New SAT exam date supports summer prep
The test, scheduled for Sept. 13, will provide an additional chance for students who utilize their summer break to prepare for the all-important exam.
Previously, students had only one summer option to take the SAT in late August; this year it's Aug. 23. It's an extremely popular date utilized by hundreds of thousands of high school students, and now they'll have another opportunity to maximize their scores with the addition of a September date. The final 2025 testing dates will be Oct. 4, Nov. 8 and Dec. 6.
Students can take the SAT as many times as they want, and colleges never know. When it comes time to submit SAT scores, in the fall of senior year as students file their college applications, they log into their College Board account and choose exactly which scores they want to share. In short, students get 'unlimited do-overs,' and often take advantage of that opportunity to maximize college acceptances and scholarship offers.
More: Private college advisor popularity surges | College Connection
Students are also motivated by the fact that many colleges are willing to 'super-score,' considering the highest Reading/Writing score from one test and the highest Math score from another. But students need to realize that they cannot send just one portion of an exam, so colleges will see both the Math and the Reading/Writing scores for all the tests submitted.
Recent years have seen skyrocketing SAT scores with many competitive colleges reporting the median SAT scores of accepted students at 1500 or above. According to statistics from U.S. News & World Report, these schools include Duke, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Princeton, Rice, and Stanford.
More: NJ high schools ranked by top SAT scores | College Connection
Also on this list are University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, Yale, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Northwestern, Amherst, Cornell, Harvey Mudd College, New York University, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Tufts, and Notre Dame.
With a bit of advanced planning and dedicated preparation for the very coachable SAT exam, students can put their best foot forward in the competitive college application process.
Susan Alaimo is the founder & director of Collegebound Review, offering PSAT/SAT® preparation & private college advising by Ivy League educated instructors. Visit CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: New SAT exam date supports summer prep | Opinion
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