Any advantage to taking early SATs?

stemit
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:35:05 +0000

I agree with catsmeow in that the prospective athlete should take the test as early as he/she is ready.

The prospective athlete is different from a traditional non-athlete student in that the test prep courses take up valuable weekends - either during season or during equally important club competition. The junior year gets very hectic: course loads get harder, visits are made to prospective colleges, prep courses consume months, athletics are peaking recruiting wise. Anything to spread out this load should be done - assuming that the student is prepared for these standardized tests.

Moreover, if you are thinking of an Ivy or some other schools, SAT IIs will be required. Add onto that, the AP tests in May, and the junior year can seem like one weekend after another of testing and test prep.

Look at it this way, assume two tries each for the SAT and ACT; one weekend for the SAT II, and a month of test prep for each. Not much time to recover if something goes wrong. Especially if you want all testing to be done by the end of junior year - which makes recruiting by an Ivy easier.

But only if he/she is ready at the end of sophomore year. In a perfect world, the SAT/ACT would be done by October junior year.