When to take the SAT?

The timeline for taking college entrance exams might start earlier than you think. Before you take the SAT for college applications, you want to think about preparing for the PSAT.

Summer Before Junior Year

The PSAT taken in the fall of your junior year counts towards scholarships in many states. To prepare for the PSAT it’s a good idea to spend the end of summer of your sophomore year studying before school starts. Give yourself at least 6 weeks and ideally 10-12 weeks. There is no downside to taking the PSAT. If you do well, you can get merit scholarships and it helps with admissions. If you do poorly, there is nothing really lost and you’ve gained some insight into how you can prepare differently when it comes to studying for the SAT.

The thing is, the PSAT and the SAT are essentially the same test. So you get twice the value for the prep work you put in for the PSAT. If you do well on your PSAT, you might as well take the SAT around the same time and get it done. That way, during your senior year you don’t have to work on SAT study while also filling out applications. Taking the SAT your junior year is also a good idea because if you don’t get a score that you like you have time to prepare and try again! The November or December SAT are good options for this approach.

Junior Year

The March test during your junior year is a great time to take the SAT. You have winter break to spend some dedicated study time and have likely just finished Algebra and it’s fresh. If you didn’t do as well as you liked on the PSAT or SAT the first go around in the fall, you’ve had the break to prepare and should be good to go! If you are happy with your score, you are done! The pressure is off and you can concentrate on extracurriculars, essays, and other college research and visits.

Summer Before Senior Year

If the SAT is giving you trouble and you have yet to get a score you like, it might be time to consider the ACT. The ACT is changing in 2025. It will be hard to say how the new test compares, but they offer a paper test, unlike the SAT which can be tremendously helpful for some students. The July ACT can be a good test to aim for because you will have some summer to prepare and dedicate to studying. If it doesn’t go the way you planned you still have the Sept ACT before most applications are due to colleges.

Misconceptions

• TOO MANY ATTEMPTS: Some speculate that taking the SAT too many times is bad because schools will see it and think poorly of a student who had to try multiple times to get a good score. We think this sentiment is inaccurate but want to specify a grain of truth here. If you are taking the SAT and aren’t seeing an improvement in your scores then you are wasting your time and money. If you are taking the SAT your freshman year, you are probably starting too early and it’s completely unnecessary and your student probably hasn’t had the math classes they need yet to take the test and do well. Then again, endlessly preparing in hopes of taking the SAT once and getting a perfect score isn’t good either. Taking the test 2 or 3 times is ideal. More than that and you’ll want to consider a different approach or a different test. Less than that and you are either exceptionally well prepared or haven’t thought about the test early enough to prepare and take it a few times before applications are due.
• WAIT UNTIL END OF JUNIOR YEAR: Some think you don’t have all the math content you need until the end of your junior year to take the SAT so you should wait until you are a senior to take the test. We think juniors are well prepared to take the SAT and if there is any new content it is very easy to study to fill those gaps. The math content on the SAT is mostly algebra and middle school math with a mere handful of trigonometry and geometry concepts. The tricky part of the SAT math is not the content but the application. Knowing the three angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees is one thing, being able to recognize when that information is one step in a multistep problem is the real trick.
• ACT/SAT IS HARDER THAN SAT/ACT: Some think one test is easier than the other. We think these tests are simply testing different aptitudes. https://selectc.com/act-vs-sat-whats-the-difference/ We wrote an article about it. While the ACT is changing in 2025 there will continue to be differences that could make one test easier or harder for your student. But these are not universally true. The best approach is to take a practice test in each and see which suits you best. It is also important to note if schools you are applying to accept either test.

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Start preparing for the SAT/ACT by calling us at (727) 230-9031 to schedule individual tutoring or small group classes. You can also try our online course. You can learn more about our services on our website SelectC.com. Learn what makes us special!