Take the SAT/ACT early (and most importantly) often. While a few schools want to see every test score ever, most schools just take the best score, and many will superscore. My son (only) took the SAT three times, and his third time (fall senior year) was his lowest score of the three. He ended up superscoring his 1st attempt's (soph) verbal with his 2nd attempt (junior) math at an underfunded mid-major college that is giving him 3x the scholarship money in academics over athletics.