D17 took the PSAT, then took the ACT & SAT June of her junior year (this year). She did really well and she’s done.
The longer you wait, the smarter they get, in my opinion, and there would have been time to take either of them again if she’d run into a problem.
Waiting until junior or senior year is fine, however there is risk. That risk is MAJOR scheduling conflicts on test dates. This creates huge stress and pressure when there are only one or two test dates remaining before deadlines. For example, my S unexpectedly was a part of an engineering team that scored high enough to compete at nationals. This was completely unanticipated and not something you want to drop out of because you waited until late in the game to take standardized tests. I feel better about testing once each year sophomore, junior, and senior to reduce the pressure and create flexibility.
Agree with the wisdom of considering getting a late fall/early winter junior year test date in – my kid planned on taking in February, conflicted with family funeral, then the April test date conflicted with a major competition he needed to attend, and June was the weekend before his final exams – so it became very tricky to make it work.
Also, for recruited athletes, it is preferable if student has taken tests enough by end junior year to be satisfied that they are “done” with testing. Otherwise, the pressure of trying to increase scores in order to meet team’s requirements is just one more challenge.
I am surprised people are waiting so late in the process as we had ours taking these tests in middle school just to track them so we would have a good idea of what type of colleges they would be looking at.
Waiting until there are only a handful of test dates left can also leave the student in a bad position. The son of a friend of ours who has a 4.0 grade average in high school scored a 19 on the ACT in his junior year. He is a smart kid, but it turns out that he has major test anxiety. Now they only have about 12 months to rectify the situation. Take the test early and often is my advice.
Mine took the PSAT and PLAN because their high school required it for all stuldents and it was administered during the school day…then took the regular ACT and the oldest took the regular SAT in spring of junior year. All three wanted to take ACT one additional time early senior year and by that time the vast majority of colleges and unis required one or the other but not both and the ACT was shorter and easier for my kids. At that time the SAT was quite long…your mileage may vary and things change every year. SAT IIs are required only by some unis…if your kiddo is interested in places that require them then follow other posters advice, otherwise skip the SAT IIs.
Younger son took SAT in March and subject tests in May. He’d planned to take the SAT again in June, but then he didn’t like one of the subject test scores and so redid the subject tests and redid the SAT in the fall. It would have been better to do the SAT in January so he could have done a retake in March. By fall senior year things are really crazy and he certainly did not spend the summer studying for the SAT.
It depends on a number of things. Is your son a really good test taker? Is he in a lot of EC’s that may conflict with test dates? Is he going to take any SAT subject tests? Is he planning on applying anywhere EA/Ed? finally any chance he might get sick?
I had my oldest take his SAT/ACT fall Junior year, SAT II’s end of Junior year and then the SAT/ACT fall of senior year.My current senior was different because of the whole SAT changing so I had him take the OLD SAT earlier but the idea is the same.
I would if your son is going to wait until end of Junior year I would do the May test date that way if he for some reason can’t take it in May he can take the June one. This way he will have a test in before senior year.
Now that I’m thinking about it we had the ACT originally scheduled for (IIRC) March or April of her junior year, and we had to reschedule it to June because her courseload was just nuts at that point in time.
So maybe you can schedule it earlier, and just bump it if you need to depending on how pressed they are?
She also did a lot of practice tests, so we had a reasonable guess at what her numbers were probably going to end up as-not a lot of surprises (except for act writing, but don’t get me started there)
So far this year as a senior she’s managing her time better, and her courseload isn’t as crazy. I can see there would be anxiety if she was taking either test now (because half of her stuff is already in EA) but in terms of academic pressure there would be less.
Thanks for all the input. My follow up question would be. Should I have him do ACT and SAT or focus on one? He does not want to take any of the SAT subjects tests or AP tests. Yeah he really hates testing. He gets nervous and sometimes doesn’t do well. He would like to attend one of the lower tier UC schools(we are in California) but his dream school is Texas.
Did he take the PSAT or ACT Plan? I recommended taking one of them if possible to get an idea of how things will go without the pressure of it meaning anything to Colleges.
My D took the PSAT in 9th and 10th grade without preparing and then took the SAT October of 11th and ACT September of 12th. She is a motivated self-studier so she had the summer to prepare.
It is stressful to go into fall of senior year without final test scores. He can’t finalize his school list without it. My kids both took the SAT early in 2nd semester of junior year. That left time for a retake late in the spring of they weren’t happy with their scores. Both did retake after additional studying. Both also took the ACT “cold” – no studying. Some of the SAT prep carried over (one kid got a 35). They also took their first shot at subject tests by end of junior year. Both wanted to do a retake of one subject test in the fall, but that was pretty low stress.
