It’s your senior year of high school. Everyone is talking about where they want to go to college, and asking you what you want to major in… but you haven’t applied anywhere yet. You still need to take your standardized test. At Student-Tutor, we get this question all the time. When do you take the SAT?
When can you take the ACT or SAT?
According to ACT.ORG, here are the ACT test dates and registration period:
| ACT Test Date | Regular Registration Deadline | Late Registration Deadline |
| September 12 | August 31 | None |
| September 13 | August 31 | None |
| September 19 | August 31 | None |
| October 10 | September 25 | None |
| October 17 | September 25 | None |
| October 24 | September 25 | None |
| October 25 | September 25 | None |
| December 12 | November 6 | November 20 |
| February 26 | January 8 | January 15 |
Meanwhile, for the SAT, here are the test dates and registration:
| SAT Test Date | Regular Registration Deadline | Late Registration Deadline |
| September 26 | August 26 | September 15 |
| October 3 | September 4 | September 22 |
| November 7 | October 7 | October 27 |
| December 5 | November 5 | November 24 |
These are the registration and test dates for the SAT and ACT in 2020-2021, but getting in to take the test on time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the clear for college. In fact, it doesn’t at all.
The whole reason you’re taking the ACT and/or SAT is so that you can submit your scores to your college of choice for admission.
So the idea is that you have to take these tests IN ADVANCE. Your checklist goes like this:
- GPA
- Test Scores
- College and scholarship applications
Colleges will start evaluating applications before March. In March, most colleges will have decided who they are accepting, and you will most likely hear of their decisions around April 1st.
If I’m a senior, is it too late to take the SAT or ACT?
More than anything, you need to know what your college(s) of choice’s application deadlines are. Let’s say you’re a high school senior, and it’s January. In this case, you would have missed over 40 application deadlines to colleges including Cal Poly, UCLA, Berkeley, and UC Davis!
College Simply lists the deadline for every college admissions so you better check their page.
Now, if you haven’t taken the ACT or SAT, you’re going to need to take it before applying to any college and keep in mind that you’ll also have to wait to see your scores.
- SAT score release can be up to 2 or more weeks after the exam.
- ACT score release can be up to 8 weeks after the exam!
So, can you take the SAT senior year? Yeah, you probably can. Here’s a more specific timeline:
- October SAT: This is too late for early admissions.
- November SAT: This is too late for early admissions, but okay for the regular admissions.
- December SAT: You have to check with your college regarding their application deadline. This is too late for early admissions and very much cutting it close for regular admissions.
What about the ACT, you ask? Can you take the ACT senior year? Absolutely! Many seniors take the SAT during the fall and there is no problem with that.
It's never too late to get scholarships. There are plenty of scholarships that are monthly, weekly, and even daily. However, if you're looking to score big, the deadlines for larger scholarships are usually in January.
The trick is to have your test scores and GPA in order. You need to have taken your ACT/SAT before applying to scholarships that are concerned with these scores. There is a lot of money to be earned through Merit-Based Scholarships, for example.
