Overview
SAT
The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States.
The SAT is an exam that is wholly owned, developed, and published by the College Board. College Board is a private, not-for-profit organization in the United States. It is administered on behalf of the College Board by the Educational Testing Service, which until recently developed the SAT as well.
- SAT is a three-hour test, plus 50 minutes for the SAT with essay
- The SAT score ranges from 400 to 1600
- Consist of Mathematics, and Critical Reading and Writing
SAT Exam
The SAT exam is taken by students who wish to study abroad. This test is taken annually, and it is a Standardized International Exam required for colleges in the United States.
All candidates who wish to study in the US or Canada must take this test. The fee for taking this exam is around USD 47.50.
It is a three-hour test and is conducted by Education Testing Services on behalf of the College Board. It is an offline test held at the test centers. Some other countries where this exam is accepted are Singapore and Australia.
The SAT exams are also taken by students who wish to pursue history, literature, mathematics, science, and foreign languages.
The paper is divided into four parts:
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Language
SAT Exam Pattern
Broadly the paper is divided into two parts, one with the use of calculators and one without the use of calculators. The paper has four parts: reading, writing, mathematics, and Language. The time allotted for these four parts in three hours. A student can also opt for the fifth part, which is optional writing, which increases the time allotted to three hours fifty minutes. A student can go for subject tests as well. These tests take about an hour to finish and held six times a year.
|
Subject |
Duration |
Score Range |
|
Maths |
80 minutes |
200-800 |
|
Writing and Language |
35 minutes |
200-800(combined) |
|
Reading |
65 minutes |
200-800(combined with writing) |
|
Essay |
50 minutes |
Not defined |
SAT Full Form
The Full form of SAT is the Scholastic Assessment Test. The SAT exam is a competitive exam given by students who are willing to study in countries such as the USA and Canada. The College Board owns the Whole SAT exam, and recently, CollegeBoard launched the SAT exam in India as well, so students who want to study in Universities in The USA can give their exams. Even some of the Indian Universities accept the SAT results, universities like:
- Ahmedabad University
- Manipal Academy of Higher Education
- Anant National University
- MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
- Ashoka University
- OP Jindal Global University
- Azim Premji University
- Shiv Nadar University
SAT Exam Highlights 2020
|
Exam Name |
SAT |
|
SAT full form |
Scholastic Assessment Test |
|
Official Website |
|
|
Most popular for |
Undergraduate courses in the US and Canada |
|
Also accepted by |
The United Kingdom and Australia |
|
Conducted by |
The College Board |
|
Mode of Exam |
Written-based examination |
|
SAT Fee |
$96.50 without the essay and $113.50 with essay |
|
Score Range |
400-1600 points |
|
SAT Contact |
The College Board National Office 250 Vesey Street New York, NY 10281 Phone: 212-713-8000 |
SAT Registration
Every student who wishes to study in the USA has to give their SAT exam at one point in their life. To give an SAT exam, the student needs to first register with CollegeBoard (CollegeBoard is the head organization of the SAT exam) to give the exam. To Register with CollegeBoard, the applicant needs to follow the steps given below:
- Visit the Official Website of CollegeBoard and create an account.
- After Creating an ID with CollegeBoard, you need to fill in your details.
- Next, you need to create a Student Profile, which includes details such as
- College Name/High School Details
- Passing Year
- Extra-curricular activities
- Choose a Test date and Center
- Upload a Picture for your ID Card
- Pay SAT Fees
Registration By Mail
- The candidate needs to register for an SAT student registration booklet from the College Board.
- Fill in the application form of the SAT exam
- Mail the application form
- Also, mail the cheque or money order
- The address College Board SAT program is
P.O. Box 7502
London, KY 40742-72502.
SAT Fees
The SAT exam fee is around $52.5. An additional fee of $26 is taken for the subject test. Extra fee is taken if the exam is taken outside the US territory.
Fee Waiver
- The SAT fee is waived for low-income families.
- This option is available for people living in the USA.
- Students whose family income falls below the income eligibility guidelines set by the USDA Food and nutrition service have this choice.
- Students living in foster homes may also apply for a fee waiver.
- Students who are enrolled in federal, state, or other programs can also apply for the same.
SAT Exam Dates
For admission to colleges in the academic year 2020, the SAT 2020 dates are:
- 14th March 2020
- 2nd May 2020
- 6th June 2020
There are no official dates for 2020 exams held for admission in the academic year 2021-22.
However, as the dates fall on the first Saturday of fixed months, the dates can be estimated. So for admission in 2021-22, the dates falling in the year 2020 maybe,
- 29th August 2020
- 3rd October 2020
- 7th November 2020
- 5th December 2020
SAT Dates Registration
The SAT registration dates generally close about a month before the exam date. Registration dates for exam dates in 2020 for admission in 2020 are given below.
