What age should i sit the USA SATs at a student from the UK?

I'm a student at high school in the UK considering applying to an ivy league in a few years. Can anyone recommend when I should sit and begin to prepare for the SAT/ACT and any information about the process would be great :smile:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

wizkid44

I think you sit the SAT/ACT sometime in between the last half of year 12 and end of the first termof year 13

If your elegible is encourage you to apply to the Sutton Trust US Programme which provides a lot of information

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

As above, sometime towards the end of year 12 or over the summer before year 13 is ideal. You could still sit it in the first term of year 13, but you then have limited test dates by which you can sit it for a lot of colleges and few if any opportunities to take it again if you want to improve your scores (or to take SAT subject tests, since as far as I am aware you need to sit those on a separate test date to the main SAT).

Note that test dates fill up quickly once they open for registration, and there are limited numbers of test centres in the UK and your nearest one may be some distance from where you live potentially. You should investigate where they are and what times the tests take place so you can plan this in advance. When I did it the nearest test centre was nearly 3 hours away and the test started at 8am or so.

That said in terms of content the main SAT doesn't test anything subject-wise from A-level, and the level of difficulty for the non-disciplinary questions (i.e. the critical reading sections) is really probably at best around GCSE level. So you probably could sit it after your GCSEs and potentially do well. Doing well in the SAT is really more down to learning how to take the test and understanding the odd format and phrasing of the questions, than actual knowledge or ability in any capacity.