The day has finally come. Your alarm rings at 7 a.m. sharp. Your laptop is fully charged, your pencils are sharpened, and your senses are alert. You are ready to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). But when is this happening? Are you an ambitious sophomore? A junior starting to feel the pressure of college? Or a senior, taking it for the last time? 

When you start planning for the SAT, you’ll find that there’s no “right time” to take it. Taking the test earlier will leave you with one less thing to worry about later on, but you may find yourself unprepared with one less year. Taking it later might mean you won’t need as much preparation, but you could end up scrambling to get a good score as the due date nears. We’ve asked college counselors and current seniors to share their advice and experiences to help you determine when the best time to take the SAT would be for you. 

Overwhelmingly, most people we asked agreed that junior year is the best time to take it. “Get it over in junior year as senior year gets busy,” says Dylan L. (‘25), an opinion that many agree with. With college applications taking up a lot of your time in senior year, the SAT isn’t something you want to have on your plate. 

The college counselors agree. “If you take it in tenth grade, it really is too early, because you haven’t had access to the pre-calculus that you need. You haven’t had access to the context of some of the articles you read. But junior year? Yeah, you’ll have touched upon some of that in your classes,” says Ms. Huang. Taking the test in junior year also provides you with a safety net—if you need to retake it, you’ll still have a semester in senior year. 

With students and counselors unanimously recommending students to take the SAT in junior year, the real question remains: first or second semester? According to the seniors, the first semester is better. “Taking it early gives you time to see what areas you still need to improve on,” Dylan L. (‘25) explained. Not only will you have a semester in senior year to retake it, you’ll also have your second semester in junior year, which gives you more time to study and more chances to improve your score. In addition, if you prepare during the summer, you’ll be right on track to take the SAT in the fall semester. You can take it right when you come back to school, with the content still fresh in your mind. “I don’t regret taking it during the fall semester since it made my second semester less stressful than it already was,” Lyn Y. (‘25) reflected. 

On the other hand, the college counselors offer a different perspective. “Best time to take the SAT? Second semester junior year,” says Ms. Huang. After junior year, you’ll have been exposed to content that is on the SAT. Eleventh-grade English and history expose you to the necessary reading skills, and you’ll have covered most of the math that appears on the test. “That’s why so many students, when they take it too early, they’re like, I need to go to SAT prep. It’s because you haven’t had access to that content, that’s why you feel like you need to study for it,” she explains. “But if you follow the official TAS college counseling office’s advice, take the SAT, take the ACT, both junior year, second semester.” She highlights the importance of taking the test to match your learning progress. You might feel less stressed and rushed, as you’ve had an extra semester to grow as a student. 

But isn’t junior year already stressful enough? Many seniors highlighted that the second semester is full of studying already—for AP/IB tests, final exams and extracurriculars. But Ms. Huang disagrees. “It’s about aptitude. The SAT is called the Scholastic Aptitude [Test]. Prep is helpful for test strategies, but once you learn the test strategies, you can apply the strategies to all of the questions.” She explains that once you’ve covered the material in school, you don’t really have to do SAT boot camp during your junior year. 

At the end of the day, the SAT is just a test. It’s up to you to decide when, or even if, you want to take it. Your score doesn’t define you, and it definitely doesn’t determine what college you’ll get into, especially since many colleges have implemented test-optional policies. Remember to choose a timeline that works for you—not your peers, parents or counselors.