Importance SAT subject test for college applications?

Most top colleges are going to require SAT subject tests. Even if a school only "recommends" taking SAT subject tests, it's still good to take them if you can do well on them - otherwise, you'll be at a disadvantage against everyone else who's applying to the same school but took the SAT Subject Tests (and did well). On the other hand, if studying for an SAT subject test means that you're going to end up doing not well on either the regular SAT or your SAT subject test, it's far more worthwhile to put your time towards studying for a high SAT score.

To figure out the best way to study, I'd recommend taking a practice SAT subject test for whatever subject test you think you'll take and seeing how well you do. You can then assess how much studying you need to do for that subject to get a top score, using our SAT subject test articles as a guide. If your practice score is too low to realistically get up to a 90+ percentile score by the time you take the SAT Subject Test, I'd recommend sticking to studying for the SAT and doing as well on that as you can. If you think you can realistically get a high score on both the SAT subject test and the regular SAT through studying, then you have two options.

1. Study for both tests at the same time. This option is good if you need a break from the regular SAT study but still want to be productive. It's also a good option if you have more studying to do to get a high SAT Subject Test Score - more time put into effective studying = a higher score.
2. Focus on the regular SAT first, and do all your studying for the SAT Subject Test after you've taken the regular SAT. Because you can't take the regular SAT and the SAT Subject Tests on the same day, you'll be taking the subject tests at least a month later than the SAT, which would give you a month of focused prep. Depending on how much studying you need to do for the SAT subject test, this could be a viable option.