I will repeat that it depends on the school. At our school sophomore Honors Chemistry is taken before AP and with very little prep my kid scored above 700. The other kid took both practice Bio tests and scored near 800 after freshman honors bio.
And it depends on the student (and a host of other things). And as I’ve said many times, the plural of anecdote is not data. That said, I will tell you that I took Subject Tests in physics and chem without AP and was quite happy with the scores.
Unless she’s currently taking Bio and knows she’ll do well on the math, postpone it.
@trixy34 Why postpone if she can take it again if she isn’t happy?
Don’t you have to report all scores? I don’t know. My son just two SATIIs without putting much thought into his choice and doing no preparation. He took Spanish (he’s not a native speaker and has not studied abroad) He scored in the 500s. Ooops. He also took LIT and got a 700, which is OK, but compared to his other scores is really low. He didn’t realize he’d be having to analyze poetry. I guess I would have preferred a one-shot deal to having to explain the lower scores and/or figure out a new game plan. The kids already have so much pressure on them, my perspective is not to set her up to have to take them twice. But if she doesn’t mind, then go for it.
But I know for my kid, he hasn’t taken bio since 9th grade, so that would require some review. And for the Math II, even for a kid who is advanced in Math, it helps to do practice tests to see where you might have weaknesses and/or review subjects that might be rusty.
@trixy34 None of the schools D is interested in require reporting of all scores. So, I think in our case, it pays to take the test and hope for the best. She is in AP bio now and will be taking the Bio E. She is just finishing up precalc and so its the right time for math2. She hasn’t studied at all, but might look over some t hings tonight. We’ll see.
Oh, well then I think she’s fine to take them Saturday. I just read the whole thread - we might tentatively have Cornell and Georgetown on our list (well, at least GT was there before the last two SATIIs. Lol!) so that’s where I was coming from. My son took the chem SATII last year after he took AP Chem and did great.
Good luck!
As others have mentioned (I myself might also have already said this), only Georgetown and Cornell require all Subject Test scores, and Cornell is up for debate (but not here) based on language used on their website. Any applicant applying to Cornell is well served to contact the school directly to confirm.
Regardless, even when a school asks for all scores, they look at the best ones. Certainly one can choose to disbelieve their statements, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.
Prep books are readily available at any bookstore/library. Sample tests are on the internet. I’m surprised when anyone walks out of the exam saying the content was a surprise.
Last year my kid intentionally took the Subject Tests right smack in the middle of the AP testing period. He did zero prep work for the Chem subject test other than take a practice test just to see what the questions were like. He never took regular or honors Chem, just AP Chem. And got a 780 (and subsequently a 5 for his AP Chem). My guess is that it probably helped that the AP test was 5 days before the subject test, rather than after the subject test, because he has bad study habits, ie a crammer. (And got an 800 on his Math II, which any STEM wannabe should strive for).
A low quality high school? When I was in high school when only about a third of the high school’s graduates went to four year colleges as frosh, the regular courses were sufficient for A students to score 700+ on achievement tests (as SAT subject tests were called then) without additional preparation.
I tutor high school chem. This year I had 6 students at different high schools. I only reccomended that 2 of them take the subject test.
3 were in classes that only covered 60 to 70 percent of the subject matter.
The one private school was laughably bad. Maybe 30 percent of the material was covered.
@Trixy34 That lit score is actually quite good. It’s one of the hardest subject tests to nail because it is so subjective. If you look at the distribution of scores and percentiles, its difficulty is evident.
Math II is also no cakewalk even if you know all of the concepts, you still have to be accurate at speed to do well.
“I’d probably tighten that up further to maybe MIT/Caltech/Harvey Mudd.”
Students who apply to these schools are also applying to Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, CMU, and other top-10 engineering/CS programs, so 780-800 in Math 2 should be the goal, if not a flat out 800.
Believe it or not, not every potential engineering student wants to go to MIT or (insert other top X engineering school here). 
My point was that if you’re applying to a top-10, maybe even top-15 you need a 780 or higher on Math 2. The average for Math 2 is 690, getting slightly above the average (700) is fine for most schools, agree.
And my point is that you need no such thing. Maybe for the 3 I mentioned plus a couple of others. For the balance in the “top 15,” (whatever those are) need and** want** are two separate verbs. As the results threads show, plenty of applicants to these schools get rejected with a 780+, while others get accepted with lower stats. For most of these schools, holistic admissions apply. Subject Test scores are but one part of the package, and IMO, a small part at that. But we can agree to disagree.
I’m sure it depends on what programs the kids are applying for and what else is part of the package. My daughter is looking at BSMD programs. Those programs generally accept only about 4% of applications and since its a very self selecting group, you can assume all the applicants are qualified. I think its safe to say, she needs high stem scores to complete the package if she wants to have a chance. In any case, I don’t think she will retake if she gets 750+, but I’d sure love her to have closer to 800!
Well holistic colleges also have minimum test requirements that you need to get in. MIT accepts 0% of applicants who have a 27 or below in the ACT math sub score. So you need that, they may say publicly test scores are just one thing, but the numbers will show that there are minimums. Similarly at one time MIT published that admitted students had between 720 and 800 on their science subject test. I’m not saying that you take it again if you get a 710, but if you get below 700, you’re not going to be of their top applicants.
My DS is actually taking the subject tests today. He did some practice tests this week, and seemed very prepared for Chemistry and Math 2 (coming out of hon. pre-calc and AP Chem this year). Got one wrong on the practice math test and 2 wrong on the practice chem test. He is also taking Spanish today coming out of Spanish IV. His practice test had 2 wrong, but he guessed on a number of questions. I guess we will see how he does on that. My opinion is that you should take the test when the material is fresh in your mind. OP, I don’t remember whether you said she took a practice test, but you may want to see how she does before you have her decide.