<p>My sons high school teaches biology in 9th grade. AP Bio is not offered until senior year. Many students in his class already have tutors lines up to prep them for the Bio SAT 11. The teacher said that this is the easiest science subject matter test. I am undecided about whether to have my son take the exam. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Definitely take it this year if he's doing well in Bio. I think it depends on who you are re "easiest," but my impression is that if you're going to take it you take it after the course is done, whenever that is. My daughter was a B plus student in non-honors bio in 9th grade and got a 600.</p>
<p>My S took it after 9th and got a top score even though certain sections of the SAT II were not taught. He got a review book and read through it several times.</p>
<p>On the whole, in retrospect, it was a mistake for my son to take SAT IIs before his junior year. Your mileage may vary, of course, but his performance on ALL standardized tests went up significantly between 9th grade and 11th grade. He did OK on the SAT IIs he took earlier, but there was a significant difference between those and the ones he took at the end of 11th grade. I don't know whether that hurt him, but I'm sure it didn't help.</p>
<p>My older son took the SAT II in Bio freshman year and did really well. I agree that the Bio SAT II is a relatively easy test if you have had a strong Bio course. I'd recommend that your son take a couple of practice tests to see where he is. Tutoring seems over the top for this test (and I come from the land of tutoring for everything under the sun). My son took the test in June two days after his biology final - he took a couple of practice tests and spent some time looking through a Barrons book, and that was enough.</p>
<p>I was told that you really should take Bio II before taking the SAT II. My S took Bio in 10th grade but ended up doing some research for the summer before senior year. He never took Bio II but ended up making a 790 on his SAT II in December of senior year.</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT II bio test at the end of her freshman year. She was in honors biology. She did quite well.</p>
<p>Bio involves a lot of memorization. If the freshman bio course is good and covers all the materials on the SATII, the test should be taken at the completion of the class. Waiting months or years to take the SATII risks forgetting most of the materials.</p>
<p>DS2's school recommends that the kids take the SAT-II Bio M after the 9th grade pre-IB Bio class. He didn't, but is taking AP Enviro this year as a soph, so will probably take the Bio-E. </p>
<p>He is also taking pre-calc and AP USH this year, so he will take the SAT-II after those. Expect he'll do very well on the Bio and USH, as those are his big things.</p>
<p>Both my kids' schools recommend taking Math Level II immediately after pre-calc. DS1 did this freshman year, DS2 will do it soph.</p>
<p>If it's an honors class, your S/D is doing well, and can put in some time with a review book to make sure he/she has covered everything, I'd say go for it.</p>
<p>Just as an informational point, the link below gives the correlation between the score and the percentile rank of that score. For bio, as well as for physics and chemistry, the 50th percentile requires a score of approximately 650.</p>
<p>Can you take the SAT -II more than once, and is the highest taken into account.</p>
<p>Argh. S took an honors bio class in ninth grade. Why didn't the counselors say anything?</p>
<p>Many in our school took it after honors bio (which we offer in 8th grade), kids who scored 700+ on later SAT subject tests generally scored in the low 600s. Not a bad score, but not nearly as good as what they would get later. We figured Mathson would be taking AP Bio sooner or later and could take the Bio subject test then if he wanted to. In the end he opted to take physics (also after the AP, not his first physics course) which he liked much better.</p>
<p>I took the Bio/M right after Freshman year Bio H for a 760</p>
<p>Missed the 40 due to limited knowledge on the E side (that is
the core questions section) covered in AP Bio or a good Env.
Sci course.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I'm so glad you mentioned this Joyce. My son is in 9th grade honors bio now and our school does not offer any more biology classes after this one. It never would have occured to me to have him take the SAT II for it. I'm not sure if he will but I'll throw this link out to other freshman parents so they can make an informed decision.</p>
<p>Colleges consider the student's best scores--something said specifically about SAT Subject Test scores on Princeton's website, for instance--so there is little downside to following College Board's general advice of taking the SAT Subject Tests just after finishing the relevant course, when the subject is fresh in the student's mind. It may be that the school course doesn't exactly cover all the fair game topics for the SAT Subject Test, but the student gets ready for that by trying out the few available genuine previous College Board released tests, or the much larger number of sample tests available in test preparation books. (The usual word on the street, not specific to the subject of biology, is that Kaplan sample tests are a little easier than the real thing, Princeton Review sample tests similar in difficulty to the real thing, and Barron's sample tests harder than the real thing. I like Barron's books in most subjects because they include diagnostic tests to make the student more aware of which topics need the most review.) </p>
<p>Of course College Confidential has a whole forum </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/</a> </p>
<p>devoted to preparing for SAT Subject Tests. Anyway, trying this year has low risk. Retakes are eminently possible and commonly seen by admission committees at highly selective colleges, who give students the benefit of their best scores.</p>
<p>MY DD took AP Bio at 10th grade and got a 5 on AP test. However, no one at her old HS alerted her that she should also take SAT II right after AP. </p>
<p>So, she took it as a Junior w/o much preparation - too many things going on. Comapring to other SAT II she took right after AP, she did not do well on that test.</p>
<p>I guess what I am saying is that one should take SAT II right after the subject class. However, if AP class will be offered later, I will say take the SAT II later, as long as it is not late for application.</p>
<p>It would be worth asking the bio teacher or guidance department. whether past students have done well on this test (and whether they tend to do better on the E or M version). At some high schools, the curriculum of the standard biology course is a good match for the SAT Subject Test, regardless of what grade it's taught in. At other schools, though, the course may not cover some of the material that's on the SAT Subject Test. In that case, the student may need to self-study (or work with a tutor) or choose different SAT Subject Tests later.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>He got a review book and read through it several times.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>A definite requirement...there will be things on the test that he won't have covered yet in his 9th grade bio class.</p>
<p>Our school recommends that students with a B or better in Bio in 9th grade consider the SAT II, if they intend to take them in science. My 2 eldest had high B's, low A's in the course and sat the SAT II in June of their freshman year. Both scored in the high 600's on the test, even though our course had not covered all the material on the SAT II by the time of the test. They did do better on subsequent SAT II's, but in their cases the tests were in subjects that were much stronger for them. These days most programs (schools) other than engineering or accelerated medical programs do not REQUIRE a science SAT II, and in those cases it's more often chemistry or physics. My D, who had B's in a really strong Bio class chose not to sit the test because she (rightly) felt she would perform better in other subjects. Clearly, if you even think your S or D is headed to a college science major and is doing well in HS biology, check out the review books and see if the subject matter parallels their HS course. If it does, take the test whenever the course is finished.</p>