We won’t be signing up to take any official ACT/SATs for probably at least a year and a half. My d22 has saidbshebolans on taking some practice reading/science ones this summer to get a baseline and know what areas to start to work on. She doesn’t plan to take any math sections until after 10th grade, because she already realizes she doesn’t have enough of a math background to do well. She doesn’t think setting herself up for “failure” (ie knowing she won’t do well) at this point would be helpful. It would just unnecessarily damage her confidence.
@Rivet2000 Same here. S22 will probably take Math 2 and Chemistry SAT Subject Tests at the end of 10th grade.
Yeah, I guess it all depends on which math each student is taking at what time. In 8th and early 9th grade my son will have taken all the math subjects that are taught on the ACT, so he’ll either have to do a lot of review before taking the ACT in 10th grade or he’ll have to take it earlier. Good to think about these things now.
Goodness, just saw the awful typo in my previous post. Oops.
Hi all! Can’t believe we are nearly halfway through! I have a S20 so things are ramping up for him. D22 is plugging along. Bit of a rough start first quarter-couldn’t figure out how to balance sports, social, and studying, but she seems like she has it now. She just had shoulder surgery to fix some torn muscles-it’s her right arm and that has been very challenging since it was regularly dislocating and she was unable to use it. She cannot wait until she can start using her arm again-PT starts in 2 weeks! She misses field hockey and is hoping she can get enough movement to try out for lacrosse.
Other than that, she applied to coach summer swim team and lifeguard so hopefully that will pan out (still in discussions about how to handle the fact she can’t do the swim test until April-she was a year-round swimmer until last year so they have her times and can see she can swim. We are hoping that counts for something!). She also spent some time last year volunteering at a vet’s office and would like to do that again. We’ll see, she only has 24 hours in a day like the rest of us. She’s my one who would volunteer and sign up for EVERYTHING.
I love reading about all your children! D took the PSAT 8/9 and that will be it for testing until next year when she’ll take the PSAT and probably one AP test. We’ll wait for SAT or ACT until Junior year.
At this point, S22 will take the PSAT 8/9 this April, and I’ll have him take the regular PSAT in the fall of 10th grade, as practice. He plans to study the summer before junior year and take the full tests along with the PSAT in the fall. I’m not as sure about the subject tests - I think math II after pre-calc, but I’m not sure what level of class is required for the other subject tests - AP?
@Luanne Generally, SAT Subject tests reflect high school-level material, AP tests reflect college-level material. There’s a user/moderator on CC, @skieurope, who is very good on discussing the differences between SAT Subject Tests and AP Tests. One example skieurope cites is Physics. The SAT Subject Test covers a wider breadth of physics material than a typical AP Test does. So if you were to take, say AP Physics C, you would not be well-prepared for the Physics SAT Subject Test, despite the AP course’s more rigorous material.
My thought is that S22 takes the applicable SAT Subject Test at the end of the year he takes a given high school course.
It depends upon the subject. As @sfSTEM says, my feeling is the AP sciences, particularly physics, are poor preparation for Subject Tests, which are designed to test the material covered in a HS (non-AP) course.There are instances, like history, where the AP course might be fine, since AP USH or WH, are generally in lieu of the HS course, and are not the follow-up course.Even then, though, there may be gaps that the student might need to fill-in him/herself.
@Luanne I think it is best to take most of the rest of the subject tests after APs. I know my D19 took the chemistry one after AP Chem and she said she couldn’t have done well without both high school and AP Chem.
Belated thanks for your kind words, @mom2twogirls and @vistajay!
I hope S22’s transition back to the U.S. curriculum goes smoothly. He was in an American school in London for fourth through seventh grades, but he’s done eighth and ninth at an international school in Geneva, with no particular emphasis on America. I’ll see what his new school recommends once he’s registered—maybe there will be some extra summer reading he can do, especially for U.S. history.
Interesting to see all of your thoughts on PSAT/SAT/ACT. Although it’s obviously different, I think his two takings of the SSAT when we were considering private schools were good practice for that kind of test and gave us a sense of where he is, so we’ll probably just stick to the standard schedule.
Thanks for the thoughts on when to take the subject tests. He’s in biology now and doing well. Maybe he should take it this spring. I’ll have to see what he thinks. Or he could do the chemistry test next spring along with math.
S22’s school will administer the PSAT soph year so he will take that. He took PSAT 8/9 this year and PLAN 8th grade year. Junior year he will take a PSAT prep course in late summer/early fall, then take the fall SAT and the PSAT while the prep course is fresh. ACT probably in the spring of junior year but maybe winter depending on schedule. Subject tests: will have to see depending on his intended major. With our older 2 we found schools were moving away from the Subject Tests, and using the ACT sections instead. Very few schools on the older kids lists required them, and those that required did not seem to place great importance on them in admissions. But every school is different.
@Luanne you might want to buy a Subject test review book for Bio (or get one from the library). Your son could look through it to see if most of the information expected was covered in his high school course. He may even want to chat with his teacher and show the teacher and ask whether taking the subject test after the high school level course would work or if he should wait until after the AP course.
@mom2twogirls that’s a great idea. I will do that!
I agree with @vistajay - none of the colleges D17 applied to had any interest in SAT subject tests, but she only applied to 6 colleges, so maybe they weren’t representative. As for S22, I may try to have him take an ACT his sophomore year just for the practice. I definitely plan to have him take an ACT prep course. Something we didn’t do with D17 and wished we had. I have no idea how to find a good ACT prep course, though. Anyone have any recommendations? We live in a rural county so a virtual/online one may be our only choice. And when do you usually take a prep course? I’m assuming the fall of junior year? (Our HS gives the ACT in February of Junior year).
I can’t remember if I have suggested this or not here, but you can look at your local library and see if they offer a free proctored practice ACT/SAT. Not only is it free, but you won’t run the risk of having later high scores invalidated for possible cheating when they are compared to the first test scores.
It seems a waste of money, let alone the potential hassle and frustration of invalidated later scores, to pay to take a baseline or “practice” SAT/ACT through the college board.
What has worked for my S19 and D20 is grinding our practice test after practice test. S19 would do one section each weeknight time permitting and a couple of sections back to back on the weekend. When his section score were consistently in the ballpark, we knew he was ready. You can get practice books from your local library and interlibrary loan and print practice sheets. Online you can find MANY former tests - try the ACT subReddit.
For students interested in engineering, many colleges either require or “recommend” SAT Subject tests. Some colleges only have these requirements for certain majors, so exercise your due diligence in your research.
As far as studying for standardized tests, you should consider two things. First, practicing timed/proctored tests is very important to sharpen time management and “guessing strategy” skills. However, if problem areas arise as indicated by consistently lower than desired scores, you need to refresh on the specific topic.
We’ve noticed some schools require and some recommend the subject tests. I just figure take them and have them if needed.
We are skipping the subject tests. The schools on S22’s list do not “suggest” or require them. Works for me! S has enough standardized tests to take.