petitefrancaise

For those of you with HS children

You will probably know that the SAT exams are changing to an online test from March 2016 - Khan academy has been working with College Board and they have just released their FREE SAT prep courses.
https://www.khanacademy.org/sat?utm_...&utm_content=D

The SAT exams don't change until the Spring so if your kids are planning on doing the summer/autumn ones then they need to carry on with the prep they are already doing. (You can get one a day free questions direct from the College Board).

My son will be a Junior next semester and the advice we have been given is to prepare him for the SAT in the Autumn and try to get it out of the way (ie he gets a near perfect score and doesn't need to do the exam again). I know for his IB course there is a lot of work in the junior year so I think this is good advice.

The school district runs SAT prep classes during the summer holidays (yours should too) and they cost about $300. Near us, we have an excellent private SAT study school, they charge more but they prepare the kids really, really well.

MsElui

i know zip about these.

is this something they do in their final year of HS?


and you say 'dont need to take again' - so i assume they CAN take again if they want to raise the score? what if they get a worse score - does only the last one count?

petitefrancaise

PSAT, SAT and ACT are standardised tests taken across the country - since everyone takes the same exam, the results are supposed to give the colleges an idea of the students capabilities. The students are given a total mark out of 2400 divided into 3 sections 2 for english (1 is an essay, 1 MCQ) and 1 for maths. They are ranked on a percentile.

You can also take individual subject SAT tests - recommended for the major you want to study. I know that MIT and Stanford both require physics SAT. (NB if your kid is studying IB then they will need to take extra lessons since the IB SL physics and AP course varies quite a bit )

PSAT is administered to all students in the sophomore and junior years. If the kids do well in this, they will be "commended", "semi-finalists" and "finalists" - and the last 2 gives them entry to scholarships.

SAT and ACT - kids can do these at any point when they feel they are ready for them. They are roughly in line with AP classes so most kids would be ready to take them in Junior year. You can choose to submit the results directly to the colleges you are interested in which allows the colleges to know before application that you are interested and if you do well, highlights the child in the applications office. Most kids take the tests 2/3 times - starting in the autumn of junior year. IIRC you can submit up to application deadlines which are in early spring of Senior year.

All scores can be submitted and the college looks at your best one..... saying that, looking at my daughter's year which is just graduating HS, the top kids prepped and took it once and got perfect scores. These are the ones going to MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Wellesley Berkeley and the honors programs at UT.

kins

My 13yo just took the SAT so that the boarding school she was considering could compare her to other applicants. She scored something like 95th centile for Maine. I'm not sure whether to be impressed with her or depressed for Maine.