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<p>Some colleges use them for placement into first semester courses (commonly math and foreign language), although the colleges typically have their own placement tests as well.</p>
<p>For Stanford, 95% of admitted students did submit SAT2 scores. If you read the paragraph carefully, you would notice they actually want 2 SAT2 scores and they prefer Math2. They leave some room there to accept some students (e.g. recruited athletes) that do not have SAT2 scores. Don’t take the risk unless you are among that 5%.</p>
<p>It also leaves room for students not advanced in math due to middle school placement decisions and can only take math level 1 instead of math level 2. But probably most submit SAT subject scores because they had to take them anyway for other schools that they may be applying to (e.g. HYPM-type schools; also recommended for engineering majors at some UCs).</p>
<p>OP’s S is not applying to Stanford. My S flatly refused to apply to any schools which required subject tests. He is a junior at RIT. His rolling admission safety was Drexel. I did strongly encourage him to apply to RPI in case the ED app at RIT didn’t pan out, but he ended up withdrawing that one when accepted ED. His scholarship is based strictly on test scores and class rank. He was able to skip a quarter of Calc based on his AP test. Everyone is not interested in ‘top’ schools and more testing. If he has his list and is aware of the ramifications of NOT taking more tests, he doesn’t need them. Both my D’s happily took 3 subject tests, but they were looking at higher level colleges.</p>
<p>Op:
- Look to see if SAT2s are required for each college that he wants to apply to
- SAT2s are much easier than AP exams. SAT2 tests HS level proficiency; AP tests college level proficiency. For example, on SAT2 Chem, you can “only” miss something like 3-5% of the questions to score an 800/800 (can’t remember exactly). For AP Chem test if you miss 33% of the questions, you get a 5/5.
- Therefore, If you are in an AP class, your don’t really have to study at all for the SAT2. You just show up on test day. So take the SAT2 if you are in the AP class.
- If you are not taking an AP class in the subject, then it may NOT be worth the extra study time and self study for SAT2 in that same subject if it is not required.
- BTW, my son will be applying to the same schools as your son and he will have taken 3 SAT2s because he was in AP level of those classes.</p>
<p>Our as took the SAT 2 subject tests when he was taking the corresponding AP exams and math2 in the fall, after they had just finished reviewing at the beginning of calc. The timing was excellent for him, as all the review was related to his coursework anyway and didn’t involve extra studying and work on his part. He took physics and math 1 and 2. Math 1 has a worse curve and is useless for engineering majors, which is why he needed math 2 in fall of SR year. The west coast engineering Us he applied to were very interested in his great physics and math2 SAT2s–they actually required the scores. </p>
<p>S took the Chem SATII after honors chem sophomore year, the idea being to have one in the bank and reduce the junior year testing burden. His teacher held some after school sessions for anyone who was interested in doing so, to cover some additional material that he knew was on the test. Actually, S didn’t end up taking it until the following fall, due to a state track meet that is ALWAYS scheduled on one of the SAT dates, grrr, but he got an upper 700s score anyway, with little prep at that time. It is not necessary to take an AP to do well on the SATIIs.</p>
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<p>But it sure helps in Bio, Chem, and Physics. If you are willing to self study, you don’t need to take the AP class. The entire range of material is just not completely covered in regular or honors classes.</p>
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<p>Back when I was in high school (a public high school that sent about a third of its graduates to four year universities, mostly state universities that (at the time) were not that selective), I took regular high school physics (PSSC book and curriculum, did not think it was that hard) and took the achievement test (now SAT subject test) in physics at the end of that school year without additional preparation. Scored in the mid-700s.</p>
<p>Has physics instruction in high schools gotten that much worse over the years? Physics is typically taken only by college-prep students (and, given the number of students posting “do I really need to take physics?”, only the subset of college-prep students who are interested in it), so it should not suffer being dragged down by a large number of unmotivated students in the course just to fulfill a high school graduation requirement.</p>
<p>My daughter felt she wasn’t prepared to take the physics SAT2 after a year of honors physics. She had a very good teacher. I am not sure why she came to this conclusion but I trusted her opinion on this and didn’t try to get a topic by topic justification for her reluctance.</p>
<p>2 Subject Test are needed for the most selective colleges,</p>
<p>Best time to take them is May/June after the corresponding AP exam.
