Generally, a high school student should do most of their standardized testing during their junior year. In fact, that’s probably the biggest part of the college planning process that should occur during junior year. It’s often a good idea, however, to take one more shot at the SAT or ACT during the earliest available tests of senior year. This is usually September for the ACT and October for SAT.
The next step during the fall of senior year is to apply to the colleges a student is interested in. That most commonly happens in the months of September, October, and November. So, once all those applications are in, it stands to reason that there is no need to continue testing for throughout senior year. That is generally true, but there are a handful of reasons why a senior might want to continue to take standardized tests all the way up to graduation.
The first of these is simply to increase a score for admission purposes. Indeed, often a decision letter from a school will be a deferment that calls for more testing. In this case, the college sending the letter probably likes the student but wishes to see a score or sub-score (often writing) come in just a little higher. If the college asks you to test again, test again!
This sort of goes hand in hand with the need to hit certain benchmarks. Some schools have minimum scores they need to see before they choose to accept you. You can usually find these scores on a school’s admissions website. If you don’t meet the minimum numbers, you need to keep testing. Others schools, particularly at the community college level, may admit you but will require you to take remediation classes if you don’t meet minimum standards. These are classes you’d have to pay tuition for and they wouldn’t count towards your degree, but you would be required to take them. Thus, it’s generally much cheaper and a more efficient use of time to try to meet the minimum score on a test before you get to college.
To this end, some colleges will use standardized tests for placement. A student with a high math score, for example, might be placed in a higher level math class which essentially accelerates their curriculum. Other colleges might ask a senior to take a SAT Subject Test for placement. Again, always closely follow the instructions and recommendations of the colleges you’re interested in.
Lastly, there are some scholarships that a student may become eligible for if certain scores are made. You need to be aware of the application deadlines of these types of scholarships but many are available through the spring. For example The Bright Futures Scholarship in Florida, where I live, takes scores from seniors all the way up to the June test.
Again, for most seniors there is no need to take a SAT or ACT deep into senior year, i.e. the spring. However, there are some instances when a senior might need to do just that. Taking those tests is never fun and for most students it’s a big relief to know testing is complete, but there might be some big advantages to trying it one more time.
