First, I assume that the readers of this post have already known about and are interested in taking the SAT. I’m going to start by elaborating about the test.
The SAT is a standardized test administered by College Board, used by many universities in the United States as a measure of a student’s proficiency in academic skills.
The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.
Originally, only universities in the United States require it as part of your application. Nowadays, universities outside the United States also require you to take the SAT (Singapore, for instance). It was originally an abbreviation to the term Scholastic Aptitude Test, but now that term isn’t used anymore. SAT is already a word by itself and it specifically refers to the first form explained below (but if you insist that the “SAT” is an abbreviated version of something, I prefer Superfluous Abstruse Test myself =P).
There are 2 forms of SAT. The first form is known as the SAT Reasoning Test (or just SAT), and as its name suggests, it tests your ability to think logically. It does so by testing your general verbal and math skills. The second form, known as the SAT Subject Test, covers a specific academic subject area. Some of the subjects include Physics, Biology E/M, Chemistry, etc. My post will focus on the first type, since students more often take the first one rather than the second one.
The SAT is basically a test of English and Math. It is divided into 3 big parts, the Critical Reading section (formerly known as the Verbal section), the Writing Section, and the Math section. The Critical Reading section consists of problems in reading comprehension and vocabulary. The Writing section consists of problems in correcting sentences, improving sentences and paragraphs. The Math section consists of problems in secondary school syllabus (algebra, probability, statistics, etc.). You may want to look for the complete list in the College Board website.
Why did I say the SAT measures academic skills? The SAT does not purely test your ability in either English or Math. As I have said, it tests how well you reason. In fact, some problems in SAT can be solved just by logical thinking. Even problems in Math could be solved even though you don’t know the exact formula for a problem. We’ll see about this later.
That’s about all for now. My next post will be about the test format, so stay tuned!
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