Ok so my D is not great at test taking. She did ok on PSAT as a sophomore and is now a jr. When we apply to colleges she will have taken SAT spring of jr year and I’m going to have her take ACT also. But…what if those scores aren’t great? If we submit the scores that aren’t great that would affect her getting merit aid but I know we need to start applying in Sept to schools & they would use her first scores to determine aid. Can we resubmit scores of she retakes &new ones are better? Wouldn’t they have already determined her aid at that point?
My advice to you would be to have her take both the SAT and ACT this fall as a junior - you’ll then be able to figure out which one she tests better on. Some kids are better at the SAT, some the ACT.
Focus on that test - and have her re-take it at the end of junior year. There should be an automatic bump in scores simply due to one more year of school - and if can zero in her focus on one test, have her study and take practice tests, it should be an additional increase.
Fitting in more standardized testing senior year would have been next to impossible for my D … I’d highly advise you to get all testing out of the way junior year.
We did not submit test scores to any schools until we were happy and confident with what we felt would be D’s best score. She did do better on the ACT. And took it several times. We only submitted the last and best score. We had to pay to submit the scores since she did not request her scores be sent at the time she took her test.
I encourage kids to get all their testing out of the way in junior year because fall of senior year is best if focused on applications and auditions. There is time in junior year to take the tests twice. For instance, with the SAT, your daughter could take it in January and May or in March and June. She could use October in senior year as a back up and it would not be too late. Same with the ACT in Sept. of senior year. Another reason to get the tests out of the way in junior year is that having the information in hand when creating a college list is helpful.
Do not use the real test dates to see how you do or to get a baseline. You can do that by taking a test at home to get a baseline (good idea). I highly recommend taking timed practice tests regularly using the real tests put out by the testing company and going over wrong answers and the explanations to those answers. Practice can increase one’s score. My two kids took the SAT twice…March and May (older D did in junior year, younger D did in sophomore year due to deciding to graduate HS early). They did practice tests to prep and increased their scores that way.
I had similar concerns last year. My D took the ACT last year as a junior. She did not send any scores since we did not know the schools and did not want to do anything that risked admittance. The ACT only allows 4 free submissions and MT kids apply to many other schools. We will soon be sending all the schools the scores from her best test at $12 a submission. One thing to look at is the schools on your list that superscore. If the school takes the best values from multiple tests, you may want to use those options for the free submissions. At least you know that they will look at the combination of the best scores. I am not sure if I am able to add the link, so look up schools that superscore the ACT by College Admission Partners. There is a great listing of schools that was recently updated.
So the bottom line is I can wait to submit the score until we get a decent one or best one then? I don’t care about paying to send scores so that’s no biggie well of course it sucks paying it but whatever. So when she sends in applications beginning of senior year we can hold off on sending test score? But they won’t evaluate her application till they have it right? Will they re evaluate later if you send a better score afterward?
My daughter took the SAT for the last time in October of her senior year and those were the scores we sent to all the schools. We did submit applications prior to that but waited to send her scores by a few weeks. Not a problem at all except for the schools we had to send them multiple times because they never seemed to get them. But that is a different problem!
I had D take the ACT the first time in June of sophomore year - and I paid an extra fee and they sent me the questions and answers after the test, along with what she got wrong. She used that to review for and take the ACT again in Oct of Junior year (midway through an ACT prep course at her HS). This score turned out to be her best score. She took again in March of Junior year (because in our state, it’s given to all HS Juniors and is factored into HS grad requirement… although this year it is switching to SAT) Her March score wasn’t as high - she blamed it on the testing environment. When she went to the scheduled ACT tests - everyone was very serious, and quiet etc. At the HS - because everyone was forced to take it - and there are a lot of ESL kids who finished very early (probably because they couldn’t understand the questions… but that’s another conversation entirely…) the testing environment degraded - and she felt that the distractions impacted her. We talked about taking it a 4th time - but truthfully her 2nd score was very good - and above the threshold for most top scholarships - so we decided to be done. Because of the state requirement, and the heavy prep throughout the HS - we opted to just focus on the ACT. We did send all of those scores to a few schools that we knew were on her list. My understanding is that most scholarship deadlines which utilize the scores are Dec 1 - and that the highest score received (not necessarily superscore) prior to the deadline is what is used. We know that is what happened with one school that got all three scores - and awarded a scholarship based upon the 2nd and highest score.
