<p>unless your son is in Latin IV now, the language tests can be difficult. The best thing to do is pickup Collegeboard’s Reat Subject TEsts and take a timed practice test at home.</p>
<p>SAT II’s scores don’t matter if you are applying to large public schools</p>
<p>I am not familiar with levels of Latin courses. S was the first timer in Latin in 9th grade. He did The Essentials, Virgil(AP) and Literature(AP). He just took AP test last week. If he gets 4 or 5, I thought I would discuss with him about taking Latin subject test. Maybe he first take a look at the Collegeboard subject test book.</p>
<p>I feel like any SAT Subject test score over 700 is fine for a college application unless you are looking at an MIT type school where math scores should be higher. Test scores 750 or over are wonderful.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depends on the state. The matter a LOT for the UCs and help at UVa.</p>
<p>So for a freshman, anything in the 700’s would be good for Biology?</p>
<p>^ Anything in the 700s is good. Anything at or above 750 is better. Scores in the 700+ range are excellent for a freshman, but many people feel they do better on SAT Subject Tests right after completing a class (especially an AP-level class) in that subject. But if you’re planning to take more Bio in high school, then scoring in the 700s as a freshman is excellent.</p>
<p>Only a handful of schools require them? Every school my S applied to required them.</p>
<p>^2 SAT subjects tests isn’t bad. High end kids can take US History and Math without too much extra prep. The requirement for 3 tests can mean extra work–especially if the third test is a science test. Sometimes the science curriculum doesn’t cover all topics that could be covered on the SAT test, so that taking a science test could require more prep.</p>
<p>Over 700 from a freshman taking biology is a great score!</p>
<p>Consolation, only the top schools in the country require them. Once you get past the top 30 or so ranked schools, very few schools require SAT II’s (other than UC’s)</p>
<p>^^Not to mention several top schools (including Yale) will accept the ACT+W in lieu of SAT + Subject Tests.</p>
<p>FiddlinEcon,
FYI. I believe the Latin subject test is ONLY offered in June and Dec. But if he gets a 4 or 5 on the Latin AP tests, he should be able to score in the high 700’s on the subject test[ he will just have to refresh his memory before the test, as I gather he is finished with Latin courses now?]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is true for U.S. History only for those students who take AP U.S. History before senior year – something that isn’t workable in many cases.</p>
<p>Students who take their high school’s regular U.S. History course – even in an honors version – may not necessarily be well prepared for the U.S. History SAT Subject Test. It depends on the curriculum. They should discuss this topic with their history teachers or guidance counselors.</p>
<p>^^ IMO, it is more reliable to simply take a practice test from the blue book than to talk to the teacher or guidance counselor about readiness for subject tests.</p>
<p>Agree with pierre0913 - far fewer schools require SAT II’s than you might think. There is a pretty comprehensive list on the Common App website - follow this link and click on the “Requirements Grid” PDF <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx</a></p>
<p>There are some SATII that are not comparable to the AP curriculum for the same subject, and I have heard that Latin SAT II is one of those. If Menlopark mom has a child who has taken both, she’ll know…but be sure to check.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>I think that if the student is still taking the course and discovers that some topics on the practice test are unfamiliar, a conversation with the teacher or guidance counselor is in order so that the student can find out whether the topics will be covered later in the course or not at all.</p>
<p>In some school systems, teachers will openly tell students whether or not the local or state-mandated curriculum is a good match for the SAT Subject Test.</p>
<p>^^concur. Our HS for example, no longer covers some items on Math 2 and the teachers can easily point them out for self-study.</p>
<p>A poster asked on p.1 about the percentile for a 770 on USH – it’s 95th. In contrast, a 770 Math Level II is 84%tile, and a 730 Lit is 90%tile. Those %tiles are among the kids who take the test – who are generally better prepared in the subject than students who have chosen not to take it in the first place.</p>
<p>SAT-II Lit, as mentioned in a couple of other threads, is a good test for kids who have done extremely well on SAT-CR. Lit is harder than CR, but if one is strong with CR in the first place, it’s a test that can be taken w/o studying.</p>
<p>Sometimes teachers know, sometimes they don’t. My son’s AP Bio teacher for example, had a very good sense of how kids did on the SAT and whether they should take E or M. (My son took E against his general advice because he’d done ecology for Science Olympiad and knew from practice tests that he was better at E. Doesn’t mean that the advice wasn’t still good for most kids though.)</p>
<p>My son did very well on Lit practice test, hopefully he did well on it today. CR was his best score and he’d done very well on it. </p>
<p>In our family AP US history from our school leads to stellar scores on the the SAT, most students here on CC have reported similar results, (but a few have said it didn’t work for them.)</p>