The SAT: What you need to know

The SAT

The SAT is a popular standardized test used for admission into colleges and universities in the United States. First started in 1941, the Scholastic Aptitude Test was an IQ test. The SAT Reasoning Test of today has earned a place in every college going student's life.

Oddly enough SAT no longer stands for anything; rather than deal with controversial acronyms, the College Board sidesteps the issue by not having SAT actually be an acronym.

What is the SAT?

The SAT is generally taken by high school students who will soon be applying to post-secondary colleges and universities, though the test is open to anyone over the age of 12 desiring to attend college or university in the US. All that is required is to pay the registration fee which can be waived in certain circumstances. After taking the test, students can elect to send their official scores to any college or university to which they would like to gain admission.

Prior to 2008, the College Board would send ALL previous scores to elected universities. In 2008, a new policy entitled Score Choice was enacted that allowed applicants to choose their best score and submit only that score to all of their prospective colleges. With this policy in place, it is now in the best interest of students to take the exam multiple times until a satisfactory score is attained. Many colleges embrace Score Choice, but some colleges such as Cornell frown upon the practice and ask that applicants submit all test scores. It is recommended that students consult the admissions departments of their prospective colleges to determine how to best approach score reporting to the school.

The SAT is administered 7 times a year in the United States, in October, November, December, January, March (or sometimes April), May, and June. The SAT is generally scheduled on a Saturday. Outside of the United States, the SAT is offered on the same dates as in the United States except for the first spring test date, which is either March or April.

Why does the SAT matter?

The SAT is required by many universities to be considered for admission. Though there are colleges that do not require it, all "brand name" universities and virtually all public ("state") universities do require it. In many cases, students can take the ACT rather than the SAT, and this decision often comes down to geography. Students in the Midwest tend to take the ACT and SAT, while students on the US coasts tend to not take the ACT at all.

Other than being required for admission to US universities, the SAT is important for the following reasons:

Many scholarships require a minimum SAT score
Many universities, especially state universities, will offer academic scholarships for students with a certain GPA and a minimum SAT score
The SAT is a great way to set yourself apart from the college admissions crowd. Having a high SAT score will allow you to separate out from the thousands of other people applying to college.
More and more employers are asking for standardized test scores during recruitment, so these scores stay with students beyond college

For some students, taking both the SAT and ACT is a great option because they can submit whichever of the two scores is better (based on their percentile ranking) which then allows them to increase their odds of acceptance in college admissions. In general, taking both tests is highly recommended as students have little to lose but much to gain.

What is on the SAT?

The SAT consists of three sections: math, critical reading, and writing. Scores on each section range from 200 to 800, with scores always being a multiple of 10 (i.e. 580, 720, never 645 or 643). The scores for each of the sections are added together for the composite score, with a 2400 being a "perfect" SAT score. Students do not need to get all answers on the SAT correct to get a perfect score. More details are below in the Scoring section.

The Math section includes:

54 questions total: 44 multiple choice and 10 grid-in questions
70 minutes total, broken into 3 sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section
Coverage of basic Arithmetic, Geometry, and Algebra I and II

The Critical Reading section includes:

67 questions total: 48 multiple choice and 19 sentence completion questions
70 minutes total, broken into 3 sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section

The Writing section includes:

49 multiple choice questions total, plus an essay component
60 minutes total, broken into 3 sections: one 25-minute section, one 10-minute section, and one 25-minute essay

How is the SAT scored?

Each of the questions within a section is ordered by difficulty, other than questions that follow the long and short reading passages which are organized with respect to where in the passage they refer. Thus a question referencing an early part of the passage will occur before a question asking about the passage's conclusion, regardless of difficulty.

Each question on the SAT is worth 1 point regardless of difficulty. Though most questions are multiple choice, 10 math questions require a numerical answer that the test taker must bubble in on his or her answer sheet. For each of the multiple choice questions, a correct answer will add 1 point to a student's "raw" score, an incorrect answer will deduct 0.25 points to the raw score, and a blank answer will yield 0 points. For the 10 math questions that require a numerical answer, a correct answer adds 1 point to the raw score and an incorrect answer is worth 0 points.

The total number of a student's correct answers (a student's "raw score") on a section gets compared to all other students who took that same test and converted to a "scaled score" from 200 to 800. We commonly think of this as grading on a curve.

The SAT Writing section is graded slightly differently than the Reading or Math sections, which simply have a raw score to scaled score conversion. The SAT essay is graded on a scale of 1 to 6 by two raters and their scores are added together for your SAT essay grade. This essay grade is then combined with your score on the multiple choice writing questions for your scaled Writing score from 200-800 based on a table the College Board uses.

The SAT composite score is just the sum of the scaled scores for each of the three sections.

What should I bring?

You should make sure to bring:

At least two number two pencils
An approved calculator. Any four function, scientific, or graphing calculator other than the TI-92 should be fine but you should confirm when you receive your registration materials (in which you will be sent a list of approved calculators).
A picture ID—if you have a driver's license this will be fine, if not bring your school ID. Remember to make sure that the ID has your picture on it.
A bottle of water and finger foods such as a bag of grapes to snack on during breaks between sections.