TCK University Prep: Entrance Exams

[author][author_info]This is the second blog in a three part series by guest blogger Lisa P. Harrill, an adult TCK raised in the Republic of Panama. Lisa is currently the Director of Children’s Ministries at Crossroads Bible Church – Panama. She has also served with Young Life International and at Crossroads Christian Academy, Panama as the College Counselor and in Teacher Recruitment. She holds a BA in Vocal Performance from Wheaton College and a MEd in Educational Psychology from the University of Oklahoma..[/author_info] [/author]

This is a longer-than-usual post, but full of great information if you’re serving US-bound high school students. We’ll feature information for TCKs who are UK-bound next!

PSAT: The Preliminary Standardized Achievement Test (PSAT) is a great tool to prepare students to take the standardized university entrance exams such as the SAT, ACT and TOEFL. Sometimes universities contact students with high PSAT scores regarding scholarships before they have even taken the SAT, ACT or even applied to those universities.

If not available at their high school, students should even consider paying a test fee to an institution to take the PSAT. It is well worth the effort. It is recommended that students take the PSAT in the fall of their freshman, sophomore and junior years. This test is only offered one time per school year, usually mid-October.

Once students have taken the PSAT, they will find a College Board code assigned to them in the upper right-hand corner of their test results sheet. That code allows them to establish their own College Board account with “My Road Careers and Majors,” and “My College Quick-start.” These are web-based programs that the College Board has made available for managing student data for everything from high school coursework records, to extra-curricular activities lists, etc, so when students are registering to take the SAT or completing university applications, that information is already archived. There are also career interest inventory tools, linking student interests and talents, to specific university major and career choices.

SAT: The Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) is offered several times during the school year at SAT/ACT test centers around the world. You can find the closest Test Center to you by looking on the College Board website. The test centers do not handle SAT registration. Students may register on-line at the SAT website with a credit card. Registration by mail is also available in paper format. Test centers are not guaranteed to have the paper format registration forms.

Test dates and registration deadlines for the current school year may also be found on the website. If testing at a test center not located in the United States, please be sure to use the international testing registration deadline which is earlier than for those in the US. Students must complete online registration by midnight EST (Eastern Standard Time) by the deadline date.

It is recommended that the optimal time for university-bound students to take this exam in the second semester of their junior year and/or the first semester of their senior year. However, students may take the exam whenever they want and as many times as they want. When registering to take the exam, students may indicate universities where test results should be mailed. Unless the student requests this, the results will not be automatically sent.

If the student has already taken the exam, and later decides to apply to another university not already indicated for test results to be sent, students must personally contact the College Board and request those results be sent to that particular university. A fee will be charged for this service. A university may not request your scores due to the Information Privacy Act.

Preparation for this exam outside of the regular curriculum is available in many forms. Courses could be offered at local universities. A practice test on the College Board website is available and various computer software programs available on-line or at many computer stores.

SAT II: This is the SAT in a specific area: English Literature, US History, World History, Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and various foreign languages. Registration for the SAT II may also be done online at the College Board website. Not all international test centers offer all SAT II subject tests each time the SAT is offered. The best way to know if it is offered is to call or visit in person that Test Center. They should have a “Test Center Coordinator” that can confirm information posted on the College Board website.

ACT: This achievement-based, curriculum referenced test (ACT) is now more widely offered in the international context than in previous years. Again, please be aware of the test registration deadlines. This test price depends on if a student is requesting to take only the basic test or the writing section as well.

The writing portion is highly recommended to all students as this is a standard requisite for most college entrance applications. Please note that most of the test dates include the writing portion but there may be one or two test dates per year when the writing portion is not offered. There is also an international testing fee.

The difference between the ACT and the SAT is that the ACT seems to test other academic areas besides language and mathematics. Deciding between the two may be based on a student’s academic strengths or on the application requirements for universities of interest. Although some universities will only accept scores from either the SAT or the ACT, most will accept both. For more information about the ACT, test dates and registration deadlines please visit their website.

Specific Major Entrance Requirements: If students are sure that they will be pursuing a specific major, i.e. engineering or medicine, at the beginning of their college career, some universities may require the SAT II.

