Aleeha Shah | staff writer 

With college on their minds, many juniors and seniors are starting to think about one of the most important tests they are required to take, the SAT or in some cases, the ACT.  The students realize that college is closer than they thought, and rush to sign up.

“For signing up, we recommend that juniors take the test for the first time in the spring semester of their junior year, and also in the summer before their senior year,” counselor Desiree Meza said. “If you’re already a senior and you need to take the test maybe one last time before your college applications are due you can do that this semester.”

Signing up for the SAT and ACT is fairly simple. For the ACT, students should go to www.act.org, and for the SAT students should go to www.collegeboard.org. To register for the tests, students must make an account if they don’t already have one. After they create one or log in, they would click ‘register’ and follow the directions. 

“When you go to College board’s website, you click ‘register,’ and it will tell you when the next test date is, and then the deadline to register,” Meza said.

When students signs up to take the SAT, they must pay attention to both the test date, and the deadline date. They have to sign up by the deadline date if they want to take the test. Students can also sign up for whatever date is best for them.

“The next test is January 23rd has a deadline of of December 28th,” Meza said. “And if you click ‘more test dates’ it will take you to the spring test dates.”

The students interested in taking the tests can sign up whenever they can. They can access the website and choose the day they want to take the test. Along with choosing their test dates, students can also choose where they would prefer to take the SAT or ACT.

“You select your testing site when you register. So they have various sites around San Antonio. Usually Northeast has testing sites at Johnson, at Madison, so you just select which one is closest to you,” Meza said.

According to Meza, juniors should look into taking their test during their junior year, because it can have many benefits. So juniors should register to take the test before they enter their senior year.

“If you wait till your senior year, you might only have time to  take it one time, so that one time you test would be your one and only score, versus taking it your junior year, you have time to improve your score if you need to,” Meza said.