College Guidance : St. Martin's Episcopal School

St. Martin’s prepares its students for admission to college through a rigorous program of prescribed course work. Beginning in the junior year, all students work with the college counselor, who provides advice and assistance to students throughout the college admission process.

Standardized testing is an important aspect of that admission process. All St. Martin’s students take the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) during their freshman, sophomore and junior years. The tests are given at St. Martin’s during the fall semester each year. For freshmen and sophomores, the tests are for practice in working with the testing format. The junior-year PSAT score also serves as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Students with exceptionally high scores may be eligible for a National Merit Scholarship.

The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT I) and American College Test (ACT) are required for admission to most colleges. St. Martin’s specifies that juniors take the SAT I and ACT during the spring semester of the junior year. Many colleges also require that candidates for admission take College Board Subject Tests (SAT II). The SAT II tests are offered by the same testing company that authors the SAT test.

Students complete another cycle of admission testing in the fall semester of the senior year. Seniors are not eligible for the PSAT, but they use the fall test dates to take a second SAT I and another ACT. Many seniors also take another set of SAT II tests. The testing cycle for seniors ends with the January testing date in the 12th-grade year.

During the fall of each academic year, a large number of college representatives visit the St. Martin’s campus. Through the college counseling office, juniors and seniors meet with these representatives in order to gain perspective on possible college destinations. The college counselor also forwards student records to colleges, completes secondary school reports required by colleges and guides seniors through the college application process. The ultimate aim is to help seniors gain admission to several schools and thereby create a choice of appropriate college destinations. For college admission purposes, St. Martin’s does not provide student rank.

2008		2009
Sept. 13, 2008		February 7, 2009
Oct. 25, 2008		April 4, 2009
Dec. 13, 2008		June 13, 2009

St. Martin's will register all juniors for the test dates highlighted. Students must register themselves if they intend to test on another date.

The St. Martin's school code, which is required for registration, is 191784.

Seniors use the October 2008 ACT and October 2008 SAT dates for testing. The December ACT and November/December SAT dates may be used if additional testing is needed. The January SAT date is the last feasible testing date for 2008-09 seniors. Juniors begin testing with the March SAT and the February/April ACT. The SAT tests are required by many colleges and they are used by St. Martin’s for purposes of self-evaluation. The College Counselor registers all juniors for these specific tests. Advanced Placement exams are given on campus May 4-8, 2009, and May 11-15, 2009.

St. Martin’s Episcopal School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and complies with the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice.

Naviance - Among the many tools employed by the college counseling office is an online service called Naviance. St. Martin's uses this service to maintain certain student academic records and to ease communication among the college counseling office, the students, and their parents. The program requires St. Martin's to input limited personal and academic data, which allows students and parents to conduct effective, personalized searches for a good college match.