Should You Prepare for the SAT or ACT in 10th Grade?
/The college admissions process can be complex, and at times, mystifying. Many parents aren’t aware when their child should be working on their applications or preparing for the SAT/ACT. They call in during 8th, 9th, and 10th grade, hoping a head start will ensure their child doesn’t fall behind in this process.
Starting to plan for college applications sooner rather than later is a good thing, but when it comes to SAT or ACT prep, there is such a thing as too early!
When do most students take the SAT or ACT?
Students nationwide are often advised to try the SAT or ACT for the first time in the spring of their junior year (usually in February or March).
This may feel too late to get started, but it’s absolutely not! There is still plenty of time after the March SAT or February ACT to do test prep and try the tests again. For the SAT, there are four more opportunities to test (May, June, August, and October) before the earliest college application deadlines in the fall. For the ACT, there are five opportunities: April, June, July, September, and October.
While most students test in the spring of junior year, there is no single correct timeline to take the SAT and ACT. Some students prep earlier, but many start even later, in the summer after junior year or even as late as the fall of senior year. The ideal timeline very much depends on the individual student.
Who might benefit from taking the SAT or ACT as a sophomore?
Recruited Athletes. Students trying to play sports in college are often in touch with college coaches after their season in 10th grade. Coaches want to know where their recruits stand academically as soon as possible, so having test scores to send sooner rather than later may increase a recruit’s chances of making the team. For this reason, some student athletes prefer to prep for and take the SAT/ACT in 10th grade, so they can send their scores along with their game stats and film.
Students who, due to a busy schedule or scheduling conflict, cannot do test prep during junior year. Students looking at both an extremely demanding junior year courseload full of honors/AP/IB classes and intensive time commitments outside of school (sports, activities, work, etc.) may want to prep for the SAT or ACT during 10th grade or the summer before 11th instead. Similarly, students who are going abroad during junior year or will for any other reason be unavailable for prep and testing during that time may prefer to get test prep out of the way sooner.
That’s about it. If you’re not a recruited athlete and your junior year will be no busier than your sophomore year, there’s usually little benefit to prepping and testing sooner. There are, however, plenty of downsides.
Why shouldn’t you prep for the SAT/ACT as a sophomore?
Most students haven’t covered all the material on the SAT/ACT by 10th grade. This is particularly true for the math sections. Both the SAT and the ACT include a lot of Algebra 2 and Geometry concepts, and students on typical math tracks (Geometry in 10th and Algebra 2 in 11th) won’t have seen all of these concepts by 10th grade.
Students on this standard math track who want to prep as sophomores would need to pay for their SAT/ACT tutors to teach them the math they’d learn in school eventually anyway, which we never recommend doing. It’s costly, time-consuming, and shifts the focus away from the verbal sections of these tests that also need attention. Whenever possible, it’s best to wait until the student has gotten this math under their belt.
Realistically, the only sophomores who should be taking the SAT/ACT should be on such an advanced math track that they’re taking at least Pre-Calculus in 10th grade.
COVID-19 note: it’s also important to consider how disruptions brought on by the pandemic have affected students’ math education. In the past, if a sophomore had already taken Geometry and was 3/4ths of the way through Algebra 2, they would have most of what they’d need for the SAT/ACT. However, with COVID-19 disruptions, many math classes are significantly behind, and even accelerated math students in Pre-Calc are spending time reviewing core Algebra 2 concepts. So now more than ever, it’s important for students to get more time in math class before approaching these tests.
More time in school improves performance on every section of the SAT and ACT. Strong reading comprehension is essential for doing well on these tests. Not just in the passage-based Reading and Science sections, but also in the Math sections, where understanding what the problem is asking for is just as important as recognizing the concepts and making careful calculations.
Can’t we work on weak reading comprehension with test prep? Of course! But it’s not often that students dramatically improve their reading comprehension in the short timeframe of a test prep program. This is because reading comprehension is something you build up over the course of your entire life. It (unsurprisingly) gets better from reading! So the more time you spend reading before you attempt the SAT or ACT, the better!
Many sophomores aren’t ready to do their best yet. What we’re talking about here is academic maturity. Between spring of 10th grade (when students would realistically first attempt the SAT or ACT) and December of 12th grade (the last opportunity to take the SAT or ACT before typical application deadlines), students learn and grow so much. That’s nearly two years of opportunity for further intellectual development. In the context of a 15, 16, or 17-year-old, those two years might as well be an eternity.
Some rare students are so advanced that they’re prepared to do their best on the test as sophomores. But for most, the longer they can delay taking the SAT or ACT, the more they can benefit from natural academic growth.
If not test prep, what should you do in 9th and 10th grade to get ready for the SAT/ACT?
We’re glad you asked!
Read, read, read! As we’ve said, strong reading comprehension is a must for these tests. Start building yours now by reading for fun! This could mean classics, dystopian trilogies, or forbidden vampire romances. It could mean quicker reads, like news articles, short stories, or personal essays. Read what you enjoy reading! Higher level content will force you to grow more than lower level content, but whatever you choose, you’ll be encountering new words, unconsciously solidifying your understanding of grammar rules, and strengthening your reading comprehension, all of which will help you on the SAT and ACT.
Stay sharp with math practice. Spend some time on Khan Academy. It’s free and you can practice as much or as little as you want. Use it to refresh old concepts you may have forgotten and stay on top of what you’re learning now. A strong foundation in math will set you up for success when you are ready to take the SAT and ACT.
Start your college research. It’s never too soon to start browsing and thinking about what you want from your college experience.
Free resources we love:
Corsava is an excellent free resource that can help you identify, through strategic questioning, the college features that matter most to you.
CollegeXpress is great for finding new colleges you might be interested in. You can search schools by location, keywords, interests, and ranking. Use the ‘List’ feature to help you find colleges that fit what you’re looking for, especially ones you may not have been considering before. You can also find further detail about colleges on your radar, such as enrollment and admissions data, cost, financial aid, and more.
Get the insider scoop on colleges at Unigo andNiche, where you’ll find reviews of various schools, written by students who went there.
Prepare for college applications in other ways. SAT/ACT test scores matter, but so does your transcript, GPA, and activities! So do your best on your homework. Get extra help and build relationships with your teachers-- you may end up asking them for letters of recommendation later down the line. Get involved in clubs, sports, internships, etc, that will show colleges what you’re passionate about. All of this will ensure you have a strong application outside of test scores!
Read more about how we can help with every step of the application process here!
Still not sure when to prepare for the SAT/ACT?
We’d be happy to help you figure out the right test prep and testing timeline for you or your child. Give us a call at (215) 884-5789 for a free consultation!