looking to be able to report higher median SAT scores in their profiles. A few years ago, there were reports on this site of schools encouraging students to take the test again, after they’ve been admitted, so that the school might be able to report a higher median score.</p>
<p>Please read my last post in the right context. I was extending the implication of the quoted passage to prompt opposite views. I have three kids in high school, and only DS1 took the PSAT and the SAT, both just once. There is no obsession here. In fact, I feel quite the opposite.</p>
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<p>The above view was implied in an Ivy admissions session I attended. The focus of the thread however, is on whether or not colleges care about low SAT scores from freshman and sophomore years. Presumably, taking the test as practice is the reason for doing it.</p>
<p>Some kids take SATs early to qualify for gifted programs. Those tests show if they were taken after 8th grade. I don’t think it hurts to have early tests.</p>
<p>I was assuming that we were talking about a student who had already for one reason or another taken the SAT in 9th or 10th grade. I’m not recommending it. I do think taking the PSAT in 10th grade is a good idea - it’s really too bad that many juniors take it cold having no idea they could have done some preparation for it.</p>
<p>I’d much rather see kids put down the game controller and the TV remote and read a few hours a week for pleasure. My kids scored 790 and 800 on the verbal and I’m sure it’s because they are passionate readers.</p>
<p>I’ve heard colleges say they MIGHT raise and eyebrow if you took the SAT four or more times, but I’ll add that the implication was that those four plus times were between junior and senior year. And it was more a case that they might look at the rest of the application for other signs that you were an obsessive grade grubber. If you appeared to have a healthy EC life, they’d probably ignore it.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, with app deadlines fastly approaching, I’m close to losing my sanity . I’d rather err on the side of overthinking. Isn’t this why some of us became CC parents?</p>
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<p>I suspect the same, but welcome different views on this.</p>
<p>'I’d rather err on the side of overthinking. Isn’t this why some of us became CC parents?"
Some become CC parents because they WERE over thinking and obsessing about every possible factor, driving both themselves and their kids nuts, and came here to get a reality check . Many also come here to benefit from the wise judgement of parents who have been through the college application process before.</p>
<p>It’s time to start pulling away from the admission process PCP. Repeat after me -my son child WILL go to college. Where he will be accepted is out of your hands, and at this point in many ways it is out of his hands as well, and the best thing you can do now is to step back, TAKE DEEP BREATHES when you find yourself thinking about what you should do next about helping him, and come back to CC to vent if need be. Seniors are under enough pressure at this point- having a parent who is freaking out does not help them in any way.</p>
<p>I think it may depend on the courses that the 9th or 10th grader has taken whether a low score is looked at unfavorably or not and maybe even the caliber of high school the student attends. I would think that if a student has taken the corresponding level of courses that the SAT covers, a low score would have more likelihood to do harm than that of a student who has had no exposure to the material.</p>
<p>“Presumably, taking the test as practice is the reason for doing it.”</p>
<p>For the schools that look less than favorably at 3+ tests, I would not presume that’s what the schools are thinking. </p>
<p>Practice is what the PSAT is for. </p>
<p>If an SAT I was taken in 9th or 10th grade for a gifted/special program, hopefully participation in that program is somewhere on the application.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any gifted program that permits 9th & 10th graders to take SAT. </p>
<p>CTY REQUIRES the SAT be taken in 7th &8th grade for 2 reasons – 1. Because the SAT is so far above grade level and 2. Because the scores do not have to be reported to the colleges at this grade level. </p>
<p>I think colleges frown upon taking SAT before 11th grade.</p>
<p>And I may be a crazy parent, but I’d PREFER my kid take it every year thru high school. Not in an attempt to super score, but simply to get over the anxiety and make it routine. Practice tests are fine but does not really prepare for the tense environment.</p>
. I’d rather err on the side of overthinking. Isn’t this why some of us became CC parents?</p>