Odds are, you’re going to take the SAT’s (or ACT’s.) Most “selective” colleges require them. True, more and more really good colleges – yes, selective ones! – are making the SAT’s optional. But the vast majority of schools still require them.
Three Questions are commonly asked:
First, do SAT prep courses work? The answer is yes. Practice helps; test strategies help; reduced stress levels help. Take whatever test prep course you can afford and works for you. They run from free school-based mini-courses; to online practice exams; to groups sessions; to private tutoring. Remember: many others kids will be taking test-prep courses, and they will benefit from the extra practice and advice. You shouldn’t be left behind because you didn’t take a course.
Second, how many times should you take the SAT’s? As many times as you need to get good scores. But don’t get crazy. If you don’t think you did as well as you should have on your first effort, take them a second time. If your scores go up significantly the second time, great. If they don’t, too bad; you may be a poor standardized test-taker. It is not the end of the world! In either case, taking the SAT twice is enough.
Third, what’s this thing called Score Choice; and should you use it? The College Board, which administers the SAT exam, recently introduced a new score-reporting option they call Score Choice. Basically, it allows you to pick and choose which scores from which test-times you want reported to colleges. The rub is that while it provides you with greater flexibility to showcase your highest scores to colleges, each college has its own policy about how they treat Score Choice. To make things a bit easier, the College Board has put together a an easy-to-understand tutorial, and complied a list of virtually every college’s policy towards Score choice. Here is the link for the tutorial; and once you are there, scroll down to the bottom of their page for a link to a pdf of college policies.
Click here for a list of SAT optional colleges.
