Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SAT Subject Test - Math II

Amylou, that is my thought - that mastery of the material may become more solid over time. I think that for many high ability kids in particular, it is really easy and quick to merely understand concepts, but it can take time to truly master materials so that they can consistently solve problems, especially non-routine ones, quickly and accurately. Of course, our decision will depend on how " hard" the Math II subject test is for DS. We haven't even look at sample questions yet.

June would be the most convenient time although College Board is now offering a late August date, which would technically be 9th grade. September/October is busy season for music (all-county/all-state auditions/rehearsals, etc.). It was my understanding that most students take three SAT subject tests on a single test date to avoid clogging up too many Saturdays and paying triple registration fees. I just assumed that if he was ready, then there wouldn't be much studying other than a couple of sample tests?

Ruazkaz, what is your reasoning for taking both Math I and Math II? Isn't Math I really trivial for a mathy student?

I don't really know about the eighth grade score issue at individual colleges but I do know of a number of students who are using eighth grade subject scores.

Both DS and DD used official IDs because it was less stressful than explaining the talent search affidavit form to unknowledgeable proctors.

I haven't looked at the test so I don't know how easy it is. However, the issue may just be the raw score to scaled score conversion - missing zero to five/six all yield a "perfect" 800. Perhaps there may be a valid reason why College Board is not differentiating among the top 19 percent. The pool of Math II student is much more select that SAT I or Math I and they may not want to make too fine a distinction if it is irrelevant for program fit purposes.

There is also the fact that only certain colleges require subject tests although more at least consider them. I think it is fine that so many kids get a top score; however, it just creates more pressure to make sure that you score perfectly as well.

Hi Quantum2003 - I have not looked at the Math I and II subject tests closely but thought I had seen various kids post scores on another site I follow where they were taking both. Thanks for pointing out that the Math I is not considered difficult. I will look into it further and if no benefit to take it then will avoid it.

It seems like early 9th grade could be a better time to take the Math II test but it would be a lot more convenient to get it out of the way at the end of 8th grade as it would be very fresh and he has more time. It looks like 9th grade will be quite busy...

This may help answer the question about the subject tests and percentiles: http://www.compassprep.com/whats-a-good-sat-subject-test-score/

Yep, weird. The scores are not visible in his College Board account.