How SATS
Work Tests are a fact of life throughout our school careers,
but one of the most important, and, to some, the scariest, of them all is the
SAT—that three-hour exam that’s supposed to measure a high school student’s
chance of academic success in the first year of college. Some colleges consider
SAT scores major factors in their admission process, while others view high
school academic performance, along with recommendations and extracurricular
activities, equally, or even more importantly. No matter where you’re headed, if
you’re a high school student, the SAT is important to you because most colleges
require students to report either SAT or ACT Assessment scores. What Is
the SAT First of all, SAT no longer stands for Scholastic
Aptitude Test (学术性倾向测验), the original name of the test when it was introduced in
1941. Although you may still see that name occasionally, the College Board, the
not-for-profit educational association that sponsors the SATS, decided to let
the acronym stand on its own as a way of addressing controversy about the
meaning of the word "aptitude". The College Board also rejected the alternative
"Scholastic Assessment Test". (English teachers probably pointed out that this
name was redundant, since assessment means test. ) The SAT I
measures verbal and math reasoning abilities that you’ve developed throughout
your school years. The multiple-choice test, developed by the not-for-profit
Educational Testing Service, is intended to let students demonstrate their
verbal and math abilities without regard to the kind of schooling they’ve had.
According to the College Board, the test looks for a student’s ability to
understand and analyze written material, to draw inferences, to differentiate
shades of meaning, to draw conclusions and solve math problems—all skills that
are necessary for success in college and the work world. The
American College Testing (ACT) Assessment, which was introduced in 1959, is an
alternative to the SAT that virtually all colleges and universities now accept.
Developers of the test tout it for its curriculum-based questions, saying that
their test is more directly related to what is actually taught in high
school. What’s the SAT II The newer SAT II: Subject
Tests, formerly the College Board Achievement Tests, are intended to measure a
student’s knowledge of a particular subject, such as English (writing or
literature), history and social sciences, mathematics (various levels),
sciences, and languages (Chinese, French, German, modern Hebrew, Italian,
Japanese, Latin, Spanish, English). Some colleges require one or more SAT II
tests, but even if they aren’t required, SAT II tests scores can help you
present a more personalized portfolio that illustrates how well you would fit at
a particular school. Most colleges use SAT II scores not for admission purposes
but for program placement and counseling. SAT II tests are given on a slightly
different schedule from the SAT I. Generally, SAT II tests arc one hour long and
consist of multiple choice questions. There are exceptions. For example, the
Writing Test has 40 minutes of multiple-choice questions and a 20-minute writing
sample. To decide which subject test should be taken, first,,
make a list of all the colleges you’re considering. Then review their catalogs
or websites to find out if they require Subject Test scores for admission and,
if so, which ones. Use your list of colleges and their admission requirements to
help plan your high school course schedule. For example, a college to which you
plan to apply may require a language Subject Test score or might exempt you from
a first-year course requirement if you do well on a language Subject
Test. In addition, the College Board website can be searched for
information about Subject Test requirements at specific colleges. When Is
the SAT Taken Generally, the latest you can take your SATS
and be eligible for admission in the next academic year is in the fall of your
senior year of high school. You’ll want to check application deadlines at
schools in which you’re interested to be sure your scores will make it in on
time. (You can also take advantage of the College Board’s new phone-for-results
service. You’ll be charged a fee but you’ll get your scores about 10 days
earlier. ) Increasingly, students are taking the SAT in the summer before their
senior years, in the 11th grade and even as early as the 10th grade.
It’s very important to register early for the SAT to, avoid the deadline
rush, since testing sites can fill up quickly and force you to go to one farther
away. (Deadlines are usually about a month or six weeks before the actual test.
) You can register online now—but once you’ve registered, you can’t cancel.
However, you can change your test date for a fee. Regarding the
SAT II tests, if possible, take tests like American history, biology, chemistry
and physics right after your course ends at school, while the information is
still fresh in your mind. On the other hand, you’ll probably do better taking
writing and language tests after several years of study. Most students take
Subject Tests toward the end of their junior year or at the beginning of their
senior year. Before you take the SAT, you’ll take the PSAT/NMSQT
(it’s co-sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., which, along with
other scholarship funds, uses the scores to select scholarship recipients). The
PSAT is similar to the SAT I except that it is a half-hour shorter and includes
a grammar section that’s absent from the SAT I. The PSAT is offered twice each
year, usually in the fall. PSATS are typically taken in the 10th or 11th grade,
and you can contact your school’s counseling office for registration
information. PSATS, unlike SATS, are administered through your high
school. How Should SAT Be Prepared for That’s a good
question and one that educational experts still debate. The College Board stops
short of endorsing the use of test preparation services, which can charge
hundreds of dollars per person per prep course. Board officials maintain that
the nature of the SAT makes it difficult to study, or "cram" for and that your
best bet is to take academically challenging, pre-collegiate courses in high
school and to keep your study habits strong and your grades high. The College
Board suggests that taking the PSAT/NMSQT is a good way to prepare (it also gets
you on college mailing lists) as are studying the types of questions in the SAT
and taking the sample SAT I, which is provided free at high schools.
On the other side of the fence sit test preparation giants making millions
of dollars each year offering courses designed to help students boost their
performances on the SAT, PSAT;ACT and a variety of other academic and
professional tests. These companies resent any implication that they teach
students test-taking "tricks", saying that their businesses spend a lot of money
on specialized research aimed at learning what it takes to get good test scores
and that they pass those findings on to course-takers. Some test-preparation
companies even guarantee specific score increases. If the scores aren’t there,
these firms offer cash back or, more often, a free repeat Of the course. There
are many of these services, so cruise the Internet and your local telephone
directory if you’re interested. Besides SAT scores, what do colleges also consider in their admission process