We all want our kids to have a break from the pressure cooker of high school.
And when so many colleges are test-optional now, do you even have to bother with it?
You may not have to. But before you make any assumptions, now is the time to get clarity about what it’s going to mean for your kid, and whether or not it’s worth it.
Many testing policies are temporary, and every year more colleges have been rolling them back. Meanwhile, at highly selective schools, those test-optional policies don’t mean test-irrelevant — you may still need a score to be competitive. And test-blind schools are still the exception, not the rule.
So while it’s tempting to wait and “just deal with it when it comes up,” the better move is to look into this now — because I’ve worked with too many juniors who wished they’d started sooner.
Take Sophia.
Why So Many Juniors Wish They’d Started Over the Summer
Sophia came to me in the middle of junior year with a dilemma. She needed a 30+ on the ACT to get into her test-optional dream school.
While a score wasn’t “required,” this was a highly selective school. A lot of kids would be submitting scores. And the reported average of the last freshman class was 34.
Sophia was more than willing to work to meet that bar—but she wasn’t sure she’d get there in time. She was already deep into junior year, balancing AP classes, leadership roles, and the general intensity of the most demanding academic year of high school.
It didn’t help that a few months earlier, she’d taken a diagnostic and scored a 19. When she met with another test prep consultant to review what it would take to hit her goal, she walked away feeling like they saw her as “dumb.”
“In teenage fashion, I’m putting this off as long as I can and trying not to think about it, because it hurts to think about,” Sophia told me.
Her confidence had clearly taken a hit. And the scarier something feels, the more we procrastinate—and the scarier it becomes.
Disrupting the Procrastination Cycle
My first job was to disrupt the narrative that she wasn’t capable.
“These tests are not about being smart. Nobody is born good or bad at test-taking. We build skills based on what we’re exposed to, and how we respond to the challenges in front of us.”
I truly believe any kid can get great at testing. But it can take a different amount of time for each kid depending on their high school curriculum and their exposure to these kinds of tests in the past. That’s why I’m urging all my sophomores to start thinking about this now, so they don’t find themselves scrambling or settling at the last minute.
That said, it wasn’t the end of the world for Sophia. She still had three good options:
- Forget testing, and expand her college list to include less competitive or more test-blind schools
- Proceed lightly, aiming for a score in the 20s that could support her application at the right places
- Commit to a 3-week study sprint to see how much she could improve—and gain clarity on what it would take to hit her target
What You Can Do to Get Ahead this Summer
Sophia’s story is a perfect example of how delaying the testing conversation can limit your teen’s choices. Not because they’re incapable. But because hitting your target score can take time, and time is something juniors don’t have in abundance.
Starting in the summer after sophomore gives you breathing room. It turns testing into a strategic decision where you have a bit more control over the outcome. And you don’t have to spend the entire summer prepping…
You just have to take three simple steps to get started:
- Collect light data. Have your teen take a low-stakes diagnostic to get a sense of where they’re starting from without any prep and whether they should focus on the SAT or ACT.
- Get clarity on the testing landscape. Is your kid happy with the schools their score grants them access to, or would they be willing to work for a competitive score?
- Build a low-pressure plan. Whether they prep now, later, or not at all, you’ll be making an informed, strategic choice rather than scrambling to figure things out mid-junior year.
I’ll walk you through these 3 steps in more detail in this free masterclass:
🎓 Protect Their College Options: What Sophomores Must Do This Summer
You’ll learn the process all my students go through to make sure testing decisions are intentional and strategic. And I’ll share ways to help your teen engage in the process without piling on pressure.
Your kid deserves options. And you deserve a strategy that gives you confidence before junior year sets in.
Let’s get ahead of it—together.
