<p>I'm a current sophomore, and I'm thinking of taking SAT's in the spring or summer. However, my parents are in the mindset of junior year, though my oldest brother advised me to take them sophomore year.
When did you guys take them? Are there pros/cons to taking them early? I took the PSAT's through my school but have not received my score yet.</p>
<p>My son took the ACT fall of his sophomore year. I feel it was advantageous to learn what he needed to work on from that point. Now he is a junior and will take the SAT in January and the ACT again in the spring (school mandated). Taking the test last fall has allowed him 18 months or so to prepare for the tests that matter. Not that he ACTUALLY used the time for preparation! :)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that certain colleges require you to report all your scores. Therefore, it’s a good idea to take full length practice tests multiple times before you take the real thing. Take the real test only when your practice tests show you are consistently scoring in your desired target range. Our strategy was to have D prep for the PSAT and SAT at the same time starting in August of her junior year. The practice overlaps a lot, so it was efficient to prep for both at the same time. This worked out really well for D. Now she can concentrate on her subject tests and AP exams without worrying about the SAT 1. (One caveat is that you have to have mastered all the math that will be tested.)</p>
<p>The CB’s Official Guide to the SAT (aka the “Blue Book”) has official, full length practice tests. We’ve also found that local testing centers will offer free, full length practice tests in the hopes of getting you to sign on for tutoring. D prepped herself using books recommended on this forum. But the practice tests were invaluable.</p>
<p>I took the SAT in mid and late sophomore year (December and June.)</p>
<p>Whether there’s an advantage admissions-wise to taking the tests early, I’m not positive, but colleges do see when you took the exams so if you do well as a sophomore it can’t hurt. However, the extra year of practice and learning and general brain development does make a difference, and it’s not as if taking the SAT a year earlier will make or break you (probably not, anyway.)</p>
<p>If you can get the score you want as a sophomore, go do it, but if not, don’t stress yourself out trying to do it early.</p>
<p>Whenever you choose to take the test make sure you leave yourself enough time for retakes. Some people find that they need the extra year before they really do well on the SAT/ACT, so I’d recommend taking a few practice tests and seeing where you stand. I took the SAT in March of my Junior year, the subject tests in June of Junior Year and the ACT in September and October of Senior year.</p>
<p>It depends on what scores you think you can get and how selective of a school that you want to apply to.
You should take full length practice SATs or ACTs at home and then try to take the real ones only once or maybe twice.
The later you take the test, the better you will generally do because you tend to mature and get smarter with age and with more schooling.
However, the later you take the test, the less time there is for studying and the more stress you have as you are approaching deadlines.</p>
<p>If you are a strong student, then study during summer before Jr yr and take test at beg of Jr yr. If you are a more average student, then study during winter break and/or after midterms of jr yr and take March/april test. And yes, if you are totally brilliant (say top .005 of students), then you could take the test at end of soph yr.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!
What math does the SAT go up to, generally? People at my school are very confused, giving answers ranging from geometry to algebra II to trig!</p>
<p>SAT math doesn’t go much further than algebra 2, though you could argue that there is some pre calc/trig in there. The problem with SAT math isn’t knowing the concepts. You just need to make sure you don’ get tripped up (they do try to trick you a bit) and get through all the questions.</p>
<p>My junior D prepped this fall for Dec 7 SAT…we were advised to have her take SAT soon after finishing honors Algebra II so this plan worked for us. She took some full practice tests because she didn’t want to go into it cold. The schools she is interested in ask for all test scores, so she wanted her first attempt to be good. This plan worked for her. Good luck! She did the same for ACT which she took in Dec as well.</p>
<p>SAT - January freshman year, January junior year
ACT - February seventh grade, February sophomore year, April junior year</p>
<p>The seventh grade ACT and the freshman-year SAT were for a talent search, and my scores were about as low as you’d expect. The sophomore-year ACT was because I wanted to apply to a dual-enrollment program that required an ACT score. I think I benefited from taking the tests early because by the time I took my junior-year tests I had already been to the test center three times and I was used to the whole process.
I think practice tests are wonderful for, um, practice, but the scores I got on them were always lower than the scores I got on the real tests.</p>
<p>My parents could not afford to send me to outside classes or buy me prep books, nor could they have me take the SAT or ACT multiple times, so I took them this year. For SAT, it was October and November. For ACT, it was September, October, and December. I did better on the ACT.</p>
<p>but you should take it as soon as possible if your parents have enough money to let you take it over and over.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that a lot of colleges (like Stanford) want all of the scores reported when you apply for undergrad admissions</p>