I’m just curious that there are like korean, chinese, japanese, french etc. for sat 2 and the question is why? Don’t most of the people take history, math and science?
Plenty of people take a language SAT II. It’s another subject and another topic some people excel at.
Most people do, but not all people. If your college has a language requirement to graduate, a high score on the subject test can sometimes exempt you from the requirement.
Sometimes “native” speakers will take the SAT II language tests because there is a good chance that they will get a very high scrore. My D calls them curve busters!
And colleges that require/request Subject test scores often discourage these as being part of the requested # of tests.
@skieurope The problem is that there is no reliable way of distinguishing between native and non-native speakers.
@yikesyikesyikes True, but I never underestimate what admissions officers are able to figure out by reading between the lines on the application, starting with surname and parents’ education. Can incorrect assumptions be made? Certainly. But IME, for every applicant who thinks s/he has a unique way to game the system, there are dozens of AO’s who’ve already seen someone already try it.
If a particular score on the the SAT II will get a native speaker (or any other applicant for that matter) placed out of a college’s graduation requirement or placed into a higher level (and presumably more interesting) class, then the student should go for it. Truth be told, there are few ways for native speakers to formally demonstrate their command of that other language. The SAT II, AP, and CLEP language exams will indicate that they have a certain level of literacy in their other language. Unless they have some formal education in that language, they won’t have the reading skills to do well at all on those exams.
There are several reasons:
1° they’ve not taken the 3-4 years that most selective colleges want to see, and seek to demonstrate proficiency this way
2° they want a high placement so that they can complete their foreign language college graduation requirement more quickly
3° it’s a subject they’re good at and where they’ll score well
4° they’re applying to a test-flexible school that requires 3 tests (or G’Town) and foreign language is an easy one to take without hours and hours of review if you’re decent at it, unlike, say, History.
5° SAT Subject Test: Foreign Language is the only subject test that can carry credit like the AP test at some colleges if you score high enough
I took the Latin subject test because I have taken Latin for five years and figured I had enough knowledge to do well on the test! I think people take language subject tests for the same reason they would take any other test- a school they are applying to requires an SAT II (or 2, or 3) so they choose tests to take. Some people take Math II because they are good at math or want to be in engineer, some take US history, some take Spanish.
In most cases language tests have the same credibility as any other test, so why not?
Some schools like UMASS offer credit for certain scores on SAT II Language
If you were a native speaker it would be a way to get an easy 800. But colleges would be disappointed if a student submitted 1 language test and say 1 math test