SAT is a standardized test system designed for college admission in the US and some other countries across Europe and North America. Originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, SAT has gone through several name changes over the years. The test was first introduced in 1926. Since then, this worldwide standardized test has emerged as a key prerequisite for students looking to get admission to US colleges. The test is owned by the College Board and is administered by the ETS. 

Over the years, there have been many revisions to the exam assessment. The current assessments are designed to be more in line with the high school curriculum to ensure better core standard valuation.

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Why is SAT important? 

There is a significant difference among the educational curriculum, difficulty, and grading of the US high schools depending on the state. This is partly because each state has its system of educational requirements. SAT was designed to bridge that gap and introduce a uniform assessment for college entry. 

There have been countless studies on SAT. Experts found a link between freshman year performance and SAT. Students who scored high on the SAT have a better chance of having a higher GPA in their first year of college compared to those who don’t. SAT has two main assessment criteria. There is evidence-based reading and writing and mathematics. The two sections are further broken down into 4 subsections of Reading, writing, and language, math with a calculator, and math without a calculator.

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The high time constraint of 3 hours enables the college board to assess the performance of the student under pressure and produce a range of scoring opportunities for them. The scoring ranges from 400 to 1600 with 1600 being the perfect score. 

Best Resources for SAT Preparation 

Each of the resources is broken down into individual assessment sections.

Reading Test 

The reading section comprises a total of 52 questions with a total time of 65 minutes. The questions are multiple-choice based. A test taker has to answer the reading part by analyzing the different graphs, charts, tables corresponding to the passage. A total of 5 passages will be included in the question with each passage having 10-11 questions in general.

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Since the reading part is comprehension-based, it requires a great deal of practice to get the hang of things. Prep Scholar has several reading-based practice questions complete with answers and explanations. Veritas Prep has some useful guidelines regarding the reading section.

The critical reader also outlines reading material for the test. Since the reading section assesses the comprehensive capability of the student, it is important to read and analyze as much as possible. Khan Academy also has a detailed overview of the reading part which can be useful for first-timers. For more in-depth studies, there is the reading workbook available from Barron’s. It has practice guidelines complete with explanations and many more.

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Writing and Language Test 

The writing and language section of the test comprises 44 multiple choice-based questions with a time limit of 35 minutes. Similar to the reading section, this part is also based on the passage. A test taker will have to go through several passages and make corrections on the underlined parts. The critical marking happens on a certain basis. Here the marking will depend on improving the clarity of the passage, word choices, and analysis. 

Khan Academy Strategy Archive has a step-by-step breakdown of the writing and language section. From grammar to interpreting graphs and data, a test taker will find all sorts of useful materials and strategy guidelines in the archive. Varsity Tutors has a few free tests with answers for the writing part. A detailed overview of the writing part is available on the college board website. The test taker can follow the step-by-step guideline from the test conductors themselves to prepare.

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QS Leap has an all-in-one guideline and study resources for SAT self-preparation. Check them out as well. For mock tests, head over to Crack SAT and Princeton Reviews as they have a comprehensive list of questions for practice.  The SAT writing by the college panda is a useful book for a detailed outline of the writing and language part. The book will help the test taker to develop their writing style and make it more streamlined for a perfect score.

Math Test 

As mentioned earlier, the math test is divided into two parts – a math test with a calculator and without a calculator. There are a total of 58 questions in the math section. 45 of them are multiple-choice based and the rest 13 are grid-based problems. A test taker will get a total of 80 minutes to solve the problem. Among them, 15 multiple choice and 5 grids are reserved for no calculator part and 30 multiple choice and 8 grids are reserved for the calculator section.

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Prep Scholar has a comprehensive math guide for both the math parts. The guideline has useful formulas, shortcuts, and step by step guide to solve different critical math problems. College Board also has some useful guidelines for math preparation. For a more integrated math guide, check out the complete math tutorial available at Udemy. For the mock test, head over to Varsity Tutor. They have a comprehensive list of practice sheets on both types of math tests. The Official SAT Study Guide also has a useful selection of practice tests to try out.

Final Thoughts 

Previously, there was a subject-based SAT as well. However, the college board decided to phase out the subject-based SAT from 2021. As a result, the comprehensive SAT outlined above is the standard for all types of college admission needs. The SAT is nothing out of the ordinary as all the assessment materials are inspired by the high school curriculum. However, a test taker needs to develop the ability to solve the problems in a time constraint to ace the exam.

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