- 14th February 2020 for the exam on 3rd March April 2020 for the exam on 8th May May 2020 for the exam in June
SAT Practice Test
The SAT exam includes Mathematics, Critical Reading, and Writing section. By practicing SAT sample papers, students can know their standards and can practice more for the exam. There are 2 sample papers of 2018 PDF links from which you can practice the questions.
SAT Score
It can be tricky for some foreign students to understand SAT scoring. The score of the exam ranges between 400 and 1600. If a student gets a score of 1400 then he/she is given the percentile 95%. If a student scores 890 then he/she is given the percentile 21%. The raw score is converted to the range of 200 – 800 per section.
The candidates can apply for score verification if their expectations were different. You can send for verification till 5 months the result is out. The result gets automatically updated after the verification. The booklet of questions and answers are provided to the candidate. Students can request for the score verification online or offline (mail).
SAT Syllabus
The SAT exam is a standardized examination that helps the university in examining the applicant in terms of the merits he/she has in an objective way. The test is useful for the examiner and university in understanding the preparation level of the student, along with judging the students on their skills which they have developed since the past schooling. The SAT Exam has a comprehensive syllabus which is important to give a fair idea about what the examination seeks. While the duration of the exam is three hours, an additional 50 minutes are given to attempt the optional essay. The marks are in the range of 400 to 1600 points.
SAT Syllabus 2020 – How to prepare
- Register for the test
- Get an idea about the test format and structure
- Familiarize yourself with the question styles and content.
- Figure out weaknesses.
- Set a goal that you can score.
- Make a proper and demarcated study plan for each section of the exam.
- Read and review all the important content.
- Learn the test strategies in order to crack the different sections.
- Practice, Practice, and Practice.
- Be ready on the test day!
Reading Test
The reading test has questions based on paragraphs and graphics in the question paper. One of the paragraphs chosen has a part of the world literature, or a classic work of the U.S. The other passage is either the U.S founding document or may have a paragraph from the Great Global Conversation. The third paragraph is related to topics such as economics, sociology, and psychology. The last two paragraphs are science-based to test student’s fundamental and scientific concepts.
Writing Test
In the writing and language test, the paper has MCQs based on paragraphs. The content may have informational graphics, graphs, charts, etc. You will find questions based on sentence structure, usage, and punctuation. The students will have to change the sentences and keeping their meaning the same to fix the sentences with some error. The topics are a verb, tense, subject-verb agreement, etc.
Maths Test
The maths section has two parts- a calculator and a test-no-calculator. The grid-in questions should be filled in the space given. The topics covered are Algebra, polynomials, linear and exponential growth, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and probability.
SAT Subject Test List
There are over 19 subjects included in the SAT subject list
- For maths section - Math Level 1
- For maths section - Math Level 2
- For science subjects - Biology
- For science subjects - Chemistry
- For science subjects - Physics
- For Arts subjects - U.S history
- For Arts subjects - World history
- For Language subjects - Spanish
- For Language subjects - Spanish with listening
- For Language subjects - French
- For Language subjects - French with listening
- For Language subjects - Chinese with listening
- For Language subjects - Italian
- For Language subjects - German
- For Language subjects - German with listening
- Modern Hebrew
- For Language subjects - Latin
- For Language subjects - Japanese with listening
- For Language subjects - Korean with listening
FAQs
A candidate may apply for the exam as many times as he/she desires.
The SAT exam has conducted a total of six times a year between January, May, June, October, November, and December.
ACT also includes a section on Science which is not present in the SAT.
Approximately 5 weeks before the test date, do the applicants needs to register. One can do the registration through mail or online, the latter being more convenient.
Two ways of sending the scores – one while registration of the test, and next after the release of the official scores. The scores can be sent to the colleges up to nine days of taking the test.
The two scoring sections are Evidence-Based Writing and Reading, along with Mathematics. Each has a scale of 200 to 800 points, adding which the total SAT score is received.
There is no specific age or educational criteria. For countries like the US and others, the exam can be given by students who wish to enroll in undergraduate programs.
The registration fee is $47.52. The registration fee for the SAT with Essay costs $64.52. Students giving exams outside the US have to pay an additional 49 USD for registration. The registration fee for a subjects test is 26 USD.
Ideally, you should be solving the previous year’s SAT question bank. Brushing up basics along with a lot of practice for each section is the only way to crack the exam.
It takes roughly 5 to 12 weeks to prepare for the exam. However, the more you practice, the better will be your chances of clearing the exam with flying colors.
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