EDUCATION without Borders
SAT Fast Facts for International Students
Are you an international student, or the parent of an international student, who is interested in attending university in the United States? You may have heard that most universities in the US require applicants to take an entrance examination either the SAT or the ACT. My first article covered the basics of the ACT. In this article, I’ll tell you more about the format, scoring, and structure of the SAT. This will help you determine whether the SAT or the ACT is the right choice for your child, and how to begin preparing to take the test. The SAT is the older of the two main university entrance examinations used in the US. While it used to be more commonly accepted than the ACT, these days both tests are taken by about the same number of students and both are accepted at all US universities. Like the ACT, the SAT is a very long standardised test, taking three hours and 45 minutes to complete ( plus breaks). The best time to prepare for this exam is SS2 or beginning of SS3. While both the SAT and the ACT are designed to get a sense of how well a student is prepared for college, there are a couple of key differences in the way they are designed. The SAT covers three main subjects, critical reading, math and writing. Unlike the ACT, which presents the same subjects in the same order on every test, subjects on the SAT are divided into 10 different sections and presented in random order on the test. The only part that remains the same from test to test is that they always begin with a 25- minute essay session, and conclude with a 10- minute multiple choice writing section. The SAT’s Critical Reading subject is broken up into two 25- minute sections and a 20- minute section. There are 68 total critical reading questions, divided between sentence completion questions and passage- based reading questions. The three Math sections on the SAT are divided into two 25- minute sections and a 10- minute section. The majority of the questions on the math test are multiple choices, but there are 10 free- response questions which require students to work out their answer independently. Unlike the ACT, the SAT includes some basic formulas, so that students are tested more on their problem- solving skills than on their ability to remember the Pythagorean Theorem or the formula for the volume of a cylinder. The Writing portion of the SAT contains the previously mentioned 25- minute essay section, a 10- minute multiple choice section, and a 25- minute multiple choice section. There are a total of 49 multiple choice questions on the writing test, covering concepts like word usage and sentence and paragraph construction. In addition to these listed sections, the SAT always contains a 25- minute Experimental section, which can consist of reading, math or writing questions. This section is not scored, but students are not told which section is the experimental one. The experimental section is intended to help testmakers try out new questions for upcoming tests, as well as to compare the difficulty of various test versions. Although it will be undergoing a redesign in spring 2016, the SAT currently follows a three- part scoring structure, with total scores awarded out of 2,400 points. One of the main differences between the SAT and the ACT is that the SAT currently has a guessing penalty, wrong answers receive a deduction of - 1/ 4 points. The three sections of the SAT ( critical reading, mathematics and writing) are each worth 800 points. The writing test is currently the only section of the SAT with a sub- score, with the essay counting for 30 per cent and the multiple choice portion of the test counting for 70 per cent of the score. Should your child take the SAT? Thanks to its long history and international reputation, the SAT is available at more than 1,000 official testing centres in 175 countries, making it a very accessible choice for international students. The more practice your child is able to do, the better prepared he or she will be to do well on the exam. Working with a test preparation service like Expartus Nigeria can also give you valuable insights into the test- taking and college admissions process in the United States. If you have more questions about the SAT, you can always get in touch with us.