Why do so many colleges require the SAT I scores?
Okay. This is where we lose so many high school seniors
to panic. PLEASE DON’T! Year after year high schoolers
take the SAT and live to tell the story. You are going
to be fine. Just relax. Breath. Now read the advice below.
Why do they put us through this?!?!
Many colleges require the SAT I for admission because it
is a standard way of measuring a student's ability to do
college-level
work. Because courses and grading systems vary from high
school to high school, scores on standardized tests, like
the SAT
I, help colleges compare your academic achievements with
those of students from different schools. Make sense? Well
all right.
Let’s move on.
Can the SAT I really show how well I'll do in my first year
of college?
No test can predict with 100 percent certainty what your
grades will be in college. That's because many factors,
including personal motivation, influence your college grades.
However,
colleges use SAT I scores to help estimate how well students
are likely to do at its school. For example, if a college
tracks the grades of the freshmen class and finds that
students who scored between 450 and 550 on the SAT I and
maintained
a "B" average in high school are the students
who perform well at its school; then they are likely to
admit
students with similar scores and GPA in the future.
Why don't the questions on the SAT I ask about the things
I am learning in my high school courses?
The SAT measures the verbal and math reasoning abilities
that you have developed over years of schooling and in your
outside reading and study. The test is designed to allow
you to demonstrate your abilities in these areas regardless
of the particular type of instruction you've received or
textbooks you've used. These important abilities - understanding
and analyzing written material, drawing inferences, differentiating
shades of meaning, drawing conclusions, and solving math
problems - are necessary for success in college and life
in general.
FYI- The NEW SAT I
Did you know that in the spring of 2005 the College Board
will offer a new SAT I? The class of 2006 should be aware
of these changes. There are two big differences from the
current test to the new one. First of all is the score.
For many years a 1600 was the “perfect score”, this
was a highly coveted number that few saw on their own score
sheets. With the new SAT I this “perfect score” will
be 2400. In addition, the participants will be asked an
essay question on the spot. To learn more about these and
other
changes to the SAT I visit www.collegboard.com
Tips:
- Know the test directions. You can spend more time
answering questions if you know the instructions ahead
of
time.
- Know what to expect. Questions of the same type are
grouped together. The easier questions are at the beginning.
- Do
the easy questions first. You earn just as many points
for easy questions as you do the hard questions.
- Know how
the test is scored. You get one point for each correct
answer. You lose a fraction of a point for a wrong
answer.
- Don't panic if you can't answer every question. You
don't have to answer every question correctly to get
a good score.
- Omit questions that you really have no idea how to
answer. No points are lost for omitting a question.
