If you are a junior, or a parent of a junior, the SAT needs to be taken this spring. For those of you who have already taken it, bravo! If you are happy with your scores – and they align with the colleges you want to attend – you may be good to go. If not, you have as many chances to take the SAT as you’d like; you only have to send the scores from your best administration to colleges.
Juniors who have not yet taken the SAT need to do so this spring. check the College Board for testing date options. SAT’s are not administered in the summer! Ideally, you will study hard, take your SAT, be pleased with your scores according to the colleges you’d like to attend, and be done with the standardized test portion of your application. Otherwise, you will be studying for your SAT while you are doing your college applications in the fall which can lead to serious overwhelm for students and families alike. I’m here to help!
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO NOW?
Take the SAT
- Register for an SAT – No better time than the present
- Plan to start studying – An ideal study program is at least eight weeks
- Do some preliminary college research – Do not pay attention to minimum requirements, but rather the scores of students that were actually admitted to your colleges of interest in the previous fall.
- TAKE A PRACTICE SAT
- I provide actual SAT tests that have been administered by the College Board free of charge
- These baseline tests are available for any student to take and receive a report of strengths and weaknesses by subject area and strategic process as well as a suggested course of study
- Work with your parents to decide the best way for you to study based on your desired scores
WHO GETS IN?
These are the average SAT scores for students admitted to a sampling of CA public colleges in 2012:
Universities of California: Reading Comprehension + Writing + Math
- UCLA – 2035
- UC Davis – 1893
- UC Santa Barbara – 1892
- UC Irvine – 1831
- UC Santa Cruz – 1734
California State Colleges: Reading Comprehension + Math
- Cal Poly Engineering – 1346 [673 average]
- SDSU – 1144 [572 average]
- Cal State Long Beach* – 1025 [512.5 average]
- Cal State LA* – 886 [443 average]
- Cal State San Marcos – 965 [482.5 average]
*Cal State Long Beach and Cal State LA admit from their local communities and pull from other areas only if there are slots remaining
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?
Colleges are relying on standardized testing more than ever before as a factor in admissions decisions. Be ready to rock it!! You CAN be successful by learning content and strategy through a program that is right for you. I know what you need to get your max score and I’m here to help you make it happen!
Virginia Kerrigan Ruehrwein, B.A., M.Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education
Virginia Kerrigan Ruehrwein holds a Master of Education degree from Harvard University and has been an expert in college admission for more than ten years. Mrs. Ruehrwein worked as a teacher and guidance counselor before finding her calling in college admissions. As the owner ofTotal Student Support, she provides standardized test preparation, college application assistance, and individualized English tutoring. She is a passionate and caring professional dedicated to guiding your child to admission to his or her dream college.
