Is there any downside (besides money) to taking the ACT as a sophomore? If I do poorly, do I have to send this score later down the road? Specifically, do I have to send this score to schools like USC, Berkeley, and UCLA? The UC’s kinda suck when it comes to making their score choice policy clear.
If you feel prepared for it, take it sophomore year. You only have to send your best score to UC schools, so if you do poorly on this one it’s not going to hurt you. However, you shouldn’t take it more than 3-4 times. Personally, though, I think you should give yourself more time to prepare and take it in the beginning of Junior year
I think you are correct, if you have the money and time, why not? I knew kids who finished the ACT/SAT as a sophomore.
I assume you know you can delete the ACT score, right?
In fact, I had my kid took both ACT and SAT at 8th grade as the scores do not count.
I think you should take a practice test at home (you can find them online for free, and print them out). DO NOT take it over multiple days, take it exactly the way the test is actually administered. If you feel like this is a good score for you, take the real thing. If you know that you want to do better, don’t do it this year. Even though the schools you’re looking at only look at your best score, why would you take the test at an unnecessary time to score poorly? I considered doing the same thing, and I AM SO GLAD I DIDN’T. I took it this past October (I’m a junior), after months of studying. I got a 36 composite, so now I don’t have to take it again.
If you feel like ignoring my above advice, fine. But if you don’t get your goal score as a sophomore, spend the summer studying, and take it fall of junior year. There is literally no better time to study, because you obviously have homework and other activities once school starts, and summer after junior year you’ll be focusing on applications.
I would make sure you take at least 2 full practice tests, a third one if necessary, so you can make sure you have the score that you want. If you can reach your desired score, then I would go for it.
The ONLY downside besides cost I see is that you’re only allowed to take 12 ACT tests. That one would contribute to your twelve.
Some schools do require you to submit every test you take, but you are able to request ACT to delete their records of your test score. This means that you could delete your sophomore test in case it were terrible and still follow the school’s score submission policy.
My kid took it as a sophomore. She had been doing very well in practice so we knew it would be OK. She scored a 30 in April, prepped, and then scored a 34 in June so was done. She then set her sights on the new PSAT and began prep for that in August. Due to the revisions, she felt it was a lot like the ACT so piggybacked off her previous prep - did well enough to make National Merit Semifinalist. So there are definite advantages to taking it during spring of sophomore year; however, you really have to be assured of scoring very well to risk it. If some of the material doesn’t seem familiar, it’s much better to have another year of college-prep curriculum before sitting the test.