Tag Archives: which test

Make the calendar work for you

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could get all this testing stuff out of the way before things really heat up for the spring of your Jr. year?  May and June are the most popular test dates but  many students would be better off taking their test in the winter. There just aren’t usually as many fun things competing for your attention in the winter. Don’t worry about “what everyone else” is doing. Think about your own schedule. When is your sport active? When do you have recitals? Concerts? Performances? College trips? Then there are big school schedule things like finals, prom and even spring fever to figure in.  Get testing over with during the gloom and doom of winter, if you can.

You want to take a look at the dates and register. The SAT is available Jan. 28 and March 10. The ACT is offered Feb. 11 and April 14.  You want to start planning for your prep ASAP–it’s not an emergency, it’s predictable. Want to study with a friend or even a few? Get your schedules together now and drop me an email.  We’ll get you set up. I will be around over Winter Break–will you? I always admire students who can use vacation times to get test prep done.

Are you unsure which test to take? We can talk about that too. But stop procrastinating. You’re going to go to college, aren’t you?  Then get it on your schedule.

Which Test?

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Is vocabulary your weak link but you’re a strong math and science student? That sounds like a recipe for a date with the ACT, not the SAT. Let’s discuss.

Before I’d advise you, I’d like to see your PSAT results and speak with you about test taking. But it’s important to remember that your choice of which college test you take is just that–your choice. It doesn’t usually matter to the school you’re applying to (you should double check on your favorite school.) In some cases you have fewer testing requirements with an ACT than an SAT. The notion that “all my friends are taking the other test” doesn’t really matter unless you let it make you crazy.

It’s probably true that when you look at the whole body of students who take the two tests the scores come out about the same ACT to SAT. But for any given student, one test is likely to be easier than the other because of how it’s made. So why make this harder than it needs to be.  Discuss it with an expert: portlandtestprep@gmail.com