Comp Tests: Although a student may not be required to take a subject test, if a subject is a student’s forte and especially if an AP program/test is not offered at a student’s high school, taking a subject test might show aptitude in a subject area. This may allow a student to proceed to higher level university coursework, rather than basic courses for which the student has already mastered the material.

“Foreign” Language Fluency: Another scenario where this would also be helpful is if a student’s first language is not English and one of the foreign language tests is offered in the student’s first language or another language in which a student is fluent.

Credit for previous knowledge, as mentioned in these later scenarios, would be based on the standards of each, individual university, and each admissions office should be able to answer for their particular university regarding this situation.

TOEFL-IBT:  The Test of English as a Foreign Language – Internet-Based Test (TOEFL-IBT) is being required for entrance to universities on an increased level from international students regardless of nationality. Even students with US passports, but are native-English speakers, have been asked to complete this exam, simply because the bulk of their academic experience has been completed outside of the US. Students should be sure to ask admissions counselors if this is a requirement for application packets. Exam registration is online and should be completed at least three weeks prior to the test date. Test location is selected during the registration process.

There are some universities that offer the less-expensive, institutional TOEFL. The differences between the two should be given close attention. The institutional TOEFL is paper-based, not an internet-based exam. The institutional TOEFL is essentially only valid in applying to that particular institution. The internet-based exam is what students should take if applying to any other university.

A Great Resource for Information

The College Board is the company that issues the PSAT and SAT. The website has a wealth of information for the US college-bound student. There are sections for students, parents, and professionals. In the student section, there is a detailed timeline (Plan for College: College Action Plan) for each year/semester of a student’s high school experience. It describes what students should be doing during each semester of high school regarding the university application process. Although tailored for students attending US institutions, many of these points would be helpful to students in the international context as well.

If students are homeschooled or attending a school where US standardized testing isn’t available, arrangements can be made with administrators of schools that do offer such testing. This is great practice for developing standardized test taking skills as well as a way for families to track grade equivalent academic progress based on US standards. Each nation of the world has a College Board Test Center.

Final Note

Although there has been great progress in US-based organizations and university admissions offices to accommodate unique international situations, systemic glitches will still be encountered. The best thing to do is realize that for many US people in these offices, this may be the first time they are ever hearing that situations exist for which their database fields have not been structured. With enough patience on both sides, there are ways to accommodate these unique scenarios.

Some Extra Details

High School Mailing Addresses: For example, although our school is located in the Republic of Panama, we receive mail through a courier service in Miami. Because our mail comes to Miami, when student register online for the SAT and want to select our school as their school so their test results can come to our office, our school is not listed in the Republic of Panama. The key is manually inserting the school CEEB code. Once that is in, our school is listed and will receive the results, even though it will still say we are located in Miami, FL. At this time there is no way around that systemic glitch, unless we decide to change our mailing address for College Board materials to our local PO Box.

Student Mailing Addresses: Many of our students have either permanent US addresses and/or courier service addresses through Miami. It is difficult for students to know which address to list on their applications, because they do not want to be deceptive to college admissions officers, but they also want to make sure they receive the benefits of US addresses that they should. If they are applying to US state schools where parents own property, they should use the US state address, as this greatly affects their tuition rates. However, they must make sure that they are able to receive that correspondence eventually even if forwarded from the US address to them in their current home. The best plan is to list the address that will bring the most benefits to a student, while being candid with admissions officers of your actual residence location so there is no opportunity for a claim of deception. There are some students that do not have a mailing address available to them. Although a general delivery option could be a possibility, if the school or organization is at all able to be the recipient of official, university correspondence for students, it would be very helpful for this process.

Legal Name: Please be sure that the name a student is using for university application is the name as it appears on the passport. For example, the name is in characters of an Asian language, the western characters provided for that name on the passport are what should be used. Do not use the westernized version/spelling of the student’s name. Sometimes there are students with no middle name, or two last names and electronic university application frames cannot accommodate these differences. What should be recorded is the passport name, as many characters as the frame allows. This is especially important if the student is not a US passport holder, and will be applying for student visa immigration status.

Do you have any other advice or insights related to university entrance exams?

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