What is SAT and Why You Should Prepare for it

News & Events

Wednesday — April 05, 2017

By:Study Abroad

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The SAT is a standardized entrance exam for admissions in universities of United States of America. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board which is a non-profit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still administers the exam. The test is intended to assess a student's potential for college. It was first called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test.

The idea of SAT was caught by the IQ test used for recruitment in armed forces. It was first introduced in 1926, and its name

and scoring have changed several times. Still it was not very admired in start until 1933 when the president of prestigious Harvard University stood up to its support and made it compulsory to get admission in Harvard. He declared it a necessity to determine intellectual potential of student applicants and to filter the best of among them. Another test known as ACT is considered its rival but let’s no go off topic and stick to SAT in this article. There are 2 types of SAT tests:

1. SAT-I (SAT Reasoning Test)

2. SAT-II (SAT Subject Test)

Why Take SAT:

I am myself not a very big fan of exams and tests but SAT is an important one and I recommend it to every student who wishes to study abroad in United States of America. There are also other entrance exams other than SAT but this one exceeds them all in popularity. SAT is the most widely used test by American Universities. Now if you wish to apply in an American university, you will have to send your SAT report card with all the other documents. A good thing about SAT is that its score is valid for up to 5 years.

SAT scores can have an impact of up to 50% to your admission depending on the university you applied for. So, to study in USA you must take SAT and also must give it your all otherwise you can forget studying in America. It is said that most of the universities would just pick the highest scorer of SAT who applied there and then select some of them according to their need. The better you score on SAT, the more chances you have of getting admission in a university. The big universities in America require the highest of SAT scores to get admission there.

· SEE ALSO: The Tests You Must Pass to Study Abroad

SAT Structure & Format:

SAT format has changed a few times since its creation. It was again redesigned in March, 2016. It was updated to assess students’ potential more accurately and efficiently. Here I am sharing with the Latest Format of SAT. The SAT is a 3 hour 50 minute exam which includes an elective essay which takes 50 minutes. It consists of total five sections:

1. Reading

2. Writing

3. Math (with calculator)

4. Math (no calculator)

5. Essay (optional)

SAT Format

SAT Test Section	Questions and Types	Content	Timing
EVIDENCE-BASED READING & WRITING	Reading 52 standard multiple-choice Writing 44 standard multiple-choice	Relevant words in context (Reading, Writing) Command of evidence (Reading, Writing) Expression of ideas (Writing) Standard English conventions (Writing)	100 minutes Reading One 65-minute section Writing One 35-minute section
MATHEMATICS	45 standard multiple-choice 13 student-produced response	The heart of algebra Passport to advanced math Problem solving & data analysis	80 minutes One 25-minute section (no calculator) One 55-minute section (calculator allowed)
ESSAY (OPTIONAL)	1 evidence-based essay	Analyzing a source	50 minutes One 50-minute essay

Complete SAT is Multiple Choice Question based test. In the older version of SAT about 25% marks of a question were deducted if you select the wrong answer. The good news is that this no longer a part of SAT and we can always use our random guessing approach to fill the whole question paper selecting all MCQs.

SAT Scoring

Score Type	Score Range	Details
COMPOSITE SCORE	400 - 1600	This score is the sum of the two area scores
AREA SCORES Evidence-based reading & writing Math	200 - 800	The Evidence-based reading and writing score is the sum of the Reading test score and Writing & Language test score
TEST SCORES Reading Writing & Language Math	10 - 40	These scores tell you how you performed on individual test sections
ESSAY (scored separately)	6 - 24	The essay is scored in three categories: Reading, Analysis, and Writing Each category is scored from 2-8
CROSS-TEST SCORES History/Social Studies Science	10 - 40	These scores reflect your performance, categorized by the context of each question Questions may span different test sections.
SUBSCORES Relevant words in context (R, W&L) Command of evidence (R, W&L) Expression of ideas (W&L) Standard English convention (W&L) Heart of algebra (M) Passport to advanced mathematics (M) Problem solving & data analysis (M)	1 - 15	These 7 sub scores will tell you how you did on specific question types or content. Some sub scores pull questions from multiple tests. R – Reading test W&L – Writing & Language test M – Math test