Subject Tests at your guidance counselor’s office. You can also register at the
College Board website, http://sat.collegeboard.org. This site also contains useful
information, such as the test dates and fees. If you have questions, you can talk to a
representative at the College Board by calling 1-866-756-7346 from within the
United States or 212-713-7789 from outside the country.
You may have your scores sent to you, to your school, and to four colleges of your
choice. Additional reports will be sent to additional colleges for—you guessed it
—additional money. Scores are made available to students via the College Board’s
website. To find out about the timeline of when the scores are made available, visit
http://sat.collegeboard.org.
What’s a Good Score?
That’s hard to say, exactly. A good score is one that fits in the range of scores that
the college of your choice usually accepts. However, if your score falls below the
normal score range for Podunk University, that doesn’t mean you won’t go to
Podunk University. Schools are usually fairly flexible in what they are willing to
look at as a “good” score for a particular student.
Along with your score, you will also receive a percentile rank. That number tells
you how you fit in with the other test takers. In other words, a percentile rank of 60
means that 40 percent of the test takers scored above you and 60 percent scored
below you.
A Couple of Words about Score Choice
As of February 2009, you can choose which SAT Subject Test scores you want
colleges to see. This is great news! For one thing, if you take more than one SAT
Subject Test on a given test date, you’ll be able to choose which tests from that date
you’d like to submit to colleges. So if, for example, you take the French test
followed by the chemistry test, but you don’t think the chemistry test went very
well, you can simply opt out of having that chemistry score sent to your schools.
The score reporting policy is optional for students. This means that you aren’t
required to opt in and actively choose which specific scores you would like sent to
colleges. If you decide not to use the score-reporting feature, then all of the scores
on file will automatically be sent when you request score reports. For more
information about the new score-reporting policy, go to the College Board website
at http://www.collegeboard.org.