My junior is signed up for a proctored SAT practice exam this weekend, and is not happy about it. He took the (real) PSAT in October, and a proctored practice ACT last month. They offer free proctored exams at our local library every few months.
I don’t think he will do practice tests on his own, which is why I signed him up, but maybe it is overkill if he’s asking to get out of it. Thinking he will take his first real SAT in March or April.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Forgot to mention: he’s unhappy in part because he has work the following day, so, full weekend.
I think it is good to get the practice and since he is not going to do it on his own you should sign him up. I don’t think it is overkill. He will be able to work on his timing. This is very important. I do not think it is overkill at all.
It might not be overkill…but how invested in a practice test will this student be if he really doesn’t want to be there…and how reliable will his practice test score be?
How did he do on the PSAT and the proctored test ACT? Do you anticipate he will be diligent about prepping for the real SAT in the spring? If he has not begun prepping for the SAT than this practice proctored SAT will help hone in on the areas that he should spend the most time prepping for so can be useful in that regard. So maybe you can sell it to him as a way to minimize his SAT prep activities over the next few months because he won’t need to prep as much in the areas that he did well on the practice SAT.
It may be worth doing to figure out if the kid is better at the SAT vs. the ACT. Many kids just naturally do better on one or the other. All of my kids had a clear stronger test. Although you could just rely on the PSAT for that, having two full test results just a month apart would be better data.
Once you get that data in, then you can focus any prepping and test taking on the just preferred test. Just dealing with one test only can really help and make the process more efficient and ultimately less time consuming.
One more suggestion. The summer between JR/SR year is IMO the easiest time to get the kid to do test prep. While it is great to be done with testing by the end of JR year, that just didn’t happen for any of my kids. Just too much else going on with classes, sports, ECs, etc.
Mine all got their max scores on the test they took at the very beginning of SR year.
Thanks everyone. @adlgel He did significantly better on the PSAT than the ACT. Those two tests were about a month apart. We talked about Khan Academy and how he can practice for the SAT online with questions made for him based on areas for improvement on the PSAT and we will monitor him to do that. He won’t get that kind of tailor made help from the practcie SAT unless we pay the company administering it (they give us a basic breakdown by phone). @northwesty Thanks for the great advice to make use of next summer. My kid (like many) really is very busy during the school year and while he will have a summer job that may be his best time for practice, and after taking it the first time in April or May, to take the SAT once more in either August or the fall. @thumper1 Excellent point. I’m still thinking of canceling.