Will Wisdom

SAT

Nothing is worse than the thought of getting up early on Saturday morning to take a 3+ hour test. This is just part of the routine for many juniors and seniors hoping to go to college. Developed almost 80 years ago, the SAT was meant to quantify the intelligence of secondary school students. Colleges (Harvard in particular) started using the test as a scholarship qualification tool in hopes of offering an education to those who would likely do well in college. Today, the test is a prerequisite for admission to most college institutions.

What it is meant to measure

Wayne Camara, director of the College Board’s Office of Research, says the SAT is meant to measure a student’s “developed reasoning” (a.k.a., critical thinking). Bob Schaeffer, director of FairTest, on the other hand, feels that the SAT only measures reasoning “in small part.”

Most colleges agree that the SAT is useful as a measure for comparison. It is the one common denominator between all college applicants, and it is meant to help avoid such pitfalls as grade inflation.

Grade Inflation

A student from school X receives an A for work that would receive a B or C from school Y.
While some colleges claim that the SAT provides an estimate of how well a student will do, there is only a small correlation between a student’s SAT scores and their college grades.
In an attempt to make the test a better reflection of the typical high school curriculum, the College Board (a.k.a. managers of the SAT) changed the test.

The New SAT

The old SAT was comprised of one math section and two verbal sections. The verbal sections were made up of analogies and reading passages. There were no essays and the highest possible score was 1,600. The new SAT, which debuted March 13th, still has the math and reading comprehension sections, but the analogies are gone. A writing section, which consists of a timed, 25-minute essay and grammar questions, has been added. The top score has increased to 2400 and the time limit was extended to three hours and 45 minutes.

2400
Total points available on the
new SAT

Why writing?

Writing is considered an essential skill in college and in most careers. The essay section is meant to show a student’s ability to clearly and concisely write about a topic.

Being so new, colleges have not yet decided how they will use the writing scores. In a College Board survey of 350 colleges, most said they planned on using the writing section results in some way.

ACT

If the thoughts of an essay scare you, you may want to think about the ACT, another standardized college entrance exam. Developed in the mid-1950s, the ACT was designed to assess high school students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work.

What’s the difference?

The SAT and ACT are both college entrance exams and most colleges will except either. Then what’s the difference?

Main Differences between the two tests

	SAT	ACT
Philosophy	The SAT is a test of academic aptitude meant to measure a student's ability to learn. It is designed to provide information as independently as possible from high school curricula, measuring more abstractly defined educational aptitudes. It is described as a test of "developed ability" which is something that solidifies over a student's lifetime.	The ACT is a test of educational development and measures how much the student has already learned. It mirrors the high school experience, being more closely tied to curriculum and covering concepts taught in most secondary schools. "The test questions require students to integrate the knowledge and skills they possess in major curriculum areas with the information provided by the test. In this way scores have a direct and obvious relationship to the students' educational progress in curriculum-related areas," according to the American College Testing Program's Technical Manual.
Penalties	There is a penalty for incorrect answers. For questions with five answer choices, one-fourth of a point is subtracted for each wrong response. For questions with four answer choices, one-third of a point is subtracted for each wrong response	There is no penalty for incorrect answers
Control	When a student applies to a college, all information is divulged to admissions (including how many times the student took the test and all previous scores)	You decide which scores a college will see.
Scoring	Top Score – 2400	Top Score – 36
Content
Math	70 minutes, 200-800 points Numbers and operations, algebra and functions, geometry and measurement; data analysis, statistics and probability; format includes multiple-choice questions and student-produced responses	60 minutes, 1-36 points Mathematical skills students typically have acquired in courses taken up to the beginning of grade 12; multiple-choice format
Critical Reading	70 minutes, 200-800 points Critical reading and sentence-level reading; format includes sentence completions, multiple choice	35 minutes, 1-36 points Reading comprehension; multiple-choice format
English	Part of the writing section	45 minutes, 1-36 points Standard written English and rhetorical skills; multiple-choice format
Science	None	35 minutes, 1-36 points Interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning and problem-solving skills for natural sciences; multiple-choice format
Writing	60 minutes, 200-800 points Grammar, usage and word choice; multiple-choice format with response to essay question	Optional 30 minutes, 2-12 points
Cost	$41.50	$28 ($42 with optional essay)

SAT or ACT?

When deciding which test to take there are a couple of things to consider:
• What do the colleges you are applying to accept?
• Scholarship money – some scholarships are based on test scores. They generally only accept one test – find out which one.

Doing Well
No matter which test you choose, you will most likely worry about doing well. And impossible as it may seem, you can do it - the key is preparation, though it depends which kind.

Prep Course
While paying for a prep course may seem like an easy way to raise your score, they are probably a waste of money. Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, said test-prep courses generally boost students’ scores by very small numbers. In fact, a 1995 study by Brushkin-Goldring Research stated that Kaplan test-prep students, on average, increased their SAT scores by 120 points.

Studying Alone
If studying by yourself is more your style, consider your study habits. Eric Loken, a Penn State researcher, researched more than 100,000 high school and college students who prepared for the SAT, ACT, and GRE by themselves. He found that most students did not start studying until two weeks before the test and found that they rarely spent the time to complete the math, science, or long passage reading drills. If you tend to procrastinate on regular school assignments, you may do better with a prep course.

The common thread between those students who did well on the SAT and ACT, regardless of whether they took a prep course or studied by themselves, was diligence. Those students took practice tests, realized their weaknesses and perfected their weak areas.

Taking the SAT or ACT is a requirement for college admission. Start your college career off right by taking the time to study for the test that suits you best.