If you are in contention for scholarships, make sure you get your score in prior to those deadlines. We had all applications in by October 1 and were able to schedule auditions prior to submitting the test scores. We used the October of senior year test score which was her best score. She was accepted to several honors programs and received good academic scholarships at most schools to which she applied. She did take it again in December in an effort to meet a minimum threshold for a scholarship for which she was 1 point away at a school to which she’d already been academically accepted. But she did not improve her score that last time. This was for a school that has very clear GPA/test score guidelines for how much academic $ you will receive stated clearly on their website.
S took ACT and SAT twice as a junior (similar district requirement to kategrizz’s D), and a third ACT October of senior year. Senior year was the worst score. Junior year fall/winter ACT/SAT were best. By senior year, S was having a hard time “caring” about any more tests. . .
Remember with score choice, you do not have to send all test scores. Younger d took both sat and act in October of junior year. She took the psat that month too. Based on her soph psat we knew that math needed to be her focus for tutoring. She took an sat Princeton review class late summer into October. So she felt somewhat prepared for all those tests and knew get were all “practice.”
Sat writing and reading were good. Reading was 650 or so. Math was much lower, so we started private math tutoring with the goal of taking it in January (before spring musical). Act math was as bad as sat, but her English score was 35. So we tutored first for sat math and glen for act. In the end both went up (enough so we could send act score that showed a second 35), but sat math was definitely higher (610). Verbal sat went up too without additional practice.
So guessing into June she had 610 math and 670 reading. And that strong act 3( in English. At last minute she signed up for June SAT and for whatever reason her reading hit 720. Absolutely no practice other than all that test taking.
My advice:take tests as many times as you can Junior without stressing. She was done by end of junior year with a 2000 sat (1350 w/o writing) and 29 act with a strong 35 in English. Math sat was an acceptable 610.
She was accepted into nyu which is based 50-50 talent and academics.
These tests can be “gamed” and someone who understands the game can help you with that. I know that sounds awful but let me explain.
Take the ACT test as an example and here is a real life story to illustrate what I mean. To move the composite score up 1 point you need to increase the total individual scores by 4 points across the subject areas: Math, English, Science and Reading. One of my kids took the ACT for the first time in April of jr. year and got perfect scores in math and English. They did fine in science but there was room for improvement but was relatively weak in reading, no surprise, because they read slowly and meticulously and annotate everything to understand. Makes homework take longer but other than that, has nothing to do with their capabilities as a student. The composite score was more than fine from that first crack but we thought that maybe, just maybe another point or two it might be worth it so why not just turn around and take it again in June while the testing experience was still fresh.
Enter the games: If you already have a perfect score in math and English, you have to find the 4 points you need to raise a single composite average point in the subjects that are not perfect… in kid’s case the real money shot was in reading. In the first attempt, virtually everything that was answered about the reading was correct - the problem was that it wasn’t finished. I really didn’t know what, absent a speed reading course would change that.
So I googled it and eventually got some advice from someone who understood the game. They suggested that the reading section should be skimmed and the various passages and ranked them in terms of how interesting they seemed like they would be to the test taker, leaving the one that was the least interesting to the very last. Then the passages should be tackled in order of interest being careful to get the answers right as you go along. Finally, as time is winding down to finish, take whatever would be left unanswered and just pick a letter and go down the answer sheet and answer that same letter in all remaining questions, leaving nothing unanswered. Chances are, some of those letters would be randomly correct and there is no penalty for guessing in the ACT.