Both of my kids were happy to have scores in hand in the fall – it is stressful enough due to how busy senior year is and needing to start applications. We see a lot of kids stressing about a late fall senior year test retake out here. Avoiding that is good.
We are California based and my daughter’s test strategy is somewhat focused on CSU’s who superscore the ACT (and SAT). Currently a Junior, she prepped for 6-8 weeks over the summer which was ideal - took the Sept ACT and did well enough to assess some college matches - Cal Poly Slo high on her list. Scheduled for Oct 22 ACT but really having issues allocating further prep time with current course load and EC’s. It is worthwhile for her to take it again in Oct to up one or two subscores but she may wait until next June to take it again when all the AP tests and classes are basically done. Just sharing her situation as I can attest to the challenge of prepping during a busy school year vs. over the summer.
Re the PSAT, I realize there are many high caliber students on CC. My daughter got a 28 on her first ACT, and simply is not a candidate for NMF status - certainly not in California. Only one student in her entire high school qualified last year! My understanding is that NMF status roughly correlates to a 34 ACT and she is not close. Her time will be better spent further prepping for the upcoming ACT test, and will pass on the PSAT.
Do those advocating fall of senior year mean taking it again, or for the first (and only time). I would be very worried about waiting until October of senior year for a first try, as what if the student is sick that day? They could pivot to November, but very little time to work on anything to try to bring up a weak score. We did fall PSAT, and then some combination of March thhru June for SAT and (for one) ACT tests depending on AP schedule and SAT subject tests. If necessary, fall of senior year was available for re-testing but it was nice to be done by the end of junior year.
I have never heard that seniors do better. Unless a kid spends the summer preparing, it is not clear why a student would have much more knowledge between June of Jr Year and early October senior year.
Echoing advice from post #18 - I would recommend you have him take a full length practice test for both the ACT and SAT. We also used Princeton Review but I believe most of the test prep companies offer the same opportunity for free. They told us that about 20% of the kids will naturally do better on ACT, 20% on SAT, and 60% about the same on both. My child took the practice tests in June of her sophomore year with no prep and very clearly fell in the first category - she did much better on the ACT practice so we elected to only focus on the ACT. She then focused on studying over the summer, and took the ACT in Sept, Dec, and June of her junior year. Pros: getting all of her testing done junior year allowed her to craft and finalize her college list over the summer (more difficult to determine which schools are reaches/matches/safeties if you don’t know your final test scores) and actually start working on the essays needed before school started. Cons: I do think that many kids would do better the older that they are so it is hard to balance that. It worked well for my first child, but think we might start a little later for the second who I think would benefit from the extra time - maybe have him take first test in early spring of Junior year.
Taking it again, if they need it.
Do not wait until senior year. A lot of my son’s friends did that. They were all stressed out taking the test in September because they knew they only a few chances to take it again if they didn’t do well.
I’m in the earlier is better camp, especially if you child is on an accelerated math track. The SAT doesn’t test much beyond Algebra 2 and certainly nothing past pre cal. Kids are more at risk of forgetting basic Algebra than not have learned it yet. I also think Fall is a much better time to take standardized test because students can study the summer before and not have to worry about AP’s, SAT 2’s, or Finales.
I’ve had two kids do standardized testing so far and both took the SAT early spring of Sophomore year, SAT2 late spring of sophomore year to correspond with AP tests and Fall of Junior year to correspond with PSAT testing. It’s such a relief to have testing done and over with and not have to scramble senior year!
Register earlier (2 month in advance) - popular test center fills up quickly. And test centers do diff in quality of test arrangement. My son went to 3 altogether for his SAT/ACT and did have some horrible experience. Such as rest rooms locked and denied to students!
Agree with tintin. Register early. We waited til about a month before one time and had to travel 45 min away because all the local test centers were full.
After reading timing recommendations re tests from experienced parents on CC, DS took the SAT for the first time in Jan of his Jr year, and the last time that March, which left him May and June to take his subject tests, just before his AP tests.
All his test scores were high enough for him to qualify for NMSF and put him in range of the colleges he was aiming for. And it let him check that box off the list of things to do.
Waiting until the Sr year to take any required / recommended standardized tests for the FIRST time, which can be packed with hard AP classes and with the additional part time job that all Srs have of applying to colleges, would have been a very bad plan. It would only add to the stress of that all important year