Should I consider taking certain Subject Tests?

Applying to College
1

Hello everyone! How are you all today? Hope you’re all well.

I am a rising junior in high school in Northern Virginia. I plan on majoring/concentrating in creative writing and/or English, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid. I plan on applying to Brown ED, UVA EA, JMU EA, George Mason EA, and UCLA. If not accepted through ED, I plan on applying to Vanderbilt RD, Rhode Island School of Design, William and Mary, Amherst, and possibly… Dartmouth. (I know I plan on applying to too many schools, so I’m doing my best to try to limit the amount of schools I’m applying to.)

I was originally planning on taking one of the Spanish subject tests, Literature, and U.S. History. However, I’ve heard that in colleges that require or recommend subject tests, they like to see test “diversity”, meaning they would like to see tests from different content areas. Because of this, I’ve been considering taking the Math Level 1. Would this be advisable? Would it just be better to take Level 2 or should I just not take it?

Lastly, I know I want to take a Spanish Subject Test, but I am not sure if I want to take the original Subject Test or Listening. While I know that it is not always a good thing to consider if a college finds one more impressive, because I’m taking these tests for fulfilling recommendations and/or requirements, do colleges prefer Listening over the original Subject Test?

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread. I know a lot of these questions are really random, and I have probably bothering by asking some of them, but I was just curious. I hope you all don’t mind.

Have a good day!

2

No. They don’t care. If there is a stray college that prefers one, it will say so on their website.

If they want to see diversity, they will say so. If they say you can submit 2 Subject Tests of your choice, then take them at their word. Few colleges outside of engineering schools specific which tests to take. So take the ones on which you will score the highest. If you want to take Spanish, USH, and Lit to see which 2 are the best, or to submit all 3, go for it. Unless a college specifies, as long as you don’t choose 2 duplicative tests (e.g. M1 and M2 or Spanish and Spanish with Listening), it’s fine. Good luck.

3

Thanks a lot! @skieurope You always give great advice and that was really helpful. I understand it a lot now.

Have a good day.

4

Pro tip: take a practice (or two) Span test at home to see if you score high (7xx), since Span can be an extremely difficult test, due to the ‘curve’.

5

@bluebayou Thanks for the advice! I’ll make sure that I do.

Have a good day!