Most students prepare for the SAT or the ACT by taking a specific test taking course, studying a book, or being tutored in problem areas.  While this is not mandatory it is important to remember that most other students are preparing in this way and percentile rankings could be skewed for the unprepared student. 

It is probably in the student’s best interest to sit for both exams – sometime in the second semester of their junior year.  While students certainly can continue to sit for the exams in the first semester of the senior year, most college recruiters are interested in SAT or ACT scores so it is to the student’s advantage to have something to report to them prior to their senior year. 

Once a student has taken both exams, he may decide to take the exam that he feels most comfortable with again.  It is the rare student today who sits only once for either the SAT or the ACT.  Having said this, however, it is important to note that the results of the second test often show marked improvement.  A third sitting for the same exam will probably not result in much improvement, and may in fact even result in a lower score than test #2.  Therefore, be cautious about the number of times a student sits for either the SAT or the ACT – remember all scores are to be reported to the NCAA. 

The NCAA uses only the critical reading and math scores on the SAT – the writing section is required by most colleges so the student should sign up for all 3 sections.  The scores for the 4 sections (English, Math, Reading, and Science) of the ACT are added together.  Here again the writing section score is excluded but most probably required by colleges so the student should plan on writing an essay to a prompt as part of the ACT also.  

The NCAA has a sliding scale which combines required GPA and SAT or ACT scores.  Essentially, the lower the GPA the higher the test scores must be in order to be eligible.  It is important to remember that the NCAA requirements are much lower than most college admissions requirements.  Meeting the NCAA guidelines represents a minimum for the student athlete. 

For more specifics on NCAA requirements, please be sure to visit www.ncaa.org.