Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School SAT subject test in Chemistry?

I am getting conflicting advice if I should sign my DS up for the SAT Subject test in Chemistry. He will already be taking the Math 2 subject test in June. DS has been taking a standard H.S. Chemistry class. And doing very well this spring, but didn't get the best grade because of missing homework last semester. He isn't planning on taking AP Chem next year. (Maybe senior year.) I know the SAT Subject tests are less important than the used to be and the only one DS I am sure will be useful is the Math 2 test.

I'm getting conflicting advice about if the test should be taken at the end of a year of High School Chemistry (a friend, and college board web-site) but the school counselor recommends only taking it after AP Chemistry. DS generally tests very well on multiple choice tests and has an interest in taking the test. It can't hurt right? If he doesn't get a good score we don't have to send it to colleges.

Anyone been down this route. Did your students find it easy? I should probably ask this question on college confidential but there are people on this board I trust the answers from.

No personal experience, but I can tell you that in our school, strong students are generally given the advice to go ahead and take the SAT-2 after the honors course. They do state that the class is felt to be adequate preparation, though also suggest using a review book. The exception is kids who know they will take the AP course- some kids then wait and take the SAT-2 after that, assuming it will result in a higher score. DD has a friend that scored an 800 on the bio one after the standard honors bio (she's a pretty strong student, don't know how much extra prep she did).

I guess it depends on whether your DS's course covered the necessary material, or if he feels he can fill in whatever holes there might be.

The book Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests, 2nd Edition has a past subject test for each subject. If your son scores well enough on the chemistry test in the book, he can take it for real. If not, he could get a prep book or wait until the AP Chemistry course.

Our school suggests taking the Subject test right after the class. But the June date is in the middle of our final exams. The May date is two days before the AP exam (and in the middle of the culmination of the time-gobbling spring activity).

How has everyone handled that kind of timing?

Well, our school year lasts till almost the end of June, so we have weeks and weeks for all the various tests. Which leads to tons of review in some classes- in DDs geometry, they have the local honors final fairly soon, then in a few weeks, the common core exam, and then a few weeks after that the state (pre-common core) regents exam (strangely, they seem to occur in descending order of difficulty). So they fill the time between with review, and some topics that are covered more or less on specific tests. And that is a class without AP or SAT-2 testing; she has some of those coming up as well for other classes. This is DDs first year of HS, so we are just beginning the testing cycle here- it seems kind of ridiculous, but with all the reviewing they seem to do, I think DD is not that worked up, just kind of irritated with the process.

Our school lasts until the 3rd week in June. So I'm signing DS up for the June tests dates. The SAT Subject test will be 2 weeks before finals. I don't see a conflict in studying for these tests and studying for his semester finals. They should cover a lot of the same material.

DS's school is moving up our schedule by one more week this summer (starting in August for the first time) and so next year there will be less time between these tests and finals. But more importantly one week less AFTER AP exams. My DS won't be taking any AP's this year so he wouldn't have had conflict with the May date but I wanted him to have as much of the class as possible before the tests.

Thanks for the feedback. Having him try a sample test this weekend and see how he does before enrolling him.

Well that is decided, he won't take the Chemistry test this year. DS took 1/2 of a sample test and wouldn't do any more because he wasn't motivated. Of the half he did he left 10 questions unanswered, all about solubility. He did fine on the problems he did answer. He thinks he could do well on it if he self studied how to do solubility as he said it didn't look hard. But knowing DS it's not going to happen. I'd rather push him to study for the Math 2 Subject test and have him do well on that. We don't even know if he will NEED any subject test yet. He can decide next year if he wants to take any Chemistry subject tests.

This also makes it clear that I WILL be finding DS a SAT test prep class this summer. He could do it at home, but he seems to need the formal setting of a classroom for motivation.

Is your son taking AP Chem next year? That might be a good time to take the SAT subject test in Chem. DS took the AP exam today, and said he wants to take the subject test next month. I almost want to wait for the AP score before signing him up, but the timing is off. This week is the registration deadline.

Not sure yet but probably not. AP Biology, AP Chem, and AP Physics are all in the running. All 3 of them he doesn't officially meet the grade criteria to get into but he is close. His counselor has said she would go to bat for him and he is currently getting a high A in Chemistry this semester. I believe there shouldn't be an issue to get him into AP Physics because it's based on his math grade. I think he should take AP Chemistry over AP Biology since they it's more math based. But the AP Biology teacher is really good while this years Chemistry is boring.

My logic is the SAT Subject test aren't really as important to get into colleges these days. The Math 2 Subject test is still important to get into Math, Engineering & Computer Science programs. And if he needs another Subject test he can probably take whichever science he takes next year.

I'm glad I came back to this thread today, it compelled me to register DS17 for the subject tests in math 2 and physics. The test date is a couple of days after finals end, so he can sleep in for a day in between. The APs -- 4 of them! -- were last week, but the scores don't come out for 2 months.

Edited to add, DS' grades are not great, so we are hoping that the Subject test scores will be something else he can include in his applications since the AP scores are not part of that package, right?

Anyone else taking the Subject tests?