When to start preparing for ACT/SAT?

This is one of the many million-dollar questions. There is no right or wrong answer. The easy answer to this question is – Do whatever makes sense to you!

However, let me make an attempt to share my thoughts. Use this as a starting point and I am sure each family will come up with a very good plan that is customized to the child.

In this section I will use ACT as an example. Similar concept can be applied to SAT as well.

First full practice test:

I recommend the child to take a full practice test in the summer after finishing 8th grade. There are 2 ways to take a practice test:

Practice test at home. There are lots of books on Amazon. Khan Academy has free practice tests.
Practice test at a coaching center like C2 or Sylvan

My recommendation is option 2. The reasons are below:

This creates a formal test atmosphere compared to your home
These institutes have a good analytical report that will show the areas of strengths and weaknesses. This report helps in planning the preparation time.

Identify potential colleges:

It is sometimes difficult for most families to decide on potential colleges even before joining the high school. However, it is important to at least have the discussion within your family (a good dinner table discussion!). This will get the child thinking about what he/she loves to do in their life.

One of the value-add parents can bring to the table is - Facilitate activities/discussions with the child in guiding the child to discover what he/she loves to do. The example I always use is that of a sports person. Think of someone like a Lebron James or Aaron Rodgers. They love playing their respective games and they get paid for doing what they love! Similarly if your child loves to teach young kids, help him/her get into best possible teacher program and the child will lead a stress-free professional life.

I apologize for spending more time on this topic, but I sincerely request the parents to step back and think about the previous paragraph. I really feel this is very important.

Ok! Now let us move on. Once you determine a field of study (ex: Teacher, Lawyer, Finance..), I suggest to think about the following dimensions to help you choose a college:

Ranking of the college
Can you afford out-of-state fees
Crime rate
Allergies and/or other health conditions
What kind of college atmosphere does the child enjoy (Ex: City or Rural)
Weather preference. Ex: Does your child want to run away from snow?
How important is to have the child's best friends in the same college?
Cost of living

Setup a goal in ACT/SAT:

Once you have a list of potential colleges, research on what is the 75th percentile ACT/SAT score requirement for the colleges. Identify the highest ACT/SAT score required among all the preferred colleges. This is your goal. Below is an example of a few engineering colleges:

If you want to increase your probability of getting admission in all these 7 universities, then the goals are:

ACT Target: 34
SAT Target: 1530

When is the right time to write the test:

Based on my research, the best time to write ACT/SAT is during the summer after sophomore year. In others words, write the tests before junior year starts. Below are the reasons for this recommendation:

Junior year is when the child typically takes the most aggressive set of courses that include AP and/or honors
Junior year grades are the most important for college admission. Hence it is important to not get distracted in junior year with preparing for ACT/SAT, school requirement, sports, volunteering and other activities. Taking out ACT/SAT from the equation is a big stress reliever for the child.
During junior year and the following summer, the child can focus free time on college applications and essays.

The disadvantage of this approach is:

By the time of Sophomore completion, most of the topics in Math sections will be covered in school. Only probability and trigonometry have a higher chance on not being covered. This needs to be compensated by parents and/or coaching.

What next?

Now you have the following data points available. These help in deciding how much preparation time is needed:

Score from your practice test
Goal. The gap in these 2 numbers will determine the amount of time to prepare.
When do you want to write the test

Since the plan depends highly on the answers to the above questions, I will not be able to give a detailed plan. However, I recommend the following. This recommendation is assuming you need to improve your score by at least 8 points for ACT.

At least 10 hours per week of preparation in the 6 to 4 months prior to the test
At least 15 hours per week of preparation in the 2 months prior to the test
At least one practice test per 2 weeks in the last 3 months prior to the test
1. The practice test results should be analyzed to identify areas of improvement and preparation should be focused on those areas