The SAT exam is a standardized test for college admissions in the US, administered by the non-profit organization, the College Board. It consists of three sections, with a maximum score of 2400, and includes a writing section added in 2005. Some colleges also require the ACT exam.
The SAT exam is a standardized test used in the United States for college admissions. It was originally developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit organization. Currently, ETS still administers the test, but the SAT exam is published and owned by another non-profit organization – the College Board. SAT was originally an acronym for Scholastic Aptitude Test, later revised to Scholastic Assessment Test, but today, the test’s official name is SAT Reasoning Test.
Today, all colleges accept the SAT exam for admissions, although some also require applicants to take the ACT, which originally stood for American College Testing Program. Historically, the ACT exam was most popular in the Midwest and South, with the SAT exam most popular on the East and West Coasts, but the SAT is now accepted as the national standard. Some schools consider the SAT optional for admission.
The SAT exam consists of three sections, Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing, each of which is scored on a scale of 200 to 800, with a maximum possible score of 2400. Colleges vary in the minimum score they accept for applicants. The SAT exam has three hours and 45 minutes of timed test materials in total. In addition to the three main sections, the SAT includes a 25-minute experimental section used to normalize questions for future exams and which does not contribute to the participant’s score. With orientation, completion of biographical sections, and timed breaks, most test administrations take about four and a half hours.
The Critical Reading section of the SAT exam has two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, all consisting of sentence completion and reading comprehension questions in a multiple-choice format. The math section also consists of two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. All questions are multiple-choice, with the exception of ten grade-in questions, where the test taker must write an answer in one of the 25-minute sections. In both the Critical Reading and Mathematics portions of the exam, the questions tend to be more difficult towards the end of each section.
The SAT exam writing section was added to the test in March 2005. It is divided into two sections: a 25-minute essay section and a 35-minute multiple-choice section, testing your ability to improve sentences and paragraphs and identify grammatical errors. In the essay section, the test taker must write a short essay in response to a provided prompt. The essay is scored on a scale of 1 to 6, although off-topic essays receive a score of zero, and the essay accounts for 30% of the essay’s total score.
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