Format of the SAT
The SAT is an
examination administered internationally to college-bound high school
students. The SAT is designed to assess high school
students' general educational development, primarily
critical thinking skills necessary to complete college-level work. The
SAT is used by most U.S. colleges and universities as part of their admissions
criteria.
The SAT test covers three skill areas:
Critical Reading, Mathematics, and
Writing. As of March 2005, the
SAT now contains a Writing section that includes multiple-choice questions and
an essay, and revised Math and Critical Reading sections.
The SAT takes
3 hours and 45 minutes to complete.
The SAT always begins with the Essay and ends with the 10-minute
multiple-choice Writing section. The sections between may appear in any order.
SAT Critical Reading Section
The Critical Reading portion of the SAT consists of three
sections with a total of 67 multiple-choice questions. Test takers have 25 minutes to complete
two of the sections, and 20 minutes to complete the remaining section.
Critical Reading questions on the SAT consist of Sentence Completion
questions and Passage-Based Reading questions. Sentence Completion
questions test your ability to understand and identify the meaning
of vocabulary words in the context of a sentence. Passage-Based Reading
questions, which accompany long and short passages, test your ability to understand information presented in a passage.
Although the passages vary in style, general topics include
humanities,
social studies, natural sciences, and literary fiction.
SAT Math Section
The Math portion of the SAT consists of three sections
with a total of 44 multiple-choice
questions and 10 student-produced response questions. Test takers have 25
minutes to complete two of the sections, and 20 minutes to complete the
remaining section.
The purpose of the Math section is to test your ability to solve problems
using logic and your knowledge of
numbers
and operations, algebra,
geometry, probability, statistics, and data analysis.
SAT Writing Section
The Writing section of the SAT consists of three sections with a total of 49
multiple-choice questions and 1 essay. Test takers have 25 minutes to complete
one multiple-choice section, 10 minutes to complete the second multiple-choice
section, and 25 minutes to complete the essay.
Multiple-choice Writing questions on the SAT consist of Identifying Sentence Errors
questions, Improving Sentences questions, and Improving Paragraphs
questions. The purpose of the Writing section is to measure your ability to
understand and interpret standard written English.
SAT Unscored Section
In addition to the 9 sections listed above, the SAT includes one 25-minute,
Experimental Critical Reading or Math section that does not count towards your
score. You will not be able to determine which is the Experimental Section on
your test.
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