<p>Well, bad parent here! My son only took SATs once (Jan of jr year) and did well enough that there was no reason to retake but had he not done well, I certainly would have insisted he retake (after studying more and poss private tutoring or another class). All you have more mature kids than mine! I have a brilliant but rather immature in some ways boy and I do not leave college admissions related decisions up to him as his decision would be to play world of warcraft day and night.</p>
<p>fendrock, yes, we are in agreement. I was glad that you posted your example.</p>
<p>moonchild, I also agree that in most schools, GCs do not provide the information necessary for students to make a decision on their own in a timely manner, or with the knowledge of individual families financial resources.</p>
<p>It seems to me that decisions about SAT strategies and all the rest are linked to the student’s goals. What are they hoping to learn or do, what kinds of schools attract them, and what are the requirements of those schools? If the goals are theirs, then it makes sense (to me) that the decisions along the way are theirs too. They can still get lots of information and advice from others as they go through the process, which they might or might not take :-).</p>
<p>To answer the original question:
- Both of my kids took the PSAT twice (school-mandated).<br>
- My older child took the SAT once in January of junior year and was happy with her results.<br>
- My younger child will be taking it in spring of junior year (now) and then he’ll decide what to do next based on how that goes. He has an idea of the score range he’d like to reach, based on some of the schools he has in mind. If he doesn’t do as well as he’d like, he might try the ACT or re-take the SAT. He could also revisit his college list, but at this point he thinks he’d rather do a second round of testing.</p>
<p>D took PSAT 3X, SAT & ACT 2x. She was satisfied with her scores SAT/ACT after the 2nd time so didn’t take them any more.</p>
<p>My older daughter took a mock SAT (offered for free by a testing company), the PSAT and the SAT, and the ACT.</p>
<p>Since the scores were all pretty much the same, and were sufficient to get her into her target schools, she did not retake.</p>
<p>My younger daughter (a junior) has at this point also taken a mock SAT, PSAT and the SAT, and is scheduled to take the ACT (I rescheduled it for April at her request). In her case, she is planning to apply to some highly selective schools. </p>
<p>At this point, I am not recommending my younger daughter retake the SAT because I don’t think any of her scores will preclude her from acceptance, and we all know that perfect/nearly perfect scores do not assure acceptance.</p>
<p>S2 learned through us from S1’s from S1’s experience that it was best to take SATIIs right after completing a course in the relevant subjects. Which is how S2 took one SATII in 9th grade (or maybe two, I’m a bit fuzzy on this).
I doubt that most 9th graders have goals concerning college. Do they even know what are reaches, matches and safeties? how selective some colleges are? Many students don’t begin to focus on college until junior year, rather late to come up with a good strategy.</p>
<p>When my younger son’s second SAT (October senior year) results came back only very slightly better than the first ones, he said that it was too late to take any more SATs anyway. I pointed out that in fact it wasn’t too late for December and he said in no uncertain terms he was done. Since he had a safety he loved, and for which the existing scores were clearly good enough, I let it be his decision. His scores might keep him out of a few colleges, but since he got into Chicago - clearly they aren’t so low to keep him out of every top college! </p>
<p>In any event, I think the decision as to how many times is one that can be made jointly - but I also would never make a kid take them more than three times.</p>
<p>ACT - 1 time. Some kids take too many times without preparation, not realizing that they could have higher score on a very first try if they spend few hours (literally, all it needs) to prepare for it. </p>
<p>SAT was much harder for D. Preparation did not seem to help. ACT was more predictable, applying individualized preparation strategy.</p>
<p>QMP:
PSAT twice, once in sophomore year and once in junior year for NMF qualification
SAT twice, once in 7th grade for talent search and once in spring of junior year
SAT II once (three subject exams at a time), late spring junior year
ACT not taken
No prep courses–I have posted elsewhere the circumstances in which I think prep is advisable.</p>
<p>Kid #1 took the SAT once, saw that his scores were high enough for his first choice school (our state flagship), and never took it again.</p>
<p>Kid #2 took the SAT, was disappointed with one of her scores, and therefore took it one more time. She was pleased by her scores the second time around, so that was it. She never took it again. She also needed SAT Subject Tests for some of the colleges that she applied to. She took three of them, each one time only, and thought her scores were high enough so that she need not bother taking them again.</p>
<p>Neither kid took the ACT.</p>
<p>If your scores are good enough for whatever it is you’re trying to do, that’s a good time to stop taking tests.</p>
<p>Oldest took SAT in 7th grade, PSAT in 11th grade & I think SAT in spring of jr year( her private school took care of it) & SAT again in fall of sr year. ( also took two SAT ll tests)
No AP tests cause her school didn’t have AP.</p>
<p>No prep , I think I bought her a study guide, I doubt if she looked at it.</p>
<p>Younger D took PSAT in 11th gd ( now her school has it earlier in 10th as well),and SAT in spring. I think she also took ACT in sr year- as well as 4 or 5 required( for school) AP tests.</p>
