I want to major in English, however, my grades in my math and science classes aren’t as good as my grades in my humanities classes, and I was wondering if taking math and science subject tests would help my application.
First of all, make sure the colleges you are interested in require subject tests.
You should definitely take the English test, and then take another that you would do well in.
There’s no harm in taking a variety of subject tests. You should take one of the practice tests to get an idea of how you would do as grades and scores are not always correlated.
My older son - planning to major in CS took Math 2, Physics and US history (pretty easy if you are taking APUSH concurrently) He had excellent grades and excellent scores. No surprises there.
Younger son - planning to major in International Relations took Math 2 and got rather a low score, Biology (E) and got a 720 (He had an A or A- in AP bio), and US History 790 (He had an A in the course). Since he didn’t like his math score (and should have known not to take it as he hadn’t done well on any practice test), he took the tests again the following month. He too Biology (M) got the exact same score, US History also the exact same score and a 710 in Literature having never gotten better than a B+ in honors level English courses.
Take the tests you feel you will do best in unless a college you plan to apply to specifically asks (check the websites) for a STEM subject test.
Emory’s (which I believe is your top choice from another thread) policy is below
https://apply.emory.edu/apply/first-year/tips/standardized-exam-policies.html
Keep in mind that students who take the Math 1 test are self selected students so the average is higher than you think.
@bopper, don’t you mean Math 2? The percentiles on both those tests are pretty crazy, but I’d say as a non-STEM major applying to a selective school any score over 700 on either Math test would be fine for sure, probably a lower score for the Math 2.
Check whether the colleges you are interested in want subject tests, and whether they have any preference for particular subject tests.