Hi, I’m a junior in high school. I just went to some college visits, and almost all of the colleges told me that they don’t require SAT 2 subject test. They said that if you have them, it’s good, but if you don’t it’s ok. I know that schools like Johns Hopkins and Emory are very competitive schools. Do you think I still should take the subject tests on this case to enlarge my chances of getting into those kind of schools? Some people told me that it won’t hurt if you don’t have them. Will having the scores help me getting in or should I just focus more on the SAT 1 and don’t have to take SAT2?
I’m a senior in high school and I’ve also been through this dilemma, I would recommend getting the best possible score on sat 1, because nearly every school requires it. Additionally sat 2’s are recommended so if you get a mediocre score on both sat 2 and sat 1 it won’t look great but a amazing score on sat 1 (1500+) would look way better than say 1350 and two 650s. Keep in mind though some schools mainly Ives REQUIRE sat 2’s so you couldn’t be accepted without them, id recommend checking the websites of the colleges your looking at to see what the policies are. I would start peeping for sat 1 asap, as I started too late and have to take subject tests in December of senior year which isn’t ideal at all. It’s typical to take sat 2’s right around time of AP tests in spring, as the studying for AP tests aligns with Some sat subject tests, id definitely recommend doing that. I’ll attach some helpful articles that I’ve used to help with this. Colleges that recommend these sat 2’s wont penalize you if you don’t take them. Let me know if you’ve got more questions.
http://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-list-of-colleges-that-require-sat-subject-tests
http://blog.prepscholar.com/expert-guide-which-sat-subject-tests-should-you-take