Well, I wouldn’t recommend doing what I did, but I took a series of practice PSAT tests in the two weeks or so prior to the test day in my junior year. (I hadn’t taken it as a freshman or sophomore.) I got a 211, over my state’s NMSC cutoff score. For my first SAT (spring of junior year) I took a few practice tests in the week before… and got a 1950, which wasn’t too hot. I retook it in November after focusing on the math some more and scored a 2030. My biggest point jump wasn’t in math though, it was in CR and Writing, which I hadn’t studied at all, strangely. Go figure. At any rate, I called it a day with the SAT since my scores were good enough for what I needed. So, I would highly recommend doing some more regular studying throughout high school if you want to get a stellar score. How early, I don’t know… it depends on your goals in college admission. How many times is too much? I have no idea. I’ve heard some people say that over 3 is too much, but I don’t know that there’s any real evidence to support that.
Well, I already took it in 7th grade to qualify for Duke TIP. I qualified, but needless to say my scores would not suffice admission to ANY decent school. I am already done with regular high school math and I’m moving on to pre-cal as a freshman… and I understand that the SAT only goes up to Algebra 2. With that said, I feel like I should get my math score over with while high school math is still fresh in my mind as I migrate to higher math. Do you think it is worth it to study for CR and Writing for the test I am taking in May?
After your 3rd attempt (but not before) some schools will basically weight your average and pay less attention to the 4th and subsequent attempts. Harvard gives you three tries without penalty, just to give you a good idea.
The DUKE SAT is specifically for 7th and 8th graders and doesn’t count towards your three try “limit” and it’s a really good idea to take it just for that reason.
Basically all top universities start paying attention at some point after the 3rd try but open enrollment institutions literally don’t care; that’s the definition of open enrollment. If you take 50 attempts (and $2,500) to get the minimum score on the SAT then any open enrollment institution anywhere will let you in because that’s how open enrollment works. But they’re not top universities obviously.
Seriously, nobody cares prior to the 4th attempt and if they do they’re an outlier that’s pickier than Harvard.
To the point that @albert69 made, sometimes what happens with W and CR (CR especially) is that as you get older and move to higher grades in HS, you just naturally become a better reader. So sometimes a person will just naturally do better on CR in their 12th grade year than they did in their 11th grade year and it may not have even involved any additional prep - you just become a more mature, better reader.
I bring this up because it is part of the reason why studying for the SAT too early is not necessarily a good thing. Even if you have covered all of the Math and would do really well on that section, I think CR would be a slightly different story, just because of what you have been exposed to by that point in school. I am not saying you wouldn’t do well - obviously some people could destroy the SAT in 7th grade, but that is definitely not the norm. You are likely to naturally get better at reading as you get older so taking it too early can put you at a disadvantage in that regard.
I started prep in 7th grade for Duke TIP.
Does the same apply with ACT; will beginning to study in 9th grade be a waste? I was thinking about at least doing a little bit and taking a practice ACT. Last time I took it was in 6th grade (like for real with juniors+seniors) and I got a 18 lol…
I mean I don’t think it is a total waste to start early and especially if it is just some light practice getting familiar with the tests. Or doing some stuff on the outside, like working on your reading comprehension ability or something like that. But its sort of like getting braces early. You can get them at 8 years old and keep them on until 14 or you can get them at 12 years old and keep them on until 14 (not sure if that still applies but that is how I remember it).
You can never start studying too early, the more practice you get the better you are likely to do. One of the main things I would recommend starting earlier is vocabulary. That came into use, and it not only helped with SAT but in school as well. Good vocabulary is something that will help you throughout life, and this is one of the most important things you can do early. A really good resource for vocab is the Barron’s Flashcard Set.
If you mean to prepare for the test format, then anytime before high school may be too early to start. However, one should start building up vocab as early as possible. For Math skills and test format, one year of preparation is more than enough. My D1 started preparing for ACT/SAT right after sophomore and reached a plateau by the end of the first semester in junior. Of course, this is YMMV.
If you are still in middle school I would recommend taking it to get familiar with it. Collegeboard will delete the score at the end of June and no one will know you took it. Although the tea is changing, you can still see what it is like to take it. I would then read a lot until your sophomore year and then study it
Completing the College Board’s Question of the Day is an easy way to familiarize oneself with the types of questions. Agree that it is helpful to read a lot and pay attention to the meaning of any words you do not know. I don’t think you need to sit for a real test: the practice tests in the Blue Book are real and CB posts one test on-line each year. Take the test under timed conditions and score it yourself, if you are interested to see how you will do.
Agree with @reasonsat as to why @plainpotato might want to wait until later in HS to take the SAT.
The one test I would suggest for @plainpotato is the Math II Subject test at the completion of pre-calc. You shouldn’t have any trouble refreshing yourself for the Math sections of the SAT but you could have trouble with the CR & W sections as an 8th grader. (I may be reading this incorrectly, but it sounds as though you are in 8th grade taking Alg 2.) If you do decide to take the SAT in 8th grade and want to preserve that math score, contact CB and find out what you need to do in order to have the score retained. I thought they discarded scores of tests taken prior to 9th grade.
@babyshuf2 Will you actually be enrolled as a tenth grader? I am a ninth grader right now in all 10th/11th/12th grade classes but at my school I am in the freshman class
Yeah…I’ll be a 10th grader because I have earned 7 h.s. credits while in m.s. and I verified it with the h.s. counselors. In the registration guide you only need 6 units of credit to be promoted to Grade 10. I have over that, which include Biology I, Physical Science, EES, Spanish I, World History, English I Honors, and Math I. This also allows me to take more advanced classes 
I’m excited to start h.s.!
If u have been a prolific leisure reader starting from a young age, u have already been preparing for the Critical Reading for years.