@ynotgo My S is taking two IB SLs this year (Spanish and Econ) and it appears both of subjects require more studying to take AP test. IB SL is one year and HL is 2 years everywhere. I believe they need 6 IB tests to get the diploma and 3 have to be HL. I am advising him to forget about doing 8 APs for the sake of National Scholar award. he will take 3 more for sure. My thinking is with 6 APs, strong SAT IIs and ACT should be good enough for any college. you are correct, most colleges don’t give credit for SL. His main concern is not college credits, but getting admission.
I will note that a lot of the private schools D15 looked into would only allow credit for up to 2 AP tests with score of 4 or higher. Public schools often allowed credit for all of the AP tests with 3s or better. The school she ended up going to only gave credit for AP test scores of 5. So really the usefulness of AP tests varies from school to school.
Ok, dumb question: how did you decide on which SAT subject tests should be taken? Do kids prep like they do for SAT/ACT? Do you need to find out if a school requires a certain test? Good study resources?
My kids decided based on their interests. Both took the Math 2 subject test because the schools they were interested in recommended that test. They took the Math 2 test after they completed precalculas and scored well. I bought them one of the study guides also. D used it more than S; S scored better than D (guess who the math kid is in the family). D15 took biology and she did have to study for it because she didn’t have a bio class near to when she took the test and her class didn’t cover all of the material that they tested for. S17 will take the physics SAT subject test after advanced physics. I will probably get him a study guide so he knows what to expect. He likely won’t use it much because he isn’t that kind of a overstudy kid.
@2muchquan - Lot of colleges specify which SAT subject tests they require/recommend. Typically for good science and engineering programs they need one math and one science subject test. Certain engineering schools may prefer Physics and premeds may require Biology. My S did Math & Chemistry @ the end of Sophomore year and he will probably do Biology and Physics @ the end of junior year. One general advice I keep hearing is better to take subject test at the end of school year in which they took that subject. You need some preparation since not all material may have not been covered in the class.
@2muchquan - If you know that your student is interested in a certain school check to see if they give credit for a certain score on a SAT II test. Because some schools do for certain tests. For example my son is at Georgia Tech.
They give credit for Eng 1101 if you have a English SAT II of 750. They also give credit for Chemistry 1211K for a Chemistry SAT II of 680 or Chemistry 1310 for a SAT II of 730. My son took the Math,Physics & Spanish SAT II’s. But if we had known about the Chemistry SAT credit earlier he would have taken that one to try and avoid the Chemistry at GT…(He’s an Electrical Engineering major and chemistry isn’t his thing)…
My 9th grader will definitely be taking the Chem SAT II. He is currently thinking computer engineering
and hoping to go to GT.
@mtrosemom I loved Geology in college. Our field trips were just to the undeveloped areas of our campus but they were still fascinating. I have been trying to explain to my D why she will enjoy college more than HS. Being able to take a class like Geology from a professor that is passionate about the topic is so much more stimulating than an HS class were the teacher is focused on preparing the class for a test at the end of the year.
Definitely don’t take extra AP tests just for the award. There isn’t that much space on the common app to list awards so my son won that award but isn’t listing it. He can’t even fit all the AP tests he has taken on the amount of lines they give which in combo with IB would certainly be the case. My S16 took the SAT2 in math 2 and physics but the physics test does not match up with the AP Physics 1 curriculum so there are 4 units that would need to be self studied. My D17 will take Math2 and Chem definitely and if she has time to self study she will also take physics.
@dcplanner - Thanks for the advice. My S took AP physics 1 and now doing IB SL Physics. Do you think it’s sufficient for SAT2 Physics?
Yes, thanks for all the SAT II info. This helps a lot.
My son is doing second year physics also, but I am probably going to get a study guide just to make sure there isn’t a big gap in curriculum.
Re: Is AP Physics 1 enough for Physics subject test? I am probably wading in where I don’t know enough here…but, my son is currently taking AP Physics C Mechanics this year for a full year, and then AP Physics C E&M next year. He thinks (as of now) that he will wait to take the subject test until Oct of Sr year so that he can learn some of the needed material during the first five or so weeks of school. Perhaps review during the summer?
So he must think that even C Mechanics would leave a gap. He took the Bio test at the end of 9th grade and self-studied whatever content was missing, so it is doable, but I would think that Physics 1 might leave too much of a knowledge gap? I have no idea what IB SL covers so perhaps that will fill in the gap.
There are practice questions here:
https://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/practice-test-section-start?practiceTestSectionIDKey=Subject.PHYSICS&pageId=practiceSubjectTestPhysics&header=Physics&subHeader=SAT%20Subject%20Test%20Practice&conversationId=ConversationStateUID_1
@srk2017 I’m not sure what is covered in the IB course. We bought a prep book that had study guides for each unit and 1 or 2 practice tests. The study guides are very abbreviated but it was enough to see what my son had not learned yet so he could briefly review a few topics. If I recall correctly the 2 main topics were relativity and optics. You can miss a pretty large number of questions on physics and still get an 800 so really just a brief review was enough.
any juniors wrote October SAT?
Not mine. He’s waiting for the new SAT and the ACT. He did last May’s SAT and did fine.
@mtrosemom - Your S is taking both SAT & ACT? My S took ACT recently and got his target score. His current plan is to do new SAT only if he becomes NMSF. Any advantages of taking SAT also?
@srk2017 That is my daughter’s plan too…take the ACT and only take the SAT if she makes NMSF.
The SAT is more common here (neither H, D15, nor I ever took the ACT), but the school district just started using the ACT last year as a required test. He will take the ACT in March or April (whenever they give it) and if needed then take the redesigned SAT. His current SAT score is high enough to qualify him if he is in the NMSF zone, but I think he will do better on the ACT because he is more of a math and science kid.
Rookie parent here and don’t know how to proceed. D took the 10/3 SAT and scored a 1900. If I only read CC I would think that was really horrific but I know it is a solid score enough to get her into most state schools we can afford. We were hoping for a bit of merit aid possibilities to allow her to go out of state if she wanted but she did not really “get” that concept until we sat her down and had a bit CTJ meeting (we are in the south so that stands for Come To Jesus meeting i.e. laying it out to her straight up, lol!) about what we have saved for college (enough for our solid state schools, not enough to finance the dream of going out of state etc.). She didn’t really get on board with test prep until two weeks before the test when she earnestly took a practice test and reviewed some incorrect answers from a previously half-done practice test. She has great grades/GPA and ranking (# 15 out of almost 750-800); IB diploma program and decent ECs.
So at this point she states she is very motivated to improve that score and I do believe her. So should she intensity prep and take one more “old” SAT in January? Branch out and try the ACT to see which test suits her best and then focus the prep on that one? Or wait until the “new” SAT? Thoughts?
@carachel2 - What was her break down? Some schools only look at the math & reading for merit. DS took the OCT SAT. He already has a 32 on the ACT but I was hoping that his SAT would be higher. He ended up with a 2050. Which isn’t as good. For him unless he ends up a NMSF and needs a higher SAT I think he is done testing. Basically a 32 or a 1400 on Reading & Math gets some pretty good OOS merit aid. If she wants merit aid I would take the ACT and try again with the old SAT.
Also some kids do better on one test than the other. The main reason DS’s ACT is better is because he is really good reader but not a math kid. The math is only 1/4 of the ACT but it’s 1/3 of the SAT.