Newbie SAT questions

[EKT]

Hi! My oldest is a sophomore in our homeschool and I'm just looking ahead to things we need to hit next year, when she's a junior. I was looking at the SAT site and it looks like there are prospective dates in place for the test next year (I attached a screenshot). If my daughter wants to take the test on October 7th, 2023, when would I need to register her for that? (How early does that open up, typically?) 

Other questions:

• Did you automatically sign your child up for TWO test dates (one for fall and one for spring?) (Does registration for all the year's test dates open up at once?) 
• The SAT site says most students take the test in the spring of junior year and then again the fall of senior year. However I imagine my daughter will be super busy the fall of her senior year (!), so I was planning on having her take it fall and spring of junior year. Is there any reason that's a bad idea? 
• What is the highest level of math on the SAT? (She took Algebra I freshman year and is currently doing Geometry this year. Will that be sufficient, or is the math on the SAT higher than that?) Obviously we will study and prep specifically for the test, but I just want to get a sense of the work ahead of us. 
• It looks like the test cost $60.00 this year. Is that about what I can expect to pay per test next year, or are there other fees attached that I may be unaware of? 

Any other SAT advice you have is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Roadrunner]

It will open up sometime over the summer. If you are in CA, you must jump and register the day it opens, because we found everything filled up within hours especially for fall dates. So yes, I would register for several test days when it opens.

Your DD would benefit having Algebra 2 and even precalculus (although there are just a couple of precalc questions on it). 
The advantage of taking it as a senior is age. I think older kids get, more reading they have done, more advanced courses they have taken, so better they do. My DS’s score went up in one year without prep because the best prep is really a lot of reading, which he did. 

[kokotg]

The answers to a couple of your questions are related, in that the more math she's had the better she's likely to score on the math section. I'm not having my junior take it until spring because he's finishing up Algebra 2 now and taking pre-calc in the spring. I figured he was unlikely to do as well as he could on the math this semester, so he might as well wait, and then he can take it again fall of senior year if he wants or needs to try for a higher score (he also took it fall of 10th grade to get a score for his dual enrollment application, so we have a bit of a baseline already). I wouldn't sign up for 2 dates at once (I'm not sure what the timing is and whether that would even work); she could score high enough the first time that there's no reason to take it again. 

[Momto6inIN]

The CB website says that because they make twice as much money if you take it twice 😉

If you and she are happy with her score after the 1st time, there's no need to take it twice. A little bit of trig is helpful with the SAT, but if your kid does well with math then the little bit required is easy to learn from a good prep book. (knowing what SOH-CAH-TOA means is about the extent of it, I believe, but I could be wrong)

My kids prepped over junior year and took the test in the spring and that was it.

[Malam]

21 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Your DD would benefit having Algebra 2 and even precalculus

I don't think there are any question that require precalculus (Assuming you know sohcahtoa), although of course the harder questions will benefit from having more mathematical experience. However, a few weeks of SAT-specific prep will do much more for her score than a year of precalculus.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Malam