College Entrance Exams

 As College Days Get Closer...  It still seems like 1999 was only yesterday!

My son was so young when his sister was leaving for college.

And now he is getting ready for his own college journey!

It seems likely that some moms just starting high school might like some tips as they home school to college.

Today I will talk about college entrance exams.
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It is important that you know what should happen when so that you can make educated decisions about your path with your high school student. You also want to know what the different College Entrance Exams are.

1. The first college entrance exam your student should take is the PSAT. This is the "P"reliminary SAT test. 

The recommended practice is for your student to take the PSAT for the first time in 10th Grade. This is somewhat of a Pre-PSAT. It is wise to have your student take the PSAT in 10th Grade if they have no experience with standardized tests. This was our situation, so my son took the PSAT in 10th Grade.

You sign your student up to take this test by going to CollegeBoard.org and creating an account for your student there. We were able to schedule the test at our local high school. We also contacted a counselor at the high school who allowed us to visit the high school before the test. We made arrangements in advance for how test day would go. Someone met my son at the entrance to escort him to the test room. We made sure my son knew where the restroom was for when he needed to take a break.

The PSAT is only offered once a year in October. Sign ups for the PSAT occur months in advance. I think we signed up in August. Taking the PSAT is optional. Taking the PSAT in 10th Grade is also optional. See below.

2. The second test opportunity for your high school student is to take the PSAT in 11th Grade. Most folks consider this one the "real deal". The 11th Grade PSAT is the one that qualifies students for the National Merit Scholarship, which is a big deal. Very few students are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship.

So... in our home we had a conversation. My student did not do particularly well on his 10th Grade PSAT and did not see any reason to expect that he would do significantly better to take the PSAT again in 11th Grade. I had to agree with him. We did not have him take the PSAT in 11th Grade.

The PSAT is optional. The PSAT in 11th Grade is optional. Again, the PSAT is offered only once a year, in October. Sign up occurs months in advance. Do sign ups in the summer.

3. The actual College Entrance Exams are the SAT and the ACT. Colleges accept either one, or both. Your student should take one or the other in spring of 11th Grade.

It is highly advisable to have your student work on an ACT or SAT prep-course throughout 11th Grade to improve his/her chances of a better score. We did not do this, and I wish we had. Higher college entrance scores result in:

• acceptance into college, and
• scholarship offers by the colleges applied to.

The SAT and ACT tests are given at various times throughout the year. The SAT sign-up is at Collegeboard.org (like the PSAT). The sign up for the ACT is at www.ACT.org.

4. The College Entrance Exams can and should be retaken to improve the score. The colleges will accept the highest score, so this can be very beneficial. My son's application at his college of choice is being reconsidered right now to see if he can receive a larger scholarship offer. This is being considered because his latest SAT score was higher than his previous ACT score, and his grades on his transcript have been very good.
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There are also SAT Subject Specific tests. These tests are not "entrance exams" as in determining whether the college will admit the student or not. SAT Subject Tests have many benefits ...for a student who is outstanding in any certain area. 

The best advice I ever received, if you want your student to take the Subject Test,  was that if your student takes a particular course (like Latin), have your student take the subject test as soon as possible after taking the course. This enables the student to test while the material is still fresh in the mind, to hopefully maximize the score. There are also steps the student can take to prepare before the test. See CollegeBoard.org.

Subject Tests can enable the student to stand out on college applications. They can demonstrate to the college that the student has a broad range of interest. Sometimes the student will receive college credit as a result of the Subject Tests.

SAT Subject Tests are optional. My oldest student took a subject test, but at that time I didn't know to have the test taken as soon as possible after the course, and the score was not worthy to note on college applications. My other two students have not taken subject tests. All of my students have been admitted to colleges and have been offered scholarships.
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That's what I have for you. I hope you have found it helpful. Has this been helpful? Or have I confused you? Please comment below if you have any questions. 

NEXT: Planning Your High School Course Plan