SAT/ ACT Cancelled: What to do now?
In the past couple of days there have been several announcements from Collegboard and ACT regarding their upcoming testing dates. We have recapped relevant headlines and come up with recommendations that we feel should serve our students. Since every student is different, these recommendations may need to be tailored to his/her situation.
Collegeboard (SAT)
An additional SAT testing date will be added in September
Registration for late summer, fall testing will open in May. Priority will be given to students who were registered for the June test and don’t have an official SAT score on record.
Beginning in August if students are unable to take the SAT at their testing center, online at home testing, like AP Testing will be made available.
For the most common SAT Subject Tests, students can expect multiple opportunities in the Fall. For those Subject Tests offered only a couple of times a year, the College Board confirmed that they will reschedule those June Subject Tests.
ACT
ACT June 13th and July 18th test are on schedule. In addition, they are offering make up testing dates on June 20th and July 25th.
Students can change their June testing date to July at no additional cost.
In addition to the already scheduled Fall/Winter testing dates in 2020, ACT will be offering remote proctoring option for the late fall/ early winter 2020.
Test Optional decisions from the colleges:
Because a large group of Class of 2021 has now missed the chance to take the SAT/ACT test with no immediate end in sight from the COVID-19 crisis, many colleges have made changes to their admission policies for Class of 2021. The link below contains the most current status on the admissions policies from the colleges. This is still evolving, so check back for any changes/modifications to admissions criteria for the colleges you are interested in.
https://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/ACT-SATWaiversfor2020Admissions.pdf
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR CLASS OF 2021?
By now the Class of 2021 has missed the most critical part of the testing cycle. Even though June 13th ACT is still “scheduled”, it seems to be unlikely that students will be able to take the June ACT test. This seems to be the common sentiment from local testing centers.
While modified college admissions criteria for Class of 2021 will certainly provide some flexibility for students when applying, SAT/ACT test scores should continue to be part of your complete application packet.
The following are recommending for our students:
Work on the application packet between now and June, Common Application essay prompts are already available. Use this time to work on your application packet before the busy Fall season.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR CLASS OF 2022?
While testing early and often has never been part of our strategy, we are big proponents of getting your ‘Junior Year Testing Plan’ in place before the start of your Junior year. This will allow you to optimize and balance your Junior Year activities.
For those students who are currently taking Algebra 2 – Algebra is heavily tested on the SAT/ACT. Since the last quarter of the school year was online, it is very likely that they may need Foundational Math review before starting SAT/ ACT prep.
For those students who are advanced in Math, earlier testing in their Junior year might make sense but in general we recommend they plan to take the tests at a physical testing center (school/college) and avoid the initial rounds of online testing. Although not new, massive online proctored testing is relatively un-chartered territory and with that comes many unknowns which will need to be addressed.
