When is the earliest I can take the SAT to use to apply to college? 9th grade? 10th grade?

Hi, I am in eight grade and I just got my SAT scores back (I took it for Johns Hopkins CTY). I got 790 math and 680 English, for a total of 1470, and a 14 on the essay. I know that I can (or should) not use this score for when I apply to colleges, so when is the earliest I can take the SAT and have it be usable for college applications? I plan on taking it at the end of Sophomore year, but could I take it freshman year? If I studied over the summer and took it in fall or winter of freshman year, could I use those scores to apply to college (assuming I improved to about 1560+ and 21+ on essay)? Please comment if you know or have had any experiences!

You can use the SAT to apply to college from whichever year you want; but keep in mind, the older and more mature you are, your test score tends to increase.
I myself went from an 1160 on my sophomore SAT to a 1510 with a perfect math score my junior year.
But yes, you can send any scores you want.

Agree that you can submit it from my test date as long as it’s the new version, but why? Your verbal score is going to increase so you are far better taking it agian in a year or two,when your comprehension and grammar skills have had that much more time to improve.

…there are some colleges that won’t accept scores that are 3+ years old, and if you want NMF it only counts in grade 11…

what math are you in? Math might be harder to keep high if you’ve taken the math classes covered a long time ago.

I would not necessarily work that into the equation. Yes, if one is very accelerated in math, one will have to spend some prep time on earlier concepts. However, even if a student were in precalc or beyond as a freshman that his/her verbal skills would not be as advanced as they would be 2 years later. So while you can take and submit SAT scores from freshman year, it’s not my recommendation

@snowfairy137 @skieurope I am currently in algebra 1 in regular school, entering a combined algebra 2 and geometry class freshman year. I have taken algebra (currently in algebra 2) at an honors level at the Russian School of Math since 5th grade and geometry there since 6th grade. RSM is really what helped me get to the level where I could do well on the SAT.

My daughter took the SAT once in the spring of her sophomore year. She was happy with her score and was admitted ED to her first choice Ivy. My suggestion is to keep studying and taking practice tests. It won’t hurt to take it as a Freshman but as @collegemom3717 pointed out, regardless of your score you may still need to take it again.

One benefit of getting the test over with as a Sophomore is that it frees you to focus on APs and ECs in your Junior year.

Colleges generally will not use SAT’s taken in eighth grade or before to determine admission. They generally do accept any taken freshman year and after although some recommend a later junior or senior test date (but accept earlier ones).

HMom16 and others:
Do you think having a good score from your sophomore year in high school helps? My son took the SAT for the first time during his sophomore year and scored very well. I would assume that would look better to admissions than the same score from a high school senior. I don’t know . . . . just looking for comments.

I don’t think that the score is more significant because you took the test earlier, if that’s what you’re asking.

From my daughter’s perspective, it was one less thing to worry about in Junior year. So, the time that might have been spent on test prep could be put into other activities. Knowing her score early also helped her when she was deciding which colleges to focus on.

That’s exactly what I was asking. Thanks for the response and I’m sure you’re correct. The advantage is it helps us to focus on other activities.