<p>I would like to get suggestions on when is best time to take your first SAT I in junior year. Is it December or April? Thanks.</p>
<p>Whenever you feel ready for it. It would probably be wiser to wait until the spring of your junior year, as you will benefit from what you have learned in school and still have time to take additional tests if necessary. My daughter took it at the end of her sophomore year just to see where she stood on it, then took it in March of her junior year (the first testing of the new SAT). Remember to factor in times to take SAT Subject Tests, if necessary.</p>
<p>my recommendation is to take it in the fall of Jr year, assuming Alg II is taken soph year (SAT has 3-5 Alg II problems on the math section). My thinking is that (after) soph summer is the perfect time to prep since jr and sr summers are much busier. Also, prepping for SAT means a potenitally higher score on the psat, since it's offered at the same time. While HPSM et al don't care about NMF, many lower level colleges do, and throw money at high scoring psat kids. One more correct bubble could mean the difference from full ride to a $5k tuition discount EVERY year. Finally, if the student does well in jr fall ("well" being defined as top 25% for schools that student is considering), then student is DONE with SAT I. On to Subject Tests and AP's or IB's. :)</p>
<p>There is no hard and fast rule about the best time for taking the SAT. Factors to be considered include SAT-IIs (best taken at the end of a course on the subject) and APs (many juniors take APs and the tests come in May. In general, it's not a good idea to take 3 SAT-IIs on the same day, owing to tiredness. Students should also take into account the possibility that they will need to retake either the SAT or SAT-IIs in the fall of senior year and that SAT-IIs are not available at every administration.</p>
<p>I am trying to figure out the same thing. My jr son has not taken the SAT yet. I know he will take it more then once. I am going back and forth between working it out so he can take it 2 times in the spring April 1st and then again in June. Or maybe it doesn't matter which spring date and then again in the fall. He is not taking any AP classes or planning on taking the SAT 2's so we don't have that concern. By April he will have completed Alg 3-4 and be 2 months on the block schedule into pre-cal. He hasn't had any english yet this year so won't start working on a vocab in school till late Jan. He will be weak in Verbal no matter what test date we pick.
He is taking a prep class through school that is 12 sessions that can be timed with any of the 3 spring exam dates. The April date is smack in the middle of his spring break. Don't know how he would feel about that.
He has ADD so the results can vary. If he takes april we will have the results and can sign up for the June date. If he takes May we don't know about June. Has anyone taken both May and June with any increase in score?
Also he gets 100% extra time but with the new test I can't imagine him being able to even use it without going insane.
Or in reality am I overthinking the whole thing and it doesn't really matter what dates we pick?</p>
<p>mom60:</p>
<p>just a comment, but the farther one is removed from Alg I and Geom (and remembering those magic forumulas and theorems), the harder the SAT Math becomes. Last year, the student's board was flooded with kids taking Calc, but only pulling a 650 on the math bcos they had forgotten so much.</p>
<p>Fall junior year established a baseline from which a basic map of the terrain was established early: What range of schools are Possible? Is it worth taking the SAT again and what are you aiming for? Taking SAT-II's as soon as possible after the relevant course seems to be a good strategic decision...also spreads them out.</p>
<p>A few thoughts: My daughter took the SAT for the first time in March of her junior year, followed by a second sitting in May. The problem with this schedule was her scores were delayed from the March sitting so that she only got them two weeks before the May sitting - not enough time to prep or even really look carefully at where she'd been weak on the March test. It might have been better to schedule the second sitting for June, although the date was the Saturday after finals week. She would not have been ready to take the test in January - she was only just in the middle of algebra II. She did not take any SAT II's. The benefit of fitting in two sittings of the SAT before she was done with junior year: she was able to apply to several early action and rolling admissions schools early in the year and she is now done with her college applications and choice. If she'd been motivated to do so, she could also have used the summer to prep for one more go-round in October or to take the SAT II's.</p>
<p>In my son's case, he just took the PSAT as a sophomore and did very well in math and quite well in reading/writing. Bluebayou suggested that he think about taking it earlier, rather than later in junior year and I think that will work for him --- he's taking Alg. II/trig this year so a December or January setting will keep math fresh in his mind. He can then concentrate on the reading/writing if he needs to in a second sitting in March, leaving May open for AP tests and June for SAT II's.</p>
<p>I guess the bottom line is that the decision of when to take the test really depends on where your child is in math, how well they did on the sophomore PSAT (if taken), and whether they'll be taking AP and SAT II's.</p>
<p>I agree with Carolyn; the "SAT strategy" that is optimal for one student may not be optimal for another. However, the strategy my daughter used worked well for her: a one-weekend SAT prep course in late August just before junior year (which, by the way, was excellent--USC's "Taming the SAT"); PSAT in Oct. (score of 229 vs. vs. 201 on Sophomore PSAT!); SAT I in November; second (and last) SAT I in May; SAT II's in June, with no further testing needed. This left a stress-free fall of senior year, at least testing-wise, and a clear knowledge of the type of school she could realistically apply to early action. Of course, had she needed to, she could have taken one more SAT I in October of senior year. As Carolyn says, I believe that this schedule works as long as the student has completed Algebra II/trig by the end of sophomore year. Even though the SAT I in May fell during the time of AP testing, this did not seem to be a problem, and I believe that the fact that D had just taken the AP English language exam helped her on her May SAT verbal. </p>
<p>My son, currently a junior, is following the same SAT strategy as his sister: same SAT prep course at the end of the summer, PSAT in Oct. (scores increased from 209 Sophomore year to 229 this year); SAT I in December (with no need for a retake--yay). Now, while friends are just starting to think about their first SAT in the spring and starting prep courses, he's finished and free to focus strictly on his AP classes. He'll take the relevant SAT II tests in May or June.</p>
<p>D will probably take the test only once, in part b/c of scheduling, but pariarily b/c I don't see the advantage of taking taking the test cold and then taking it a second time after a prep course. What's the point of having and reporting the lower score? And if the second score is lots higher, doesn't that just highlight the fact that the student was prepped (and suggest that the second score is inflated)?</p>
<p>robc1116, I like your strategy. How much had your D's SAT scores increased from Nov to May?</p>
<p>NYC, the way the system works, there is no indication that the colleges hold a "prepped" score against a student. The advantages of prepping are masked by the fact that many students experience a lot of growth between Fall of Junior and Spring of Junior or Fall of Senior years anyway. </p>
<p>In strategic defense of a Fall/Junior first crack at the SAT, it was an important point in the process of figuring what colleges were on the table and what were off.</p>
<p>However, if I had had it to do over again, I would have had D prep the Summer before junior year. Before coming to this board, I knew bupkis about prepping and thought a 1400 would be a password worth good odds of admissions to any college you cared to name...oops, it wasn't 1969 anymore. But while one-and-done is appealing, even so I probably would have suggested that she take it again early in the Fall of Senior year, just to take advantage of the experience and the natural growth, unless she had gotten a 1540+ the first time around.</p>
<p>SAT's are not determinative of a positive outcome. But on the other hand, their lack can be. At least that's what the odds look like.</p>
<p>wzzzz, D's scores in November were 770V, 690M--good scores, but a tad disappointing in light of the 80V and 73M on PSAT taken the preceding month. Retake in May resulted in 800V, 760M. This was without any further preparation--just the natural growth from fall to spring, I think. Junior son's recent Dec. SAT were 740CR, 760W, and 780M--hence, no reason to retake, we think (though there's the thought in the back of his mind--"maybe if I retake, I could get an 800...."). But then again, it seems silly to sit for that exhausting test again just to try to get an 800.</p>