The last thing a student wants to do this time of year is take another test. If you are a high school junior or the parent of one, do not let another day pass without getting signed up for the SAT and/or the ACT college entrance tests soon!! (Next Tuesday, March 31st is the deadline for the May 2nd SAT!) Here’s why.
First, more and more colleges are moving up their application processes and especially the deadline dates for academic scholarship consideration. If a junior hasn’t taken the SAT or ACT by the June test dates, they may not be candidates for academic scholarships next fall at some colleges because their test results won’t reach the colleges in time!
The second reason to take the test(s) now? Let’s say the student takes the SAT. The SAT has three subscores – Critical Reading (CR), Math (M) and Writing (W) - that vary from 200 points for signing your name to the top score of 800. The national average is around 500 on each score.
Now let’s say this spring the student gets the following scores: 600 CR, 600 M and 500 W. People often add the scores together and in this case a student will say, “I have a 1700 SAT.”
We urge students to take a college entrance test a second time. By taking the test in the spring, this allows ample time to retake the test in the fall of the senior year. Let’s say the scores the second time are: 500 CR, 600 M and 600 W. We have a 1700 SAT again. But here’s the tip: Colleges usually take the best subscores from multiple test dates and recalculate the total. Let’s look at those scores side by side:
Spring 2009: 600 CR, 600 M, 500 W = 1700 Total
Fall 2009: 500 CR, 600 M, 600 W = 1700 Total
The best subscores from both tests = 600 CR + 600 M + 600 W = 1800 Total
An 1800 SAT may not only help when a college makes an admission decision, but at some colleges the difference between 1700 and 1800 may be a different level of scholarship once the student has been admitted. So…get signed up for the SAT and/or ACT now!