SAT and the SAT subject tests?

Test Preparation
1

<p>I'm confused about the taking the SAT and the SAT subject tests. My son is planning to take the SAT in March. Does he take the subject tests then or on another day? How does this work? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>you can't take the SAT 1 and subjects tests on the same day.</p>

3

<p>a) you can only take the SAT I on one day (no SAT II's with it)</p>

<p>b) you can take up to 3 SAT II's on the same day (but no SAT I's)</p>

4

<p>I think I understand. The SAT II is the subject tests and the SAT I is the test itself. The student takes the SAT I and later takes the SAT II tests. Do colleges suggests which SAT II tests to take or should the student pick them?</p>

5

<p>The student picks them. Good thing, too because there are several to choose from.</p>

6

<p>A few quick tips:</p>

<p>All things being equal, it's ideal if your student picks from a variety of subjects: for instance, ideally, a student will have one or two SAT IIs in literature/language/history and one or two SAT IIs in math/hard science. But if your student is somewhat one-sided (as I was, and many other students are), it's okay to choose his or her three strongest subjects overall without worrying too much about distribution. </p>

<p>Before your student decides which tests to take, you might want to buy the book of all available subject tests from Amazon (ISBN 0874477565). Your student can work through some of the practice tests in this book and figure out ahead of time which tests he or she is likely to do best on.</p>

<p>Also, SAT II scores improve pretty consistently through practice and study--much more so than SAT I scores.</p>

<p>Lastly, I think it's usually pretty safe to estimate that a school's average SAT IIs are within the same range as their SAT Is. (I am not sure of this fact, but it matches my observations so far. There's another thread about SAT II averages somewhere else on this forum that you could double-check, too.) So if you are wondering whether your student's SAT IIs are competitive (or if he or she should spend some time prepping), you can find out the ballpark SAT IIs for their goal schools and make a rough decision from there.</p>