<p>I'm a junior from Illinois, and I've taken the ACT, which is way more popular here, and scored well. I like the format of the test, and feel like it plays to my strengths nicely, so I really don't want to take the SAT unless I have to. I scored a 221 on the PSAT, which is higher than the National Merit cutoff score has ever been in Illinois, and my counselor thinks I have a decent chance of qualifying as a semifinalist, but I obviously won't find out about that till September. I know that if I do qualify, I'll have to take and send in the SAT, but I'm just confused about whether I should take it now, even though I don't know if I'll even need it. </p>
<p>Could someone please help me sort out my options? I could register to take it on June 1st, even though I won't even know if I'm a high scorer until after the registration period ends, so I could just be wasting my time and money. Or I could wait until next year to find out if I need to take it, but is there enough time between learning you're a semifinalist and actually having to send in your test scores to take the SAT? There's also the problem that I'd love to be done taking standardized tests by the end of my junior year. </p>
<p>Thanks so much; I'm just really confused about this process and I don't want to be making the wrong choices!</p>