When is the best time to take the SAT?

The PSAT is taken your junior year to prep for the SAT. It is also the qualifier for the National Merit Scholar program.

I took my SAT in the summer after my junior year as a practice to see how I would do without a lot of pressure on me, intending to take it in October. I did well enough that I didn’t retake it. A lot of people I knew took it in the summer.

The PSAT gives you an idea of how you will perform on the SAT. The test is given through your school so ask your guidance counselor about it. At my school, kids take it from their freshman year to junior year, but people generally take it their sophomore and/or junior years. There is a scholarship program called the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that is based on how you score on the PSAT. However, be aware that the requirements are high- only the top scorers in the country, and then there are semifinal and final rounds before scholarship winners are picked. Here’s some more information on the program if you’re interested.

As for the SAT, I have found that the best time to take it is during the second half of your junior year and/or very early on in your senior year. What grade are you in? The summer is a great time to take it, but if you’re already a junior I’m afraid that ship has sailed since the last test offered before the next school year was in June. If you’re entering your senior year in the fall, I recommend registering for the earliest test dates offered as soon as registration becomes available. Give yourself as much room as possible to retake the test before college applications if you’re not happy with your scores.

SAT Subject Tests are just what they sound like- standardized tests in specific subjects. Some schools will recommend or require that you take a certain number, while other schools don’t ask for them at all. Look at what schools that you are interested in say about them. If they don’t recommend or require them, then don’t bother with taking the tests, they will just be a waste of your money. If any of the schools do require them, the good news is that you can pick any subject(s) that you want. Pick subjects that you are very knowledgeable in and that will show your mastery of these subjects. If you’re unsure of which tests you’ll do best on, there are practice tests for each subject available on the College Board website so you can get a feel for what you should take. I will say that just because you do well in the class and on AP tests for a subject does not mean you will do well on these tests, so I highly recommend the practices. For example, I did extremely well in AP Calculus, and AP U.S. History, but not quite as well in AP Chemistry. However, I did best on the Chemistry and Math 2 subject tests, and I did somewhat poorly on the U.S. History test. (Just some advice, I have heard similar results from other people about the U.S. History subject test, so I definitely recommend taking the practices for it if you are considering that test.)

Hope all of this helps! Good luck with the whole process!

@Fly covered it, but yeah, PSAT just stands for Practice SAT and your school should give it sometime prior to your SAT, so probably before junior year. Mine was sophomore year. Its primary purpose is just to let you experience the kinds of questions that will be on the SAT and get an idea as to how you’ll do. Its secondary purpose is to potentially qualify you to get a National Merit Scholarship. The top scorers on the PSAT become NMS semifinalists, who then have to write an essay and fill out an application to qualify to become finalists. Then you can win a scholarship in one of two ways. Some colleges give out a scholarship just for being a National Merit finalist, so if you pick a college that does so, you get a college sponsored scholarhip. If you don’t go to a college that offers something like that, you might still get a scholarship funded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation itself, worth $2000 per year. And being a National Merit finalist looks really good on your applications, even if you don’t end up actually winning a scholarship.

Anyways, anything else I say will just be repeating @Fly, as her advice was all very, very good! Don’t sweat the PSAT, it’s pretty hard to qualify for a scholarship, so don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen; the main purpose of the PSAT is for your own benefit in getting some practice under your belt for the real deal. The whole college application process can be pretty stressful, but so rewarding. Good luck!

[mod says] This is our Question of the Day!

I think the most important thing is planning on taking the SAT twice. As mentioned above, the PSAT is basically a practice for the SAT. I disagree with @zenvelo about taking the PSAT your Junior year, I would not wait that long. Try to take it your sophomore year. College applications are sent out beginning of your senior year typically, so you want to have your best SAT score already over and done with. As a side note I wish I had taken a prep course for the SAT, I think I would have scored better. I did ok, but I bet I would have improved my score by at least 200 if I had taken a course.

@JLeslie Actually, research shows that those courses hardly help at all, improving scores by only about 30 points. You can improve your scores far better by using the free practice resources and tests on the College Board website- those teach you firsthand what types of questions they will ask, how to asses the questions, when to guess/when not to guess, etc. The best way to improve SAT scores is by actually doing, not having an instructor tell you how to do it.

I liked Princeton Review’s book on practicing for the SAT. The vocab words especially helped me out – they’re not kidding when they say that a certain group of words is used over and over on the SAT.

@Fly Interesting. I think in my case it would have helped because I would have been more likely to practice more and I am more of an auditory learner.