3 Reasons to Take the SAT Your Junior Year

So, you’re approaching or in your junior year of high school. You’re tackling new classes, subjects, and challenges! One of the things you’re about to face (if you haven’t already,) is the PSAT. The PSAT is usually administered in October and juniors take it for two reasons.

1. A sort of “dry run” for the SAT.
2. To qualify for, among other things, scholarships and recognition programs such as the National Merit Scholarship.

These are both great reasons to take the PSAT. However, taking the PSAT in the fall can have an undesirable side-effect. A lot of students, after taking the PSAT, are unwilling and unmotivated to take the SAT in the spring. This is totally understandable! If you took the PSAT seriously enough to study for it, then you’re probably all tested out. Now you have to turn around and study for the real thing? It’s exhausting to think about. The idea of having to sit through another multi-hour standardized test is enough to make most students squirm. We get it! We’ve been there and it’s not fun.

Benefits of Taking the SAT Your Junior Year

However, leaving the SAT until your senior year is not the best move. Here are three reasons to consider pulling up your boot straps and taking on the SAT your junior year.

1. The SAT tests junior-level content. The end of your junior year is when this content is freshest in your mind! Since you can’t take the SAT in the summer, you’ll have to wait until the start of your senior year. That means months will pass before you crack an academic book open. Take the SAT while you’re still in school- and study-mode.
2. Senior year is already a whirlwind. Do you really want to throw the SAT on top of everything else your senior year involves? The answer is probably not. Your last year of high school includes leadership roles in extracurriculars, applying to college, keeping your grades up, senior events, and social gatherings galore. Don’t worry about studying for and taking the LSAT while juggling everything else. Just take the test before taking on senior year!
3. You have more wiggle room in case you need to retake the SAT. If you don’t quite rock the end-of-junior-year SAT, you can study for the test over the summer and take it again as soon as school starts in the fall. While it’s a bummer to study during the summer, it’s worth it to make senior year less daunting.

All in all, it’s a much better idea to take the SAT at the end of your junior year than it is to wait. With a little planning, you can get the SAT out of the way and do more fun things than studying for yet another test your senior year.