With the rise (and fall!) of test-optional admissions, many families may be wondering about the role of the SAT or ACT in the elite college admissions process. Is it important to prepare for standardized tests, or can you take test-optional colleges at their word that they won’t put you at a disadvantage by not submitting test scores? You’ve already made the smart move of researching your options with Ivy Coach. We will endeavor to answer all of your questions by linking to the relevant pages of our college admissions blog.

How and Why Standardized Testing Matters For College Admission

• Don’t buy into the lie that admissions officers will try to sell you about test-optional admissions. Despite their assurances to the contrary, you will absolutely be at a disadvantage if you don’t submit test scores. While no score is better than submitting an abysmal score, you’ll stand the best chance of admission if you submit scores that fall at the 50% or higher range of test scores for the most recently available admitted students profile.
• To come away with a better sense of what makes for a competitive SAT or ACT score in the Ivy League and highly selective college admissions process, check out our blog on this very subject. You might be surprised to learn, for example, that 25% of Yale admits scored below a 1480 on their SATs, or that 25% of Harvard admits who took the ACT achieved a perfect score.
• To reiterate, there are very few scenarios where you should not submit test scores to your prospective college. But if you or your child are just simply not equipped to achieve a competitive score, check out our comprehensive list of test-optional colleges in the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. If you fall into this camp, you may want to take note that all University of California schools are test-free, meaning they don’t even consider test scores for the students who did take the SAT or ACT!
• The SAT and the ACT aren’t the only standardized tests out there. For a tell-all FAQ on AP exams as they relate to college admissions, check out our blog on AP testing. We break down the different scenarios in which not reporting a score might actually be the right call.
• For those of you with questions regarding the number of times you can take the SAT or ACT before colleges begin to raise eyebrows, check out our blogs on the subject for the SAT and ACT. As a general rule, we discourage reporting more than one test administration. Colleges would rather believe you have hit it out of the park in one go, even if you really did sit for the test more than once!
• Most highly selective colleges superscore SAT and ACT results, meaning you’re able to combine your highest scores from each section across different testing administrations to create a higher overall score. We’re all for sitting for the SAT or ACT as many times as it takes to achieve a competitive superscore. Even still, superscoring should be done with caution, as it can signal to admissions officers that you had to work harder than other applicants to achieve your scores (they’d prefer students for whom it came naturally), hence our hesitation for reporting more than one test.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance With Standardized Test Prep

The tutors at Ivy Coach regularly help our students boost their scores — whether on the SAT, ACT, or AP exams for college applicants; the SSAT or ISEE for prep school applicants; or the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, or MCAT for graduate school applicants. Our tutoring is conducted entirely via Zoom and is designed to address students’ areas of weakness.

To enlist the help of Ivy Coach’s Fran Bigman, our senior tutor with over 20 years of experience tutoring both the SAT and ACT, to help your child optimize their case for admission to a highly selective college via competitive test scores, fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our tutoring services.