When Is It Time to Make Your Test Prep Plan?

Parents and students often wonder: When should I start thinking about the SAT and ACT?  To best position yourself or your student for the college application process at the beginning of senior year, students should start creating their college admissions testing plan at the end of their sophomore year or toward the beginning of junior year, ideally.  If you’re later than that, you’re still ok!  Here are the steps to get you started:

1. Get a baseline score for both the SAT and ACT.

While many students took the PSAT as sophomores at school this year, many students did not due to the pandemic.  Also, in general, far fewer high schools give practice ACT tests so those opportunities are more limited.  Students can take an official practice SAT or ACT or both in several different ways: at home at the kitchen table for free, via our new proctor videos, or participating in one of our live proctored exams (Test Flight Club).  There’s no need to take a national test date in order to find out which test suits your student better.

2. Once you have a baseline for both SAT and ACT scores, decide which test is the better fit.  We can work together to decide which test is a better fit for your student.  

3. Decide what testing calendar best suits your student. Here are some general suggestions:

• Students who are taking Algebra II as juniors:  Plan to take either the March SAT or April ACT.  Test prep can begin after the Christmas holiday.  Student can then retake in either late spring or early fall or both.
• Students who will have completed Algebra II by the end of sophomore year:  Think about extracurricular schedule and academic load in the junior year.  Most students will benefit from starting test prep in the summer and taking their first test in the fall to get the majority of the skill building finished over the summer.  However, if students have extremely heavy extracurricular schedules in the fall (Football, Marching Band, Cheerleading, Color Guard, etc.), they make choose to push their first test to the spring and follow the above schedule.  Students who choose to test in the fall have the opportunity to retest anytime in the spring and still have time to retest again early in their senior year if desired.
• Students who scored particularly well on the PSAT in 10th grade:  Plan to prep for the PSAT over the summer.  The PSAT in junior year serves as the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship Competition.  Even if the ACT looks like the better fit from a college admissions testing perspective, students who scored particularly well on the PSAT in 10th grade should consider making a real effort to maximize their score on their junior year PSAT.  They can then take either the October or November SAT to lock in their qualifying score should they become National Merit Semifinalists.

4. Plan on allocating at least two months to test prep.

    Test prep is really much more about practice than it is about content. You do need to decide what tactics work best for you, how to best allocate your time, and how to recognize the many patterns on the test, but really making a difference in your score comes down to putting in the practice.  We offer Test Flight Club twice a month where students have the opportunity to take a full length proctored practice test, receive immediate results, and have a two hour Q&A-style group tutoring session with one of our most expert tutors.  We have seen amazing results with students who have put in the practice!

    Remember also that almost every student will take either the SAT or ACT twice, and most students will take it three times. So keep in mind that the process is more of a marathon than a sprint and be patient with yourself.

We know that there are a lot of moving pieces when deciding how and when to work on test prep. Let us know how we can help! We love helping people with their questions!

The National Merit Commended cutoff for the class of 2022 was recently unofficially announced at 207 – two points lower than last year’s class of 2021 level and the lowest number in the last ten years.  The lower cutoff reflects the significant drop in the number of students who were able to take the PSAT in October and January.

While the Commended cutoff dropped significantly, one cannot conclude that the Semifinalist cutoff for Texas will also drop.  The Commended cutoff is calculated nationally, while the Semifinalist cutoff is calculated by state.  Due to all the moving pieces, we will still have to wait until September to learn how it all works out for the class of 2022.  Right now, we predict that the Semifinalist cutoff score for Texas for the class of 2022 will be somewhere between 217 – 221.  We will update you in late August/early September as Semifinalist numbers become known.

After the return of the PSAT results last week, the reports of lower than anticipated scores began pouring in.  We’ve spent some time analyzing this year’s PSAT scale in relation to the last three years to see how different this year’s scale truly is.  Our conclusion: it’s definitely different.

The charts below show the scaled scores resulting from missing one, two, three, or four questions on each section (Reading, Writing, and Math) for each of the years 2016 through 2019.  For the sake of simplicity, the Reading and Writing scores have been expressed on the more familiar 160 – 760 scale.  When looking at *just* the main PSAT dates (on which 80 – 90% of students actually take the test), the evidence is stark: each missed question carries a larger penalty in 2019.  For students at the very top of the scale (and hoping for National Merit Semifinalist), the steeper curves raise the stakes on a test that was already high stakes.  Given the scales, it is possible that the cutoff for Texas may come down this year, having held steady at 221 for the years represented by these graphs.

We will stay on top of these changes as more information comes to light.