It was also suggested that the majority of what you need to know to answer the science questions you can see in the pictures and diagrams that come with the questions and it may not be necessary to read all of the blah blah that comes with each question to answer it. Again since reading speed was the issue at hand, that was good to understand.
Anyway, random luck or whatever but the strategies worked and try number 2 came with the improvement needed and that was that. Additional prep work to get those points - none. It was all about a better gaming strategy. I’m sure there is something similar to be learned about squeezing points out of math and English too. Ditto with the SAT. Worth asking. I’m not a fan of gaming but I’m also not a fan of these tests either as really telling colleges much of anything about a student’s potential so my feeling was, “let the games begin.”
As a tutor of dyslexic kids as well as parent to a kid or two with “processing speed” and “rote memory” issues, I know from experience that ACT may not be the best test for students with those issues. It really is about speed. We thought that eldest S with his love of science would do well on that test, but it turns out that as @halflokum says, the science section is really about how fast you read and can glean information from charts, diagrams, tables etc., and very little to do with your science background knowledge. That was S’s worst score on the test. With private tutoring he was able to bring that score up high enough to gain 3 points on the composite, but at the time we thought it was odd that the subject he loved most, turned out to be a real problem for him on the ACT. S had always done well in school, but it wasn’t until the timed tests in high school that we realized he had processing issues. Part of the “gaming” can involve practicing the test under “speed” conditions. It wasn’t until it was too late that we realized this S should have focused on the SAT. The same was also true for youngest MT S, though his processing issues are not as profound. He only wanted to focus on the ACT, because he “hated all that writing” on the SAT, but in reality he came up against his “speed wall” and couldn’t get his score to budge over the course of taking the ACT three times. Regardless, his scores on both tests were “high enough”.
For D1, the issue was being able to finish the test. (only took SATs) She took many timed practice tests and also worked with a tutor and finally was able to finish the test in the time allotted. Her score went up a lot by simply being able to finish the test and learning how to do so. She had pretty high scores on the second sitting.
@mom4bwayboy, I’d agree that the ACT is about speed because there are more questions but on the other hand, if you have a qualifying documented disability that impacts speed, it may be possible to qualify for extended time to compensate for those issues. Then you can think of it as a more level playing field between the two tests (though you could probably get extra time for the SAT as well.)
What is the latest on the changes coming to the SAT that were going to make it more, ACT-like? Has that happened already? I confess I haven’t been paying attention. If it is still the test used last year, the tests are indeed different and though they say on average students do more or less as well on one vs. the other, I know of enough people that have had very different results to think it could be worth considering the other if there is lack of success with a particular test. The problem is of course that the tests require different types of preparation and at some point, you have to decide whether it is worth going wide or deep because there is only so much time to go around to pull everything together to apply for college. Standardized tests scores is only one item on that list. We decided to pick one test and just focus on that one and gamble it was the right pick.
The SAT historically had questions that are deliberately tricky with answers that almost look correct but there is often one that is more correct. The ACT in comparison was more straight forward. The deliberately tricky aspect of the SAT was a concern for me with one of my kids because they are, how shall I put this, a bit of a “hot mess” when it comes to being careful about the devil in the detail. Anyway, if the tests are still as different as they used to be, speed (as in number of questions) is one of many things to take into consideration if you are considering which test to take.
