If you ask me, tell me one single thing you wish your kid to accomplish in the High School, my answer would be – to become National Merit Finalist.
Being National Merit Finalist gives kids the biggest opportunity for getting merit-based scholarship in College. It is very straight forward; all the kid needs to do is do extremely well on one single PSAT test in his/her Junior year. That’s it. If they do extremely well in that single test – they can get full ride scholarships in numerous colleges irrespective of what is their class rank, GPA, SAT, ACT, or any other activities. My both kids came close, but they were not the finalists.
Needed score in PSAT varies year to year and state to state. One needs to be 99.9 percentile that means they should get more that 1470 in PSAT (perfect score of 1520). in their Junior year.
Kids can take PSAT in their Freshman, Sophomore Year as well. If you want them to do well then you will need to pay attention already in Freshman year. They should get at least 1300+ in Freshman year, 1400+ in Sophomore year. If they are not near that, then you need to figure out how you can help them to close the gap.
Good news about PSAT is that when kids are preparing for PSAT that automatically helps their SAT and ACT.
SAT
Unlike PSAT, SAT one can take as many times as they want. A good SAT score is 1500 (perfect score of 1600). With 1500 score should be enough to get them into any university they want from SAT point of view. Many students get perfect score.
I recommend them to start taking real SAT tests already in Freshman year. They should be scoring 1400+ already in the Sophomore year. If they are not getting near that, then you need to see what they need to do different.
ACT
ACT also they can take as many time as they want. A good ACT score is 33 (perfect score of 36). ACT and SAT/PSAT are little different. However, preparing for one helps the others.
SAT Subject Tests
SAT Subject Tests are required by very selective colleges. If your kid is not planning to go to very selective school, they can skip the subject tests. If they want to take the subject test, the best time to take them is just after finishing their AP test for the same subjects.
How to prepare for all these?
I personally think that I didn’t do a good job in preparing my kids for the standard testing. If I was paying little more attention, they probably have done much better.
There are many programs – for example Karen Dillard, Kaplan etc. to prepare the kids for the standard testing. Both my kids went through Karen Dillard and I think it was helpful.
One deficiency on those programs are they are cookie cutter programs. They do not take account of your individual kid’s understanding. Therefore, if you pay little attention, understand your kid’s gap it will help your kid a lot.
Basic technique is the same – take tests to understand where you stand and what you are lacking. Then prepare the close the gap.
Colleges do not require both SAT and ACT. If your kid does well in both, submit both. However, if the kid does better in one test than the other then submit only the one which he/she does better.
