|
SAT is a test required to be taken by high school students applying for
universities in the United States. SAT is designed to test a student’s verbal
comprehension, basic mathematics and writing skills. It is administered multiple
times a year in locations all over the world. It is a paper based test.
FORMAT:
In terms of points, the test has three parts for a total of 2400 points,
with each section contributing 800 points.
In terms of administration SAT has 10 sections. First is a 25 minute
reading and last is a 10 minute multiple choice sections. The other sections
are random. Sections 8 and 9 are twenty minutes long
1) Critical Reading-70 mins
a) All multiple choice
b) Sentence completion and Passage Based Reading
2) Mathematics-70 mins
a) Multiple choice and Free response questions
3) Writing-60 mins
a) Multiple choice
i) Sentence Errors
ii) Improving
PREPARATION:
College Board:
One good source of information regarding the SAT is
www.collegeboard.com. College Board is the body that designs and
administers the test.
College board has details on the format, duration and type of questions.
Sample questions are also available. It also has a “Question of the Day”.
Additional preparation materials are available for sale on
collegeboard.com.
Princeton Review:
The Princeton Review is a test-prep company
that offers test preparation courses for SAT,LSAT, MCAT etc worldwide.
In India, classes are provided through franchises in Bangalore, Chennai,
Pune, New Delhi, Gurgaon, and Chandigarh.
In addition, it also publishes some very popular books for SAT
preparation.
Registration:
The most convenient way to register is to register online.
Visit
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg.html .
You will need a credit card to register online.
Registration can also be done by mail. But a SAT booklet has to be first
obtained usually form a USEFI centre.
There is a registration fee of about $90 to 100.
Scores:
The SAT reasoning test has two types of scores.
Raw Score:
Raw score is one point for a correct answer minus appropriate negative
points for wrong answers depending on the section.
Scaled Score:
A raw score is converted to a scale with 200 as the minimum and
800 as the maximum.
Percentile scores are used to determine relative performance. If you are
in the 80th percentile, it means you did better than 80% of the students
taking the test.
SAT scores have to be reported to the university directly by college
board. Upto 4 reports are included in the SAT registration fees.
Scores are available online 3 weeks after the test and they are mailed on
the fourth week.
| 
