How many Subject Tests should you take in one day?

skieurope
Mon, 10 Aug 2015 14:28:57 +0000

But I heard that, particularly for the less popular languages, the majority of students who take them are students who speak that as their native language?

Many people take the language test as an extra test (e.g. if a college requires 2, then the language test is their third), possible as a means of testing out/getting credit for their language in college. And that’s fine. However, those that are submitting them as one of their required subject tests with the assumption that colleges will be impressed with their 800 are sadly mistaken. If the college requests 2 Subject Tests and you submit Spanish as one of your 2, yes, it will look bad. If Spanish is one of more than 2 that you are submitting, it’s fine. Several college websites concur. For example, [url=https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/how-would-brown-view-sat-subject-test-my-native-language]Brown[/url] and [url=http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/first-year/testing]Columbia.[/url]

at what score would most people retake a subject test

I don’t know that there is a hard and fast rule. IMO, conventional wisdom seems to say that for highly selective colleges (i.e. the HYPMS level) once you hit 750, call it a day. For the next tier down, 700+ is probably fine. Do not get caught up in the percentiles. Colleges are not cross-referencing scores to percentile charts. Once you hit a certain level, they are simply checking the box and moving on. While you will potentially spend dozens of hours on an application, the admissions officer is only spending minutes reading it. Don’t overthink this.

I’ve heard that they’re useful for colleges to find out what you are interested in

The majority of colleges do not admit by prospective major. Do not try to read the tea leaves to discern what a college may or may not want. If a college says it wants 2 Subject Tests but does not specify which ones, any 2 are fine (with the native language exception above). If a college wants specific Subject Tests, it will make that very clear.