College Counseling:
Planning your Standardized Testing

• A. It tells you how strong a Saturday-morning bubble-blackener you are likely to be when it does "count";
  
• B. It tells you which types of questions you need to work on to become the best little bubble-blackener you can be.

2. SIGNIFICANCE AND INSIGNIFICANCE OF SCORES
SAT or ACT Program scores are meaningless in the abstract. They do not measure intelligence; they are poor predictors of success in college; they bear absolutely no relationship to success in life. How high or low yours are matters ONLY if they help or hurt your chances of getting into the college of your choice. For most students, SAT's and ACT's have no impact on their admission. Their scores line up well enough with their academic records to be irrelevant in the decision. Scores may matter when:

• A. They are far above or far below a given college's mean scores; (That usually means well outside the middle-50% of the college's admitted group.)
  
• B. A college is so selective that it attracts large numbers of highly-qualified applicants with little else to distinguish them.
  
• C. A large university abuses test scores by making them part of an absolute cutoff system for admitting students "by the numbers".
  If none of these situations applies to you, your standardized test scores are totally irrelevant.

   

  3. TAKE THE SAT-I
  Take the SAT-I first if you live and plan to attend college east of the Mississippi (or west of the Cascades/Sierras). In between, the ACT is the test of choice. Take it early: January of the junior year is optimal; it gives you real scores early enough to inform a timely college search. It also tells you whether you should try the ACT. Finally, it gives you time to take it twice more (junior spring and senior fall) if for some reason (see #2 above) you need to.

  4. TAKE THE SAT-II?
  Over 100 of the most selective colleges require or recommend one, two or usually three of the one-hour subject-matter tests now called the SAT-II's. (They used to be called Achievement Tests until authorities demonstrated that they bear little or no connection to real educational achievement.) Your grades, your SAT-I's, and your guidance counselor can tell you whether you need to take these. If you do, take them in June of your junior year, as you complete the courses applicable to these tests. Use "Score Choice" when registering; it lets you selectively choose to exclude any SAT-II score you don't like from your permanent record. If necessary, you can take these again in senior fall as well.

  5. TAKE THE ACT?
  Although the SAT Program remains the test of choice in the East, almost every college in the US will accept the ACT as a complete substitution for the entire SAT (I & II). Though it, too, is all multiple-choice, it is a different enough test that a significant minority of students who take both do significantly better on the ACT. If your SAT scores do not match up well with your academic record, you may want to try this option. Obtain the practice test from your guidance counselor and take it. If the results are promising, register for the real thing. The most you can lose is $22.00 and one more Saturday morning. If you don't like the results, you never have to report them to colleges.

  6. THE SENIOR YEAR
  By sometime in the fall of your senior year, you'll know where you plan to apply and can tailor your testing to the specific demands of your colleges. Unless you fall into category 2B or the low end of 2A or 2C above, you may not need to take any further tests. But if you do, be patient and brave, and remember what we said at the start of #2 above.