<p>Someone recommended that I take the ACT next September (in my soph. year). Is this a good idea? </p>
<p>Fall of your sophomore year? Who recommended that? The earliest you should take it is the Fall of your junior year. I studied during the fall and took it in the spring, which is what many people do.</p>
<p>Consider that you’re probably not near your ceiling yet in terms of score and that you might want to minimize the number of times you take it.</p>
<p>If your goal is a more selective school, you want to take it fewer times. 3 is the ideal limit, and you’d only want a 4th if you could improve a lot. It tend to hurt you more than it helps you after that point unless you improve significantly.</p>
<p>If you want to go somewhere with automatic admission for a certain test score or you want to hit a scholarship requirement for a safety school, take it every test date. Take it 10 times. Doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>My guess is that since you’re on this forum you’re in the first group, so I’d advise against it. Practice tests are a great resource but even then I wouldn’t take an actual test until fall of your junior year.</p>
<p>I took a practice test and based on that the guy who administered the test told me I should take it in the fall. I know that most people take it in junior year, but I know a current sophomore in my school who got a 36 composite on the ACT.</p>
<p>Did the guy who administered the test tell you what you got? Unless you’re comfortably at a 36, I wouldn’t take it as a sophomore because you’re probably going to be better at tests this time next year.</p>
<p>I took it cold and got a 30.</p>
<p>I would study and take it in June after your sophomore year at the earliest. Of course, some of this depends on what you are striving for. Admission to Ivies? Merit scholarships? etc. That drives what kind of score you really need. </p>
<p>I’d hold off another year. Realistically you could get into the 33-34 range by then and there’s very little benefit to getting past that.</p>
<p>k</p>
<p>When should someone take the SAT? About the same time? </p>
<p>You don’t really need to take both, but some people do better on one than the other. Logistically they’re pretty much the same thing…usually people take them in junior year.</p>
<p>@awakeningvenus </p>
<p>Normally the answer is to start preparing sooner because of vocabulary. However, with the new SAT (with no vocab) starting to affect CO16 or 17, I don’t know what to say. There will be a lot fewer practice materials available for a couple years at least and current freshmen and sophomores might be better off avoiding it entirely. Colleges don’t care which you do and the only reason I can think of to take the SAT specifically is for national merit.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>@HateBeinSober
Next year I’ll be taking the PSAT for the second time to try for National Merit, but I was initially planning to take the SAT next year in my Junior year. I have a CollegeBoard practice book from this year that I’ll use to practice for the SAT. Do you think that I should take both the ACT and SAT and then see which one, if not both, to submit for applications? </p>
<p>@awakeningvenus </p>
<p>I haven’t been following the news too closely - is your grade going to take the new SAT or not? </p>
<p>I took both in December of my junior year after doing the PSAT and I probably wouldn’t bother with the ACT if I could do it over again. Take a practice test of both and see if there’s a significant difference. My scores were more or less equivalent but I know a lot of people who do better on one test. If you expect to meet your state’s NMSF cutoff, you should still take the SAT even if you’re much better at the ACT because NMF status requires an SAT score (will not accept ACT score as a substitute). </p>
<p>So, to condense that: If you’re better at the SAT, take only the SAT. If you’re better at the ACT, take it. If you expect National Merit, take the SAT regardless of which you’re better at.</p>
<p>I’ve seen you mention Stanford in a few other posts and that’s one school that requires all test scores (SAT and ACT). There are others but I didn’t apply to any of them. Keep in mind you might not be able to avoid submitting some scores, depending on where you apply.</p>
<p>@HateBeinSober
I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you so much for the advice! </p>
<p>@awakeningvenus Wait, are you a freshman or a sophomore?</p>
<p>Anyway, I’d like to take the SAT first and the ACT only if I have no choice. I have no problem with Math and Writing, but the Reading section is impossible for me. Honestly I feel like I haven’t improved at all despite months of CR practice. </p>
<p>So yeah, only reason I asked is because I did well on the reading section of the ACT, and my parents are jumping the gun for some reason. I don’t really care if I take the ACT in the fall as long as it doesn’t harm me, but I’d like to have the SAT as my primary standardized test.</p>
<p>@Yakisoba
I’m a sophomore. I was originally planning to take the SAT as my primary test too, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take both. Whenever I do a practice, the reading is what trips me up too.</p>