We are going around and around about which tests to take and when.
My daughter a rising junior with a very demanding year ahead of her (AP Calc BC, AP English, AP Chem, AP US History, Honors French, Honors Latin. We are trying to minimize the stress and trying to figure out which tests for her to take when is part of that.
Here is some background on how she has done so far. She took the psat last year as a sophmore and scored fairly well (Math 77/80; Critical Reading 65/80; Writing 69/80) with no prep. I posted earlier this week she took a sample ACT test last week and got a combined score of 34 (scores of 33 Math,34 English,34 Science and 36 Reading) never having seen the test before. She also took a sample PSAT with the new format, but the place we took the test said it would be a week before we got the results. I wonder if they have to send it out to be scored.? In any event, we were leaning towards having her take the new sat test.
Given that the summer is almost over and there is not a ton of time to prepare for the Oct test and given the scores she got on the first ACT she took, we were planning for her to practice on some sample ACT tests and then take it in the fall. We were leaning towards having her take the new SAT in the spring. I know she’d be a guinea pig for the new test, but with a little prep I think she could do very well.
Oh and when should she take the SAT subject tests and which ones do you recommend. She’ll have all those AP tests to take in May. This is all so new and crazy for us!
I think that as long as money isn’t an issue, she should take both the SAT (maybe both the old and new, depending on how much time she has) and the ACT. With SAT subject tests, I would have her take them in classes she is good at that she is also taking the AP course for. She should almost definitely take Math II, as it has a generous curve and she’s already in Calc BC. Specific college programs will have other subject test requirements, so I would look at that, but she’d probably also want to take SAT Chem (in either May or June, to line up with her AP Class) and maybe a foreign language test if a specific program requires it (I would probably suggest Latin as native speakers aren’t really an issue, unless she’s a native French speaker, in which case she should take French)
My son is also a rising junior, and we’re going back and forth on those issues too. There is currently only one official PSAT online from the College Board. It’s at https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/practice/full-length-practice-test All the for pay companies are pretty much just guessing about the content, and some don’t even seem to know that the maximum score on the new PSAT is 1520, rather than 1600.
Since she got a 211 on her sophomore PSAT, she’s got a good chance at National Merit, though the cutoff is different in each state. If she scores high enough on the junior PSAT (though the scoring system will be different), she’ll need a confirming SAT. On the old SAT, that’s usually 1960. Either the old SAT or new SAT will work for the confirming score for the Class of 2017.