MOST honors courses do not come close to covering enough material to get you a decent score on the test.<br>
The exception is the Math series. If you are math science person don’t bother with Math 1. Take the Math 2 after precalc,</p>
<p>Since the only schools that care about them are the highly selective ones, if you need the tests you should be aiming for upper 700s. </p>
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<p>If that is true, then your high school must be of inferior quality (even by US high school standards, which are not particularly high), since SAT subject tests are supposed to test regular high school material, not advanced or AP level material.</p>
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How would you know? Most honors courses at your school perhaps, but high schools across the country are so different there is no way you can make a blanket statement like this. My younger son got over a 700 on the literature exam for example without taking even honors English senior year. </p>
<p>I think the Literature exam is the exception to the rule… it doesn’t, as far as I know, test actual facts in the same way that the sciences or history exams do. It’s more about being able to read closely and understand what you’ve read. My D said she scored so well (780) because it was mainly reading a lot of older selections, like Shakespeare and things written in archaic prose styles, and she happens to read that sort of thing for fun and finds it easy to understand (I certainly don’t!) </p>
<p>On the other hand she took World History and that was MUCH more about learning specific facts, names, dates, and concepts. Not something you can just figure out by having good reading skills… so perhaps some tests (Lit) can be handled with just regular/honors classes and basic intelligence- but some definitely do need specific material to be learned. Her 9th grade Honors World History definitely had NOT covered all the material… not even close.</p>
<p>Regarding the language subject tests, one parent warned me that for Spanish, for example, a lot of native speakers take it, so percentiles for even high scores night not be that great. Check what scores colleges want to test out of the foreign language requirement. It varies by college and some are as high as 650 or 700 but others in the 500s.</p>
<p>My son was in AP Spanish as a junior when he took the SAT II test. I think he scored 690. He got a 4 on the AP test, if that is a useful benchmark.</p>
<p>The public high school that my kids go to offers comparatively few AP classes compared to what I’ve seen here on CC. These classes are typically offered only to juniors and seniors (most are offered senior year) and they often have a prerequisite of the honors courses in the same subject. My kids did very well on SAT subject tests after taking an honors level class and neither did a lot of extra prep. D took a couple of practice tests. Son walked in having done no prep. Both scored in mid 700s to 800 on all of their tests (and D is not a good test taker!). FWIW, son took both bio and chem at end of freshman year and did fine.</p>
<p>All of this to say that whether SAT 2s can be successfully taken after honors / college prep level courses varies tremendously by high school. The honors classes at my kids’ high school are very rigorous and have a reputation for preparing students well. </p>
<p>AP Physics is now a 2 year course. The teacher told me that the first year covers 50% of the subjects on the SAT subject test, and the second year the next 50%. Honors physics, in our school, covered approximately 60% of the topics. Every school is different, except it is a certainty that you will have covered the subject matter in Chem, Physics, and Bio if you take the corresponding AP class. That can’t be said for honors classes. </p>
<p>Whether AP physics is one year or two typically depends on whether it is AP physics B (generally for those students who have not previously taken physics) or AP physics C (which is broken down into 2 sections: mechanics and E & M). Many schools still teach AP physics C in one year with a semester allocated for each section (much the same way that colleges do it). There are a few topics that are not covered in AP physics C that are on SAT subject tests, but they are easy enough to self study. The honors physics class at my kids’ HS does a better job of covering SAT subject test areas than the AP course. YMMV</p>
<p>Our high school offers Physics B as a first course, it replaced honors Physics which they no longer offer. I can’t imagine why you’d need to take a course before you take it, it’s a pretty basic first course in physics - from what I could see similar to the one I took in college, also without having any previous exposure to physics.</p>
<p>In my experience, kids who get 4s on the AP typically will get low to mid 700s on the Subject test.</p>
<p>To clarify my previous statement, if in your school honor x is a prereq for AP x in the history or science courses, then you should wait until after AP x to take the subject test. If you are at a school where you can take honors x instead of AP x and honors x is almost the equivalent of AP x then you should be ok with some extra studying.</p>
<p>Question for anyone who thinks their honors science classes are that good that they are ready to get 750s on the subject test, are your kids bored out of their minds when they take the AP class? </p>