SAT College Entrance Exam

With the school year a few weeks away, high school juniors and seniors are busying themselves, trying to maximize the time remaining in the summer break. For them and their parents, the classes that are taking this year and next are as much about preparing for college as they are about pursuing a high school diploma. The last two years of high school, students do the hard work to make the transition as seamless as possible. With their curriculum in place the only other major issue that has to be approached is the college entrance exam.

There are two entrance exams being taken nationally. Based in part on where you attend high school as well as where you plan on attending college, doing well on the exams is a key ingredient in how an admissions office will review your college application. For many students, the ACT is a sound option. For others, especially those that want to attend an upper echelon university, the need to take the ACT's cousin, the SAT is the only option. If you are looking to attend an Ivy League school, the SAT is the test you must take.

The SAT Reasoning Test is a three and a half hour college entrance exam administered at high schools around the country. Comprised of three sections with individual subsections, students are able to score a maximum of eight hundred on each portion of the college entrance exam. The test is currently offered seven times a year by the College Board. The three sections of the SAT Reasoning Test are Critical Reading, Math, and Writing.

Math Section

On a test with fifty-four Math questions, the Math section of the SAT has three sections. Two of the sections run twenty-five minutes. While the other runs twenty minutes. There are forty-four multiple choice questions and ten questions that used a grid to solve. Basic Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry are evaluated with the SAT.

Critical Reading Section

The Critical Reading Section of the SAT has sixty-seven questions. The Critical Reading Section has three sections, broken down exactly like the Math Section. Reading comprehension and paragraph fill-ins are in this section.

Writing Section

The SAT Essay (Writing Section) involves forty-nine questions that test your ability to identify errors, improving sentences and paragraphs. With the test run in three sections, two twenty-five minute sections as well as one ten minute section. You will have grammar, word choice, and usage questions. Also, you will have twenty-five minutes to pen an essay.

By taking the test, every student begins with a score of six hundred with the maximum being twenty-four hundred. For just signing your name you get six hundred points which is a nice way to start off. While the SAT has long been lauded for its analysis of a student's potential, college and university presidents took a stand against the College Board and forced the Board to modify several part of the college entrance exam in order to make it more of what the students need to be tested on.

The issue of quantitative comparison in the Math Section stirred parents and teachers like. With questions focused on one particular equation and builds around it, many students were unprepared for such an environment. So in the recent modification in 2005, quantitative comparison was removed from the Math Section. The Critical Reading Section had its own fallout as they were forced to remove the analogies portion of the test.

Some are wondering that with its most recent changes, how different the SAT and the ACT are. With the ACT adding a writing portion (optional), the differences between the two exams is negligible at best. Whatever happens is less important than preparing a high school student to take the college entrance exam. Their scholarship opportunities hinge on it.