CATES Blog

Which SAT II exam should I take?  When should I take it?

Of all the crazy making parts of the SAT Process that exist outside of the test itself, none can be more stress inducing that the decision making about the SAT II exams.

The SAT Subject Tests are a group of tests in different academic disciplines. The College Board currently administers exams in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics Chinese, Literature, U.S. History, World History, French, German, Modern Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin and Spanish.

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College Sat Exam

When is guessing a good idea on the SAT Test?

The SAT is a very tiring and lengthy exam. At times, when you take the SAT exam you will be unsure which answer choice to select or how to even approach a problem..  These are critical moments in your test taking and it integral to your success on the SAT test that you have a clear guessing strategy.

On the SAT exam you are awarded one point for each correct answer, deducted a quarter of a point for each incorrect answer, and neither awarded nor deducted points for leaving a question blank. So, basically, it really matters when you choose to answer questions on the SAT and how you come to that decisions. If you make wild guesses on questions on the SAT when you have no idea of the answer you seriously jeopardize your score.

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Exams via Flickr: Alex France

How much is too much? When it comes to the SAT, it’s a question that a lot of students (and their parents) wonder about. Few people just take the test only once; most take it several times, but how many times is too many? If twice, or three times, is good, wouldn’t four, five, or six times be even better? Well…probably not. A couple of factors come into play when you’re deciding how when, and how many times to take the SAT, so here’s a short guide to your testing schedule.

Take it More Than Once

Would it be great if you could just take the test once, and be finished? Of course it would. I mean…that would be great. That does occasionally happen, but unless you get a near-perfect score the first go-round, it’s smart to try again. Why?

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What is Super Scoring and what does it mean for me? How does it affect my SAT process?

Super Scoring

The SAT testing process is a long and daunting one. Hours of study, hours of preparation, hours of anxiety, and hours of test taking don’t make for a generally easy or enjoyable experience.  Few things along this road make your life easier, so when you find something that does, grab a hold of it and use it for all its worth.  One such thing is Super Scoring.

Super Scoring is the informal practice of poaching sectional scores from various SAT testings to make one optimal test score.  Meaning, if you take the SAT multiple times, you can pick your best math score from one test, your best writing score from another test, and your best reading score from yet a different test to form a super score.  Under the lens of Super Scoring, you can view your SAT testing as a process, and not a series of do or die moments.

To be clear, Super Scoring is not something the College Board – the company that creates and administers the SAT – does.  It does not appear on your score report or your College Board home page. More importantly, Super Scoring is something that many college admissions offices engage in.  And the practice is growing.  Admissions officers want to see you in your best light, so they are considering your achievement on the SAT, through the lens of Super Scoring.  When you visit schools, be sure to ask the admissions office if they Super Score.

As a student, you want to take full advantage of Super Scoring, and this means you should start your SAT process early.  You want to be sure that you are giving yourself adequate opportunities to sit for the SAT test and do your best.  Super Scoring thrives on having numerous test scores to choose from.  Only by thinking ahead and planning your SAT test dates can you reap all the rewards of Super Scoring.

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What is Score Choice? What is Super Scoring? What’s the difference?

When you are taking the SAT exam many hours go into studying and preparing for the exam.  You take mocktests, work on practice problems, and formulate your perfect strategy to beat the test. Then you take the SAT test and, for many people, the work ends here. Don’t be one of these people. You still have a couple strategies you can consider.

One of them is Score Choice.  The College Board, the company that creates and administers the SAT, allows you to implement Score Choice if you so choose.  Essentially, Score choice allows you to elect which SAT score you can submit to colleges.  If you take the SAT multiple times, Score Choice enables you to select your best score and submit that score, and that score alone, to colleges.  There are some schools that require you to submit all your test results and your college counselor will know which ones, but Score Choice allows you, whenever possible, to put your best foot forward.

Another tool at your disposal to help you along with your SAT process is Super Scoring.  Super scoring allows you to select the best sub scores from different tests and amalgamate them into a single Super Score. That is, if your best score in math occurred the first time you took the SAT Exam and you received at 700, your best writing score occurred the second time you took the SAT Exam and you received a 650, and your best reading score occurred the third time you took the SAT exam and you received at 730, you could combine these three scores to get a combined result of 2080 through the magic of super scoring.  Not every admissions office accepts super scoring, so you should check with your College Counselor, but, like Score Choice, Super Scoring is a valuable resource to be aware of.

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