I am a senior and only found out about subject tests this past summer. Unfortunately the June test date was two days after returning from a trip to Costa Rica and I had very little time to study while I was there. So I only took the us history test and scored a 760. I now regret immensely not taking the chemistry one as well. So my question is should I take another subject test like chemistry or math II or should I spend my time working on other components of my application rather than studying for these tests?
Also, I scored a 3 on the ap chemistry exam but I am actually pretty good at chemistry, so if I took that subject test and scored well would it make up for the bad score?
Harvard no longer requires SAT Subject Tests, they are optional. If you don’t submit any SAT Subject Tests, your application will be considered without them. So, send the 760 from US History and spend the remaining time working on your essays – as your essays at this point are more important than sending in an additional SAT Subject test, which you may not score as well on. I’ve posted this multiple times before but here it is again.
If you scored a 3 on AP Chem, I highly doubt you are going to score a 750+ on the Chem SAT Subject test without a lot of cramming. So, I’d still choose working on your essays over taking an additional test.
Thank you!
I think you should plan on taking at least one more subject test, probably math 2 if you can do well on it. The reason is that you can’t just plan for getting into Harvard (or some of the other subject test optional schools like Yale, Penn, Stanford or Princeton, etc.) because the acceptance rates at these schools are so extremely low. You will need two subject test scores for just about every other school other than these, so make sure you take at least one more. Good luck!
That’s no longer true. Many colleges have gone SAT Subject Test optional, some though have not. So, as @Falcon1 said, make sure all the colleges on your list are SAT Subject Test optional: http://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-list-of-colleges-that-require-sat-subject-tests
Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Williams, and on and on not to mention match and safety schools that might require two test scores. Why limit your choices to only subject test optional schools if you can widen the net of possible schools you can apply to just by taking one more test? I repeat, take the test.
Yes, but then again if Boston College, Bowdoin, Bucknell, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Davidson, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Middlebury, Northwestern, Smith, UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, WashU in St. Louis, or Wesleyan are on the OP’s list – all of which are SAT Subject Test recommended or considered but not required – why should the OP bother cramming an additional test into their first semester of senior year when they could be spending their time keeping their senior year grades up and writing their application essays. It all depends on the schools they are applying to.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Let’s not assume facts not in evidence. This post is in the Harvard forum and OP only asked about Harvard. If OP comes back and provides an expanded list of schools, then you can provide the nitty gritty by school. Otherwise, please keep to the OP’s question.
Thanks the replies guys. I probably should have put this in a more general forum, but when I was thinking about this I was looking at Harvard’s website where it says that normally two subjects tests are required, so it was mainly the school I was thinking about. The normally part made me feel torn on rather to take another one, so I thought I would ask for other’s opinions. But the schools I will be applying to are Harvard, Yale, Brown, Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, University of Alabama, and Huntingdon(another school in Alabama). I have also been contemplating applying to Dartmouth, but they do require subject tests whereas all the other schools are optional (I’ve taken ACT with writing).