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SAT "levels"


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What "levels" of each subject had your child completed prior to taking the SAT?

 

For instance, Algebra 1 only, Alg 1 + Geometry only, Alg 1 + Geometry + Alg 2... etc.

 

Where were they in their English education? Grammar, Essays, Comprehension - how much (if any) Literary Analysis?

 

Simply looking at the SAT site, it is hard to gauge this.

 

Thx

 

 

a

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It is best to have finished at least Algebra I and Geometry before taking the SAT. I think there are Algebra II topics as well. My oldest took it for the first time in January. She was halfway through Precalculus at the time and had a stellar math score. Her critical reading and writing scores weren't nearly as good. The fill-in-the-blank sections were hard for her and she didn't do very well on the essay (score 8 out of a possible 12).

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SAT math goes through Alg 2. Mine have been in Pre-Calc (or done with it) when they've taken the test, but they didn't have to be.

 

ACT math goes through Trig (a component of Pre-Calc now), but only with a few questions.

 

I have no idea on the English sections for either. We've done traditional English lit and Wordly-Wise to enhance vocab - using suggested years. My oldest did well on reading and the regular section of writing, but the essay killed him. He's not a good writer. For both the SAT and ACT he scored just 50% on the essay - yet on the other writing portion he was in the 90%. This even after taking (and getting an A in) a CC English Comp course.

 

My middle son will do well in all sections, but he's a better writer naturally.

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My teen took the SAT once in March of her junior year. (She'd done some tests at home for practice prior to this point.)

 

In math, she'd completed Algebra I and II, Geometry, College Algebra and was partway through Trigonometry.

 

In English, she'd taken an essay writing class, a college level composition class, and a college level literature class.

 

She's always been a BIG reader which is one of the biggest possible helps, in my opinion, for doing well on the vocabulary and grammar portions of the test.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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My ds took the SAT in December of his junior year. In math, he had completed all of VT Algebra (so Alg 1 & 2), VT Geometry through Module D, and was about to start Precalculus. He also had done the ACT the previous spring and had just done the PSAT, so was up on the expected math and types of problems. He used some of Math SAT 800 to prep further. He nailed the math section.

 

It's much harder to gauge prep for the English sections. At that point, he was doing A Beka's 12th grade grammar--which is basically just a review workbook alongside their comprehensive grammar handbook. He's naturally good at grammar, so those questions went well. For reading comprehension, he's an excellent reader, but some of those questions throw him. He scored high, but not as high as the other sections. He had done Omnibus II along with Smarr Medieval Lit the year before, and was working on Omnibus III at the time. Also the ACT and PSAT reading comprehension prep helped some. In writing, he had done Stobaugh Literary Analysis in 9th grade (marginal success), IEW in 10th, ACT essay prep the previous spring in 10th, and the IEW High School Essay Intensive that fall of 11th grade. He did great on the multiple choice questions (editing/grammar/usage/organization stuff is easy for him), not so great on the essay itself, in spite of all the prep (writing is hard for him--generating the content is hard) much to his disappointment.

 

HTH!

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A lot of kids first take the SAT in 7th grade. Usually, they are invited to take it by a teacher who has identified them as gifted. There are gifted programs that use the 7th grade test info to determine who to invite.

 

There's no harm in taking the ACT or SAT early in high school. We started with the ACT at the end of Sophmore year because we used it for year-end testing. No stress. No prep. No expectations. Just took it as part of the homeschooling process and used it as a gauge for where she stood. We used different testing locations in different years and that gave us an idea of where to avoid for the last tests she took before college apps.

 

DD had finished Saxon 2 and American Lit through Classical Conversations. She had taken Chemistry, but not Biology. The ACT showed a glaring gap in the science education she had at that point. She had bounced around a lot of schools and never had what I would consider a fifth grade science class.

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Go to the library and check out an SAT review book or just poke around the college board site. You can see for yourself from the practice tests the difficulty and types of questions.

 

In general, I think the recommendation is for a student to have at least Alg I, Geometry, and be taking Algebra II. My dd will tell you there is too much Geometry on the test. :lol:

 

Have you seen this:

 

http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-practice-questions-math/math-concepts

 

Obviously, for the CR section, the more reading a student has done, the better they'll do. I've heard you can't study for the reading section since you can't make up for not being well read.

 

http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-practice-questions

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I had actually poked around on the site, but since the questions are random, I wanted to get a better idea of how "high" it went. Kid has uneven development (oh, welcome to twice exceptional) and, although I want him to take it as "practice" (he literally has taken 3 full standardized tests in his life and two of them were before 4th grade), I don't want it to feel like a "....and this is where you suck" kind of thing (which is how he'll interpret it - trust me).

 

I figure if he isn't too far off of the range, it will be a better experience for him, kwim? From what you guys are saying, he should be alright to take it in fall.

 

 

a

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DD had finished Saxon 2 and American Lit through Classical Conversations. She had taken Chemistry, but not Biology. The ACT showed a glaring gap in the science education she had at that point. She had bounced around a lot of schools and never had what I would consider a fifth grade science class.

 

My son took an ACT prep class after his first time. His science score jumped 6 points on the next test which is significant as he was taking no science at the time. The prep class stressed learning to read charts and graphs instead of focusing on science content. The second time he did not panic and worry about remembering the science material---all the info you need is usually right there. Our experience anyhow.....

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