My daughter would like to take the SAT this August. She will be a Sophomore this year and has already completed precalculus along with taking the SAT subject 2 test. She’s taken multiple practice tests, and has achieved 1550-1570 on all tests. At first I had no problem with her taking the test early, however, now I am wondering if I should strongly encourage her to wait until next summer. Is there any drawback to her taking the test this early, and if she gets the score she wants ((above 1550) then she doesn’t take it again? She said her hopes are to get the score she wants for SAT and then take the ACT next year, along with a subject test.
Has she taken the PSAT yet? It sounds like her predictive scores would put her in the running for national merit but I believe she would need to take the SAT AFTER she qualifies with the PSAT. Hopefully someone will correct me if I’m mistaken.
I looked into that. The national merit site from 2016 indicated that the SAT needed to be taken from October 2015(sophomore year) to December 20, 2017 (senior year). This year, the SAT added a new test date, August, so I assume that since it is taken in sophomore year, it will count. I plan on calling the national merit site, to confirm.
But did she already take the PSAT? That’s what is used to determine national merit qualification.
The PSAT for NM consideration is taken at the start of HS Junior year. This kid can’t have taken that one yet!
Good to check to see whether a SAT taken prior to the PSAT will count towards NM status, although if she does well, a retake later IF she has a high enough PSAT to qualify should not be an issue.
All 10th graders can and should have taken the PSAT for practice, but the PSAT that counts is the one they take in 11th grade, in October.
I don’t see the harm in taking the SAT in sophomore year as long as she is ready. If she is scoring in the 1550 on practice tests, then she is ready. Although I would add that these practice tests should be from the College Blue Book and not from any other source. Also, checking on the National Merit confirmation score requirement is a good idea. My daughter took the SAT October of Freshmen year and scored a 2310. That score could not be used as a National Merit confirmation score, however. She took the SAT again in Junior year as part of the state’s mandated test… That state mandated test served as her National Merit confirmation score. And if your daughter scores a 1550+ on her actual SAT, I don’t see the need to take the ACT unless she wants to use the ACT in lieu of subject tests which certain schools allow.
Thanks for your thoughts. I called the National Merit office today. As of right now, you are correct, it would not count. However, from this October on, her SAT would count. There is a chance they might change the earliest SAT test confirmation date to August, since this is the first year they have had an August test date (in the past, the October date was the first test of the year, so maybe that is why thats listed as the earliest test). This kind of makes sense, since the August test is in the Sophomore year. Hopefully, this change will happen, but I’m not counting on it. I talked to my daughter about this, and she is still set to take the SAT at the end of August. She says she’s ready and worst case scenario, she’ll have to take it over again for the National Merit scholarship, if she becomes a semifinalist. Thanks again for helping. Its nice to hear others past experiences.
Think about whether she needs to take the essay with the SAT, although it looks like more colleges aren’t requiring the SAT with essay anymore.
What’s the hurry? She will only get better at math in a year or two.
She will have to take the PSAT in the fall at school…she can see how she does on that. Then Junior year she will take it again, this time it counts for National Merit Scholarships. Then she takes the SAT at any point after that to “verify” the PSAT score.
@bopper I don’t know her math level but if she’s already taken algebra 2 or precalc her knowledge of SAT math might actually get rusty
Edit: she’s completed precalc
She have to take it again but if she wants to take it and you don’t mind the fee then she should. Mine took hers sophomore year for an early college application (which she passed on). It was actually good prep for PSAT and got her used to that type of testing. She took it again August before senior year. Mine was rusty on some of the math having taken those courses early. She only prepped math for on second test.
I really think she should wait till October though because it would be annoying to have to take it twice.
My daughter took the SAT spring of her sophomore year. She scored well and didn’t take it again. It worked out well because she didn’t have to worry about prepping for it her junior year on top of a very challenging schedule. In addition, we were able to easily see which colleges she was in the range for. Knowing her score was also useful when talking to coaches during college visits.
re post #5. Taking the PSAT depends on where you live, even as a junior. In traditional ACT states most will not take the PSAT or SAT. The top students will take those for NMS purposes. So NO to 10th grade PSAT for all. btw- a perfect SAT and being a NMS finalist does not guarantee college admissions.