<p>i am in 11th grade and am going to take the sat probably in the beginning of 2007. i was wondering if it would be good to take it this october and study as much as possible to do as well as possible, but really take it to gain an idea of what to concentrate on and to assess your weaknesses and strengths so you can focus in on other things for later tests...what do you guys think?</p>
<p>take the PSAT in october and it will give u a chance to evaluate ur weaknesses.. then take the SAT in january, april/may/june, and october</p>
<p>sahil gives good advice.</p>
<p>While the above is good advice, the PSAT didn't really gauge how I would perform on the SAT. I got a 214 on the PSAT...which according to the conversion from PSAT>>SAT, would mean that I would have scored about a 2140 on the SAT. However, I got a 2250 on the SAT with no prep, while some kids who got much higher than me on the PSAT did a lot worse than me on the SAT.</p>
<p>My advice would be to take the SAT in April/May of your junior year and the SAT IIs (if you need to take them) in June. That way, you can have all summer to prepare for both sets of tests to take them in October/November of your senior year. You might be happy with your scores the first time.</p>
<p>but the sat is different from the psat, so wouldn't it be good to take it in october with as much prep as possible and really get a feel for the test, get the score back so i know where i should concentrate and then i could take it in april and june if i am not satisfied by april..? who knows i may get lucky and get a good score in october</p>
<p>That's true. In my case, I didn't do any prep except Collegeboard's free online SAT question-of-the-day, so I don't relaly have much of a reference point to go off of. However, I did get an 800 CR and 800 Writing my first time taking it and my junior AP English Lang class helped me for that. While the AP test isn't like the SAT really, the vocab we learned in English from our reading assignments helped me on the SAT. Practicing timed argument writes for the AP test also helped me practice for writing a timed test on the SAT. So basically I'm glad that I waited until the end of my junior year (I took the SAT in May) to take the test because of my AP English class.</p>
<p>There are lots of ways to get a feel for the test ahead of time...you don't need to take the October test...just get the Official guide and download the free test from the College Board website. Take the test at a library or some place similar and time yourself carefully. It's not exactly the same as sitting in the real testing room, but it's close enough for most people.</p>
<p>Remember that the College Board sends ALL of your scores to colleges, and while colleges say they only look at your best scores, it's certainly possible that seeing a bad score might sway them.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are going to prep for the PSAT anyway, and you really feel prepared for the test, take it in October (or better yet, December). I suggest that to some of my students, but only if they're performing near the top of their game. Statistically, the later students take the test, the better they score.</p>
<p>but i probably cannot take it in may because i am taking 3 sat II's and also 3 AP exams....</p>
<p>So why not the April/March or the June SAT? Or both?</p>
<p>Don't forget there's a test in January, too.</p>