<p>My D is fully bilingual English-German. She will be taking the French SAT II in November, should she also do the German just for good measure or would that reflect badly on her because it's not really a "foreign language" ? She already took History (score 690).</p>
<p>I don't think it could hurt
My nephew took the SAT II in spanish and was admitted to Duke, and he lived in Colombia till he was 14.</p>
<p>I don't think it would be of much benefit. I think she would be better off taking a science or math exam rather than another humanities test.</p>
<p>What I do not know is what all the colleges would think with an SAT II in native language. What I do know is that for the UC's many applicants do so to meet the UC's requirement of two SAT II's and the UC's treat them as any other SAT II and even encourage your doing so. Math is a consideration because some colleges require or "prefer" it to be one of the II's submitted.</p>
<p>She might as well take it. Many native Spanish-speakers take the Spanish SAT II (and AP), so I don't think it will reflect poorly on her. Plus, the exam is easy. :)</p>
<p>Also, sometimes SAT II's count for language placement. At places like Duke with a FL requirement, your score is important. If she doesn't do so well in French, she would probably be able to use German to get out of a FL requirement.</p>
<p>All native speakers do it - that's why language tests are so hard for everybody else (there is very little curve on them). She should take it. She could do it as an "extra" one if you are worried that some adcom might frown on it. But many colleges just take two highest SAT II scores, and in that case having a "free" 800 helps a lot. Also, many schools (Stanford and others) use SAT II language scores as a way to fulfill language requirement.</p>
<p>Will the admissions committee know that your daughter is fluent in german? Don't mention it on the application, then have her take the german SAT2 and ace it. Couldn't do anything but help.</p>
<p>I have the same question in my home with my bilingual children regarding taking the SAT II in Chinese. And my answer is that I will have them take it--if only to illustrate how much knowledge is involved in really knowing a language. They will either do poorly or well, and I don't have to worry about it because they will take other SAT IIs. I will also have my children fill out HONESTLY the occasional college application that asks for an applicant's language background or places of previous residence. That's nothing to hide, and might be helpful in gaining admission to a few colleges.</p>
<p>Here's what's interesting about this issue to me. When a foreign language isn't foreign, the scoring is skewed. An 800 in Chinese is only about the 85th percentile. My son, who has studied Japanese for 10+ years from scratch, was told not to take the SATII for this reason. His fluency in reading, writing, and listening will place him well into third year Japanese in college, but he was told that his probable score on the SATII, in the high 500-low 600s, would put him below the 50th percentile. Under these circumstances what good is it?</p>
<p>There are different reasons to take the SATII- languages. One is to provide one of three SAT-II scores. IF a student scores 800, it really does not matter that it places him/her in the 85th percentile. It is still an 800. But getting a 500-600 might hurt and otherwise applicant's chances. In that case, it is better to take the SAT-II in a different subject.
The second reason for taking the SAT-II language is college placement. Several colleges exempt students from their foreign language requirement based on an AP or SAT-II score. At Harvard, the qualifying SAT-II score is 600. If a student does not take the SAT-II test, s/he can still place out by scoring high enough on the college's own placement test. Very often, it will be quite similar to the SAT-II in level of difficulty and scoring criteria. So the SAT-II taken expressly for the purpose of placement is less useful.</p>
<p>Would a high score coming from a bi-lingual student be a help or a wash? I have the feeling it would be a help. As some have said, many adcoms read folders only after someone else has gone through them, extracted the highest SAT and SAT-II scores, added them up and produced an Academic Index. I do not think that there is a notation as to what SAT-IIs were taken unless the applicant did not take the right kind, e.g. SAT-Math for colleges that demand it.
For a bi-lingual student, as opposed to a native speaker, in fact, a high SAT-II would validate claims of language proficiency. As we know, there are many people who manage to live in a country for many years without ever bothering to learn the language of that country.</p>