<p>Her is yet another testing question for you all:</p>
<p>DD’s are scheduled to take the SATIIs on Sat. Currently in Bio and US. </p>
<p>We scheduled the US Hist because:</p>
<p>DDs are both in APUSH</p>
<p>DDs had just had a fairly good showing on the SAT in CR and they thought that taking the SATII in USH would show their depth as students</p>
<p>One of my DDs is having second thoughts and is considering taking one of the English tests instead because it is her strong point in general and because the APUSH teacher is not known for preparing kids for tests…he never gives them has an incredibly low AP pass rate etc.</p>
<p>So should she change? Can she change on her test date? What has been your experience? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>She could take a practice SAT II test and see how it goes. My son was taking APUSH last year and he is very strong in English – he took both SAT II Lit and SAT II US History. Scored 740 in US History and 700 in lit. The literature one is tougher than you think. My son will be retaking the lit test, but your DD may not have the time.</p>
<p>Yes, she can change on the test day. All the subject tests are in the same booklet. As long as she indicates on her answer sheet which test she’s taking, it’s fine.</p>
<p>At many schools, the AP Lang & Comp is the Jr class, and AP Lit & Comp is the Sr year course. Have her at least take parts of the practice tests in each and decide which (if she switches) she does better in. Lit has the reputation of being harder at our school, for whatever that’s worth.</p>
<p>Thank you for the help. AP Lang and Comp is what they are in now as Jrs. DD w/ the concern is getting an A in APUSH a B in AP Comp with a very tough teacher. I’ll suggest she look at the practice tests. She is worried that she may not have been sufficiently prepared by APUSH in spite of the A.</p>
<p>my son’s smartest friends didn’t do well on the SATIIs if they had not done a practice test…it is only a one hour test and well worth the review effort to do your best
I also say…don’t take the second one if you are tired. You still have June 7 and next fall to do it…Never take three in one sitting IMHO</p>
<p>If your daughter is a junior, she should take care about her SATIIs and not count on her classes prepping her. Son had a friend with an 800 CR who was disappointed with his SATIIs because he walked in cold. These are content tests with detail factoids, not reasoning tests. A practice test takes one hour. Good way to find out if you are ready and to get a handle on pacing. Junior son is taking the Amer Hist SATII this week because prepping for it for one hour was also good AP review for the APUSH the following week…considerable overlap, so he can start to move past the APUSH review now and get to the next AP exams staring him down that week. If you are a junior you still have June 7, October and November for SATIIs. Be shrewd and be prepared and be reasonably rested.</p>
<p>I agree taking the practice test is probably the best bet. My son had a very good experience taking APUSH and doing the SAT2 concurrently, but he had a pretty good teacher.</p>
<p>Many students at my son’s school have taken APUSH and AP English Language concurrently with the SAT II and have enjoyed strong results. My son plans to take U.S. History and Chemistry (he’s in AP Chem) Saturday. Originally he wanted to take Spanish, too, but he admits that he has not had the time he needed to prepare. He’ll do it in the fall. </p>
<p>One of his classmates, however, plans to take the Chemistry SAT II, and my son says that he will find it tough. He took chemistry in the fall (we’re on block) and really has not studied much for it.</p>
<p>UPDATE She took a sparknotes online practice test last night in US. Not quite the result she was hoping for. Will do the English test tonight and compare. Thanks for the help. </p>
<p>It is frustrating though. As she was taking it she was anxious. APUSH teacher doesn’t “do dates” apparently not so great on eras either.</p>
<p>One basic question (sorry if it’s been covered before) – if a student is studying for an AP test (say, in US Hist) then is the assumption that he/she is well-prepared for the same SAT II test? (obviously, you’d take a practice to be sure). Thought they were pretty much the same…</p>
<p>The USH SAT II is fairly easy–one of the easier exams, I think. You don’t even need to be in APUSH to excel on that exam. </p>
<p>According to the CB, if you wish to compare: a score of 750 on USH puts you in the 89th percentile of scorers. A 750 on Lit puts you in the 94th percentile.</p>
<p>That’s why she hasn’t been doing any SATII prep in the subject. The assumption was that she would be sufficiently prepped by the class. It doesn’t seem to be panning out that way.</p>
<p>historymom–but, if she studied an AP book, hopefully she’d be prepared for the SAT II on the subject? That’s what we were betting on w/son (not that the class alone would do it – I wouldn’t trust that…)</p>
<p>BAfromBC–wow, first time I heard USH SAT II was fairly easy. Some of my son’s friends wouldn’t touch it (all those dates/names, I guess).</p>
<p>It’s not so much that US Hist SAT is so easy, but that if you’ve also been preparing for the AP you probably have all those dates and names down pat. US History is also a subject where teachers are somewhat less likely to skip material. And it simply doesn’t cover as much material as something like World History.</p>
<p>My S thought that the US History SATII exam he took last year was easier than the others he took, and extremely easy compared to the US History AP exam; it had that general reputation among his classmates who were taking AP US History at the time. (Which I thought was kind of funny, since the US History Achievement test – what they used to call the SAT II – had the exact same reputation in my high school 35 years ago among kids who took AP US History.) I got my S a book to study with; he spent a few days reading it and took the practice tests. He got an 800, and so did most of the other kids he knows who took it. </p>
<p>I looked at the practice tests myself; it seemed to me that a great many of the “wrong” multiple choice answers were so preposterously and obviously wrong that it would usually be possible to narrow the possibly correct answers down to two, even if you didn’t actually know the answer.</p>
<p>Obviously the ease of a test depends on how well prepared a student is for it. That is why I posted this question. I think that my D has had excellent prep in AP Eng Comp. I am just now learning how dismal the prep has been in APUSH DDs shared with me that their teacher doesn’t give practice tests at all. “You already test well, that’s why you are in AP.” his reasoning escapes me. Regardless Chedva thanks for letting me know that switching tests is easy because it looks like that is what she should do.</p>
<p>I’m confused; is there an SATII test that covers similar material to AP Eng Lang (not Lit)? I didn’t see anything on Collegeboard’s website. D1 is taking Chem, Spanish and Math 2 on Saturday since those are also AP subjects for her, but we don’t have much hope for math. She took it last year and did not score well percentile wise. I thought she’d do better this year since she’s in AP Calculus, but have since learned that not a single student passed the AP exam last year and it seems the results will be about the same this year, so I can’t foresee any great strides on the Math 2. If there is an Eng lang SATII I may have D take that instead of the math on SAT, since she’s doing well in that AP class.</p>
<p>Why not take all 3? I took 3 when I took the SAT IIs (Math 2, Chem, Physics), didn’t find it particularly stressful, and did very well on all of them (800s). It’s very doable, though if your D is not a very good test taker or gets very stressed under test pressure, it may not be a good idea.</p>