Taking three tests in one day almost always results in getting lower scores on all three tests than if you took them on separate dates. Try to take at least one or two SAT Subject tests freshman or sophomore year so the burden does not fall on junior and senior year. If you’re a junior, take advantage of midyear test dates like the upcoming January test and the March test (the latter is for only the SAT I). If you plan to take the SAT I in January of your junior year and again in March, by the May test date you’ll be ready to spread your SAT Subject Tests into two distinct test dates: May and June. If you are an international student, however, there is no March test date for the SAT I. Don’t underestimate the importance of Subject Tests–colleges sometimes count them even more than SAT I’s since they provide an idea of what grading is like at your high school.

A quick tip about the essay on the SAT writing section: The longer your essay, the higher your score. All the high-scoring sample essays included in The Official SAT Study Guide For The New SAT are fairly long and well-developed, while the low-scoring sample essays are much shorter. But be careful–even though an essay scores often seems correlate with their length, that doesn’t mean that writing garbage just to fill up space is a good idea. Rather, it means is that if you’ve written a short essay, your chances of scoring high are slim. So if you think you’ve finished your essay and you still have a few minutes left, add another paragraph or two and you’ll probably earn an extra point or two!