<p>States put so much into educational testing that weeks are taken up with it, I wish more districts ( ours doesn’t) could save a little money and allow students who are already paying for SAT/ACT testing to opt out of state administered tests.</p>
<p>Kid #1 – PSAT twice, fall of 10th and 11th grade (required by school both times), SAT I twice, January and May of 11th grade.</p>
<p>Kid #2 – PSAT twice, fall of 10th and 11th grade (required by school both times), SAT I once March of 11th grade.</p>
<p>My DD who went to an Ivy, took the ACT twice and the SAT once. She only repeated the ACT because she had multiple conflicts through her junior and early senior year, and she had to sign up for the 2nd ACT event before the scores came out for the first ACT - she had to take them back to back. Since she had already registered, she went ahead with the 2nd test, and actually dropped a point.</p>
<p>My DS was totally different, and more interesting. He’s completely the opposite of his sister, and is now a happy freshman at big state U. Our kids’ high school has the students take both the PSAT and the PLAN (pre-ACT) beginning as freshmen. DS’s frosh PLAN score was perfectly adequate, about what you would expect from a freshman who is intelligent and learning, but not top of the class. Then sophomore year, on the PLAN, he made the equivalent of a 12 on the ACT! We were horrified… we actually worried that he was on drugs or something. We knew he wasn’t an over-achiever like his sister, but my Lord! So we insisted he take the ACT in the spring of his sophomore year, and he made a 22. Then as a junior he made a 27. At that point he had visited a couple of schools that HE was interested in, and knew he needed a 28 to get in-state tuition at one school and qualify for scholarships. As a result, HE insisted on taking the test a third time as a senior and made a 30. We never figured out what happened on the soph PLAN test, although we think he somehow misread the directions - to this day he swears he didn’t throw the test and just fill in bubbles.</p>
<p>My point with this rambling story is that there is no right answer for every kid and every situation…except that their personal motivation will lead to the correct answer in a given situation.</p>
<p>“Since she had already registered, she went ahead with the 2nd test, and actually dropped a point.”</p>
<ul>
<li>My D. cancelled after she registered to take ACT 2nd time, we lost few $$, some of it was refunded. She felt that she might not do as well. Her score was enough to get her where she wanted to be (and where she is college junior)</li>
</ul>
<p>S took took SAT in 7th grade, 8th grade, PSAT in 9th, 10th & 11th grade, SAT again in 11th grade three times (twice before they adding that awful writing portion). He took the ACT once. He refused to take any prep course and could have gotten into flagship U from his 7th grade test scores. He LOVED & still loves standardized tests, even tho they did make him tired, especially after they added the writing section, whichhe found completely bogus. He has taken GRE & LSAT exams, once each. He also took the SATII in about 5 subjects, as well as 13 AP exams (including several self-studied). He got significant merit awards based on test scores.</p>
<p>D took the SAT in 7th & 8th grades. Took the PSAT in 9th through 11th grade. She took the SAT once in 11th grade. Never took the ACT. Got into the one U she applied as a transfer after 3 semesters of CC. She’s never been fond of standardized testing. She took a prep course (because all her friends were taking it & found it helpful her her math). She took one SATII (bio) and no AP exams.</p>
<p>Their private prep-HS has EVERYONE take the PSAT from 9th thru 11th grades. Everyone is also encouraged to take the SAT & ACT in their junior year. Note: the John Hopkins program offers the SAT to 7th & 8th graders, which is why our kids took it. S was awarded a scholarship to take two courses tuition free at local college due to high SAT scores in 7th & 8th grades. He did take a course there, summer after his 10th grade year & received an A & college credit. </p>
<p>We NEVER encouraged our kids to take exams, just offered to pay fees of whatever exams they wanted to take. It may sound odd, but it really was S’s idea to take all the exams.</p>
<p>SAT x2
ACT x3</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT twice because her HS required her to take it junior and senior year. She took the ACT in he sophomore year because it was required to apply for the HS, then twice more at the high school as they required all juniors and seniors to take it. She also retook it twice after she was accepted to her college because she was one point off the score required for a major bump in her scholarship. So she took it 5 times. I know it sounds like overkill but the extra $40-50,000 in scholarship money she will have received by the time she graduates made it worth while (she got the extra point on the last eligible ACT date :)).</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT once. It took so long! She wasn’t thrilled with her score.</p>
<p>Then she did a practice ACT at the library followed by one official take of the ACT. That went quite well, so she was able to retire early. </p>
<p>If she had retaken either, it would have been the ACT. SAT was just too grueling. :)</p>
<p>4 kids, 4 SATs. “Once and done.” Each of them scored 800 on some part of it (some better at English, some at Math.)</p>
<p>2 kids took the ACT, again once.</p>
<p>Oh, forgot to mention three of them took it in 7th or 8th grade as part of the Midwest Talent search or whatever it’s called. That provided a nice baseline. </p>
<p>And of course the PSATs. And one practice exam each, the Sunday before the real SAT, taken on their own, with them doing their own timing.</p>
<p>So…no pressure, really. The idea was to show what you know from being a good student all those years. ;)</p>