DILEMMA: SAT vs EC

Test Preparation
1

Hello all,

I have a situation that I have been debating back and forth for a while and I am unable to come to a resolution.

Basically, I registered for the March SAT (my second time taking after getting a 1510 first time in October) and hope to raise my score to a 1550. However, I recently learned that also on the day of the March SAT is a major debate tournament, one that took my partner and I five previous tournaments to qualify for, and have a moderate chance of winning. Furthermore, taking the SAT in march is also preventing me from working on a project for the INTEL science fair (a continuation project that i won an award for previously).

Here are some reasons I am considering:

Reasons to take SAT in March:
-Can finish off my SAT earlier and not worry about it during later months when I have AP testing and finals during May and June.
-Rescheduling the SAT for May/June will bring additional stress during a time that I have to also prepare for 5 AP exams and school finals. If I cancel and instead do science fair and debate, I will have little time to fit in SAT preparation and will probably result in lackluster effort.
-Rescheduling for August after summer (when I will be a senior), forces me to wait on creating a reasonable college list during summer until after i get my results back in late September. Many people advise against taking the SAT senior year because you should be focusing solely on college apps. I also must consider the possibility I wont do well in August, after which I really have no other choice but to accept my score.
-If I take in March, I will have a clear prospect of what my college options are going into summer so I can get started on narrowing my college list and writing essays.

Reasons to cancel SAT and reschedule:
-Can attend debate tournament and possibly win an award.
-Can attend science fair and possibly win an award (won 2nd place last time).

I plan to do premed in college and a top college choice I have is UVA (ultra competitive). But if I even want to consider out of state colleges such as Johns Hopkins, etc, I need to raise my SAT score.

Advise me on whether I should reschedule my SAT so I can participate in the science fair and debate tournament, or continue with taking the SAT in march so I can put my full focus on AP testing, etc later on.

2

You have made a commitment to your debate partner. Also, your other EC of a science fair seems worthwhile.

Unless you need a higher SAT score in order to qualify for a substantial merit scholarship, I think that you should stick with your EC commitment & project.

3

Plus, postponing your SAT until later should not affect making a reasonable college list unless it is Caltech or bust. And even then, you’ll just have to settle for Harvey Mudd or MIT.