<p>I hope to be a political science/journalism major. I don't see a point in putting my stats here, but if they're absolutely necessary I'll link to a chance thread. </p>
<p>I was thinking of taking US History and French, for sure. But I have a few questions. Should I wait until November and take French with Listening or just do the reading test in October? Do colleges judge you if you don't take the listening test? And I need to take three tests, but I'm unsure as to which. I was thinking either Chemistry, Biology or Literature. Should I take a science to show that my skills are diverse, or should I take literature to demonstrate English skills?</p>
<p>The general standard is one math, one science, and one humanities. As far as I know, the existence of a listening section of a language subject test isn’t much of a factor.</p>
<p>Take the tests you think you’ll do best on. Take practice tests first, then think reasonably about how well you remember the material (i.e. if you took Bio sophomore year and Chem junior year, you’re probably better off taking Chem the fall of your senior year unless you’re taking AP Bio then). If you’re good at science, take a science test. If not, and you don’t plan on majoring in it, and your grades in science classes are as good as your grades otherwise, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>To reiterate what others have said, take what you’re good at. However, like Islander4 said, the general rule is one Math, one science, one humanities. Although, if you’re applying to an Ivy and you want to have an ironclad SAT II app, I would do this:
~Math II (Math I would be acceptable too, but Math II would be better)
~Science (Bio, Chem, or Physics)
~History or Literature (Literature, US History, or World History)
~Foreign Language (In your case, French)
~If you want to be an overachiever, you could do both Literature and a history, but that’s a lot. </p>
<p>Even though that would make your test scores section of your app pretty bulletproof, you would obviously need to do well on all (650+ for most schools, 700+ for top schools).</p>
<p>wow.
I took only two SAT IIs because all the schools I applied to only required two.
And I got into several Ivy Leagues.</p>
<p>I took Math I and US History. I’m definitely a more humanities-oriented person and I had an amazing AP US History class the year before the June in which I took the exam, so basically I just took what I was best at and didn’t pretend to be a math/science/engineering oriented person. I think the above poster has some good ideas but be careful, more is not more. It is very hard to do well on SAT IIs because think about it–the kids who are taking them are applying to good schools, and the curve is difficult. I’d say a score of 750+ is what you should definitely aim for if you have Ivy dreams. 700-750 is fine but it would be better to be above 750. In that respect, I would say possibly do two, one math/science and one humanities, and then a foreign language if you truly want to. Watch out for foreign languages though, because native speakers kill the curve. haha. Take some French practice exams and see how you do. I personally didn’t feel confident enough in French after my junior year to do it, but I took the AP exam at the end of my senior year and got a 5. So just think it over carefully.</p>
<p>It is far better to have 2 strong SAT IIs than 5 middling ones.</p>
<p>I would take Chem OR Physics, depending on what area of engineering you’re going into. As for humanities, it’s up to you. If you’re presenting yourself as a strictly math/science person, then the three should be fine. But if you’re presenting yourself as someone good at a lot of things who is passionate about math/science, then taking a humanities (that you know you will do well at) wouldn’t hurt. But make sure it’s something you’re good at–foreign language, history, lit, etc.</p>
<p>I live in Canada, so US History is not a choice,
I hate reading classical literature and weird theme stuff (especially Shakespeare) so thats off the list,</p>
<p>World History…meh. The only history course I have at the high school level is ancient history (which was really interesting), but most of the recorded history and details is modern and WW1 and 2, which I think is boring…self-studying that stuff would kill me. Is the test hard?</p>
<p>Maybe ill just present myself as a science/math person./</p>