When the SAT was first introduced in 1926 it was the acronym for Scholastic Aptitude Test. It has been changed several times over the years, one of them being the name Scholastic Assessment Test. It was later divided into two parts denoted by the Roman numeral I and II. However, in 2005 it was renamed the SAT Reasoning Test (effectively trying to cover all angles in one title). Interestingly, the SAT no longer means anything, so it is simply an empty acronym.
High school grades are great at indicating a student's academic abilities and therefore to some extent giving an indication as to how a particular student will perform at college. However, to some extent a high school grade is more about how well a particular student did compared to his or her peers; after all they have all taken the same exam.
The problem comes in being able to identify individual student abilities from different high schools because the way the high school grading system works means that there can be considerable variation in the standards of grading. This potentially means that two students with the same grades, but from different high schools may not necessarily be at the same academic level.
This is why the SAT was developed. It is a standardized college entrance test meaning that all students take the same exam which is marked in the same way and enables colleges to identify the most appropriate students for individual colleges. It therefore benefits both the colleges and the students.
The SAT encompasses three categories; critical reading, mathematical reasoning and writing skills. Until recently the SAT was the main measurement used to evaluate a student's potential although the last few years have seen an increase in the number of colleges also using the ACT; the acronym for American College Testing, which is another form of standardized test.
Each of the three sections; critical reading, mathematical reasoning and writing skills has 10 subsections. Critical reading questions are entirely multiple choice and have two formats; completing a sentence and passage reading sections which can be about various subjects such as humanities and fiction.
The purpose is to evaluate the student's ability to understand the written words, the sentence structure and the function of the sentences and meaning of words.
The Math section has two types of questions; multiple choice and response questions. The purpose is to evaluate the operation of numbers and their function. It covers algebra, geometry and statistics and deals with the analysis of data and probability.
The writing section has multiple choice questions and an essay. The multiple choice section expects students to be able to clearly identify errors in sentences and to offer to improve sentence and paragraph structures.
The SAT lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes and is broken down into 10 sections. The average pass rate is about 50 to 60 percent with 80 percent of students finishing the test in the required time and practically all students answer 75 percent of the questions.
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Written by Lawrence Reaves for SchoolTutoring Academy - http://www.schooltutoring.com - providing tutoring services online for students on all subjects including, Math, English and Science. In-depth tutoring for specialized courses such as chemistry, physics and biology are also available. Call 1-877-452-6669 to see how SchoolTutoring Academy can help.
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