Benefits of Taking SAT Early in High School Years

December 1st is the last chance for students to take the SAT in 2018.  The next opportunity will be March 9th, followed by the first Saturdays in May and June.  These dates are important not only to high school juniors. The advice of U.S. News & World Report, whose guidebook is basically the bible to the college industry, is for students to start taking the SAT exam early in their high school years for several reasons.

First of all, students can now take the SAT as many times as they want and (most) colleges will never know how many times they have taken the test.  When the time comes for students to submit their scores to colleges, they can choose their highest scores, even “super-scoring” (mixing and matching), to send the test results with the best Math score from one test and the best Reading/Writing score from another test.

Athletes who hope to continue their sport in college particularly benefit from getting early SAT scores.  College coaches often want to see SAT scores before deciding whether or not they are interested in recruiting a prospective athlete.

An advantage to all students who start taking the SAT early is that their first test can serve as a baseline, indicating what areas they need to hone. Then, as students practice for subsequent tests, either on their own or with the help of a private tutor or prep course, they can get measurable results and track their improvement.  It’s also a good idea to get that first SAT experience, which is likely to be stress-ridden, out of the way so students can be a bit more relaxed on future sittings.

Students can also use early SAT scores to influence their choice of high school courses.  Those struggling in Math would want to get through Algebra I and II early in their high school years, as a substantial portion of SAT Math questions are related to Algebra. If weaknesses in reading comprehension or grammar are resulting in low scores on the Evidence Based Reading and Writing sections, students can likewise choose classes to strengthen these literary skills.

Taking the SAT early can give all students, regardless of their academic strengths or weaknesses, the time and motivation needed to improve their scores so they can greatly increase their chances of getting accepted into their college of choice – hopefully with scholarship money to help foot the bill.

Susan Alaimo is the founder of SAT Smart. For the past 25 years, SAT Smart’s Ivy League educated tutors have prepared students for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, Subject Tests, AP courses, and all high school subjects. Visit www.SATsmart.com or call 908-369-5362.