The
SAT Reasoning Test (formerly
Scholastic Aptitude
Test and
Scholastic Assessment Test) is a standardized
test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and
developed by the College Board, a non-profit organization in the United States,
and was once developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service
(ETS). ETS now administers the exam. The College Board claims that the SAT can determine
whether or not a person is ready for college. The current SAT Reasoning Test takes
three hours and forty-five minutes and
costs $45
($71 International), excluding late fees. Since the SAT's introduction in
1901, its name and scoring has changed several times. In 2005, the test was renamed
to the "
SAT Reasoning Test" with possible scores from 600 to
2400 combining test results from three 800-point sections (math, critical reading,
and writing), along with other subsections scored separately
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SAT consists of three major sections:
Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing.
Each section receives a score on the scale of 200–800. All scores are multiples of 10.
Total scores are calculated by adding up scores of the three sections. Each major section
is divided into three parts. There are 10 sub-sections, including an additional 25-minute
experimental or "equating" section that may be in any of the three major sections.
The experimental section is used to normalize questions for future administrations
of the SAT and does not count toward the final score. The test contains
3 hours and
45 minutes of actual timed sections, although most administrations, including
orientation, distribution of materials, completion of biographical sections,
and eleven minutes of timed breaks, run about four and a half hours long.
The questions range from easy, medium, and hard depending on the scoring
from the experimental sections. Easier questions typically appear closer
to the beginning of the section while harder questions are towards the
end in certain sections. This is not true for every section but it
is the rule of thumb mainly for math and sentence completions and vocabulary.
Critical Reading
The Critical Reading, formerly verbal, section of the SAT is made up of
three scored sections,
two 25-minute sections and
one 20-minute section, with varying types of questions,
including sentence completions and questions about short and long reading passages.
Critical Reading sections normally begin with 5 to 8 sentence completion questions;
the remainder of the questions are focused on the reading passages. Sentence completions
generally test the student's
vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure
and organization by requiring the student to select one or two words that best
complete a given sentence. The bulk of the Critical Reading questions is made
up of questions regarding reading passages, in which students read short
excerpts on social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, or personal
narratives and answer questions based on the passage. Certain sections
contain passages asking the student to compare two related passages;
generally, these consist of shorter reading passages. The number of
questions about each passage is proportional to the length of the
passage. Unlike in the Mathematics section, where questions go
in the order of difficulty, questions in the Critical Reading
section go in the order of the difficulty of the passage.
Overall, question sets towards the beginning of the section
are easier, and question sets towards the end of the section
are harder.
Mathematics
The Mathematics section of the SAT is widely known as the Quantitative Section
or Calculation Section. The mathematics section consists of three scored sections.
There are
two 25-minute sections and
one 20-minute section, as follows:
• One of the 25-minute sections is entirely multiple choice, with 20 questions.
• The other 25-minute section contains 8 multiple choice questions and 10 grid-in questions.
This part has no penalty for incorrect answers since the student guessing is limited.
• The 20-minute section is all multiple choice, with 16 questions.
• New topics include Algebra II and scatter plots. These recent
changes have resulted in a shorter, more quantitative exam requiring
higher level mathematics courses relative to the previous exam
Calculator Use
With the recent changes to the content of the SAT math section, the need
to save time while maintaining accuracy of calculations has led some to use
calculator programs during the test. These programs allow students to complete
problems faster than would normally be possible when making calculations manually.
The use of a graphing calculator is sometimes preferred, especially for geometry
problems and questions involving multiple calculations.
Writing
Page 1 & 2 of an SAT essay. This student received a
7/12 from two judges, one giving 3/6 and the other giving 4/6.
The writing section of the SAT, based on but not directly comparable to the
old SAT II subject test in writing, includes multiple choice questions and
a brief essay. The essay subscore contributes about 30% towards the total
writing score, with the multiple choice questions contributing 70%. This
section was implemented in March 2005 following complaints from colleges
about the lack of uniform examples of a student's writing ability.
Scoring
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The SAT is offered
seven times a year in the United States,
in October, November, December, January, March (or April, alternating),
May, and June. The test is typically offered on the first Saturday of
the month for the November, December, May, and June administrations.
In other countries, the SAT is offered on the same dates as in the United States
except for the first spring test date (i.e., March or April), which is not offered.
In 2006, the test was taken 1,465,744 times.
Candidates may either take the SAT Reasoning Test or up to three SAT Subject Tests
on any given test date, except the first spring test date, when only the SAT
Reasoning Test is offered. Candidates wishing to take the test may register
online at the College Board's website, by mail, or by telephone, at least
three weeks before the test date.
The SAT Reasoning Test costs $45 ($71 International).
For the Subject tests,
students pay a $20 Basic Registration Fee and $9 per test (except for language
tests with listening, which cost $20 each). The College Board makes fee
waivers available for low income students. Additional fees apply for late
registration, standby testing, registration changes, scores by telephone,
and extra score reports (beyond the four provided for free).
Candidates whose religious beliefs prevent them from taking the test
on a Saturday may request to take the test on the following Sunday,
except for the October test date in which the Sunday test date is eight
days after the main test offering. Such requests must be made at the time
of registration and are subject to denial.
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