It really is great for your child with documented disabilities to get extra time on tests. If you think that is your child, be prepared to work on that “proof” and documentation early in the HS years. You can’t do it “just for these high stakes tests” in junior/senior year. You will need written documentation that your kid has been allotted extra time on tests for ?# of years before taking ACT/SAT. There are lots of kids/teens with processing issues who will not qualify for evaluation/identification at their schools. If you suspect this is “your kid”, you may need to get an evaluation done privately. We had no inkling of our eldest S’s issues until he took standardized tests in 9/10th grade. Before that, we had no clue as he had always breezed through tests and scored in the “gifted”, “highly proficient” range on just about everything. Then all of a sudden, on the “practice” ACT/SAT tests done in early years of HS, he was no longer scoring as high (along with some ongoing “trivial” spelling issues when writing connected text). Wanting to know, “what gives” we had a private evaluation - he came no where near being on the school’s radar - and learned of his processing/rote memory issues. These types of “disabilities” have almost no impact on any other learning - except how easy it is to memorize things and how quick you can process new information - EXACTLY what trips up these kids on high stakes tests. For our S, by the time we found out, it was “too late” to get accommodations - and he would not have qualified anyway. That S went on to be a creative writing major, but he will never be gifted at memorizing long series of numbers, or remembering a list of written/oral directions, or be able to read “fast” (Lit major didn’t last long), etc. And he “discovered” in college that despite all the terrific note-taking apps out there - he must physically write on a piece of paper with ink pen in hand in order to be able to remember/learn things - not exactly compatible with “bubble” tests. It took him awhile to understand how this affects his learning and may have contributed to his own “hot messness” in last two years of HS and first three years (of five) of college. He’s now on his first regional “tour” in a Rock band - lists of things don’t matter (except having all your “gear” and he’s very methodical about that).
Interestingly (to me anyway), this same processing/memory difficulty affects youngest MT S in the learning choreography department. Despite having more than a decade of intensive dance training, he still has difficulty in memorizing dance steps (learning lines/songs does not seem to be a problem). He is a terrific dancer, but he doesn’t always look that way until tech week. Learning choreography as a dancer in Chicago this fall is a bit of a challenge and adds a kind of stress that perhaps others do not experience.
By way of contrast, our kids’ public school put no emphasis on these tests, offered no tips for gaming them nor any tools or time to practice testing. By the time our kids took them (I wasn’t planning ahead or strategizing about when they should take them as they had such insane schedules it was all I could do to keep up with the basics) there wasn’t time to retake them until after applications were submitted. Plus most of the schools they were applying to did not allow Score Choice, so they would have needed to submit every score for every test they had taken.
Neither kid prepped or studied at all for the tests. They each took both the SAT and ACT once, then after they had submitted all their applications they each decided to re-take the ACT, and although both had great scores on the initial tests they did come up a bit the second time even with no prep, I think mainly because there was zero pressure (they wanted to try for a perfect score).
I’m not recommending our haphazard testing approach, but wanted to share in case anyone is feeling hopelessly behind or unprepaired.
Ok so I’m to understand that if we submit application to school and then wait to send good sat score then that’s ok? But that they won’t evaluate app until the score is sent?
Like @MomCares, my kids did not do any test prep, practice tests or tutoring, and their school never offered any test taking tips (and they attended a school that NEVER gave a multiple choice test). My kids took the ACT in 6th, 8th and 10th grades and did great. I agree, it may not be necessary to stress over the tests.
What about taking the ACT test in 6th and 8th grade isn’t stressful? 
You’ve got to admit that is unusual to take them early and do great considering the tests include material that most students would not have even learned yet. I am positive my own kids would have crashed and burned on those tests then which would have been - stressful. Taking them for “fun” to get a perfect score after they had already applied to colleges - also stressful. I raised wimps.
@momcares, I know of exactly one public or private school in our city (and neither of my kids attended it) which pays any attention to these damn tests including allowing prep time for them within the context of the school day. It’s not unusual that high schools don’t focus on them. You know who does though starting years in advance of them mattering? Some of the parents!!! My advice is not to attend any school-wide events where you speak with other parents starting from freshman year on or you will think you are somehow deficient. Joking but just barely.
@theaterwork, the only thing you need to be concerned about are the school’s deadlines for a complete application. Some schools which require prescreens may insist that you have everything in (including the SAT/ACT scores) as part of their prescreen review. The only one that I recall that was like that years ago was U Mich but perhaps there are others. You just need to know what has to be where and when. You can submit the application and sit on the sending of the test scores right up until the last second of whenever the deadline is. The only downside I can think of is that some schools have rolling admissions and if you sit on full completion of the application, you’ll have to wait longer.