While the SAT and ACT are often seen to be in competition, it is possible to take both tests, and a huge majority of colleges with stricter admissions policies accept either test in applications. Students who take both are advised to submit whichever test they score better on. The College Board is revamping the SAT beginning in spring , with nine major changes that touch on the test's format, content, and how it's taken. These changes are meant to address concerns that the SAT is becoming less relevant to students and colleges.
This brings the SAT back to a point scale, down from points, although the College Board expects some colleges will continue requiring the point essay.
While it might be nice to know obscure words like "remuneration," "plaudit," and "lachrymose," the College Board acknowledges students should not need to memorize hundreds of words they'll likely never use again. For example, after answering a question about a passage, students will also be asked to cite a quote from the passage to support their answer. The idea is to move away from a US education model that covers many topics but none deeply. Math questions, for instance, will be framed through the sciences and other real-world contexts.
The idea is to move away from bare equations and instead task students with modeling realistic scenarios through math. The SAT redesign aims to include a broader range of topics. The College Board claims the goal is to "inspire deep engagement with texts that matter and reflect not only what is important for college and career, but what is important for citizenship here and around the world. This change aims to move the focus of the SAT from test-taking strategies to the content of the test.
Many test-preparation services, for example, currently advise students to leave questions blank if they don't know the answer.
With the changes, students will have some incentive to at least work through the problem and develop an educated guess. For a more concrete example, here are four sample questions recently released by the College Board. The College Board is changing the SAT to address two main concerns: it faces mounting criticism that the test favors wealthier students, and it's becoming less popular with students.
Impetus for change largely stems from the National Center for Fair and Open Testing , which has long argued that standardized testing in general favors wealthier students and families. College Board data backs up that concern. Second, students seem to be moving away from the test. While some SAT critics see change as a long time coming, others are impressed by the turnaround he's made with the test. Those changes, particularly the addition of a mandatory writing section, drew negative reviews from education leaders.
Coleman echoed some of the criticisms against the writing section when he spoke at the Brookings Institute in The SAT seems to favor families with higher incomes. The higher the income, the higher the SAT score. Most racial minorities also struggle on the SAT. Asian and white students — the two racial groups with the lowest poverty rates — tend to score the best on the SAT.
Blacks, non-white Hispanics, and American Indians — all groups with higher poverty rates — score much worse in comparison, sometimes by hundreds of points. To explain the disparity, SAT critics often point to costly test-preparation services. They argue wealthier families can afford to put their children in the programs, which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, while poorer families cannot.
Major studies found test-preparation services help, but they don't explain the entire gap. A review of the research found coaching improves SAT math and reading scores by roughly 30 points out of total points. The point difference doesn't come close to accounting for the hundreds-point gap found on average between test-takers at the bottom of the income ladder and those at the top.
Since higher incomes tend to correlate with better educational attainment in general, the gap is really part of a broader trend: students from wealthier families often get better educations, period. The board also manages Advanced Placement exams, helps develop high school curriculums, and heads advocacy and outreach programs in pursuit of greater accessibility to college.
The College Board is comprised of more than 6, colleges, high schools, school districts, higher education systems, and other nonprofit entities. They all appoint delegates to national and regional assemblies, who then help pick the group's leadership.
More on the board's governance here. Joining the College Board allows colleges and other education leaders to shape standards, whether it be for the SAT or for high school curriculums. Without membership, a college could be left voiceless when, for example, an SAT redesign is in the works. Papers designed to help your Year 6 improve test skills and confidence. Raw score: This is the number of marks your child can get on the tests. This helps to take into account particularly difficult test years and other factors.
Age-standardised test scores: This is a way for parents to understand how their child did compared with other children who were born in the same month as their own. League tables: League tables are produced by the Department for Education and they allow primary schools to be ranked by many different measures, including by SATs results. The DfE: This stands for the Department of Education, and this is the part of government that is tasked with all things education.
They give teachers the chance to see how children are doing in comparison to their peers not only within the same school, but also nationally. SATs are a useful tool to see how well a child has progressed from KS1 to KS2, and they also give secondary schools a base to compare against when the time comes for your child to leave Year 6 and make the journey up to KS3! Headteachers, Local Authorities and the Department for Education also uses SATs data to identify which primary schools are excelling, and which may be struggling.
Thanks to this information being available, schools that are doing well will share what they are doing well with other schools to improve teaching on a much wider scale. However some people do choose to withdraw their children from SATs. It is recommended you speak to your headteacher if you are concerned about your child doing the SATs tests.
Most schools try to make it a relatively pain-free procedure for children. This means that from this date, schools will be able to choose themselves whether or not they administer the KS2 SATs to their Year 2 pupils. This announcement does not affect any children due to sit the SATs before though, so if your child was born before August 31st they will still have SATs in Year 2. SATs will help both parents and teachers to gauge the progress that a child is making.
This enables teachers to identify areas where a child may need additional help, and then arrange for this help to be provided either in the classroom or via outside assistance.
Most secondary schools look at Year 6 SATs results as part of the decision process when grouping students into sets or streams. Without the SATs, it would be difficult for schools to know whether to push and challenge a child, or whether they need some help in maths, English and the other subjects.
As a parent, chances are that when deciding on which primary school you would send your child to, you looked at the local league tables. These tables will show you how well a school is performing against others in the local area, but it is important to realise that SATs results and the league tables are not the only things to take into consideration when choosing a school.
Read more here on why SATs are important for your child. If the word SATs presents you with a mental image of your child sitting in a large hall with row after row of desks covered in pens and papers, then you will be pleased to hear that this is not the case. This will vary from school to school though, so if you are interested in finding out more, talk to a teacher next time you are on the school run. They will test techniques, skills and the knowledge gained not only from Year 6, but throughout the entirety of primary school.
The texts in the tests cover a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Note: the SATs have been cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown. However the SATs will carry on as normal. It is during this time that your Year 6 child will complete 6 different tests, English for the first part of the week and maths for the second.
On the Math section, however, you will also face a handful of grid-in questions for which you must come up with your own answers and bubble them in using the numbers provided. The Reading section focuses on reading comprehension and understanding vocabulary in context. Each of the 52 questions in this section will be based on a passage.
You'll be given five passages in total:. On some areas of the Reading section, you may be given a pair of related passages instead of a single passage. You may also encounter graphs, charts, or other forms of data representation. Note that you will not have to use any math for these questions, though you will be expected to know how to interpret the data provided. Below, I describe each of these question types and then provide you with our best tips for doing well on the SAT Reading section.
These two Reading question types are opposites: Big Picture questions focus on the main point of a passage , whereas Little Picture or Function questions focus on the function of specific lines or sentences within a passage. For this Reading question type, you must correctly interpret the meaning of a sentence, a group of sentences, or the entire passage.
These Reading questions ask you about the meaning of a specific word or phrase within the passage. These words and phrases may not always appear to be difficult but will usually take on lesser-known alternative meanings. For Evidence Support questions, you must locate contextual evidence for an answer to a previous question.
In other words, these questions are directly related to the questions that precede them. To answer these questions, you must identify a particular line or group of lines from which you found the answer to a question.
A Data Interpretation question requires you to interpret data usually in the form of a table, chart, or graph and understand how it relates to the passage. Once you've familiarized yourself with all of the Reading question types, it's time for you to employ our top three tips for the SAT Reading section! Because the Reading section revolves solely around passages, it's critical you dedicate the bulk of your SAT Reading prep to working with SAT-esque passages.
These mock SAT tests created by the College Board offer a plethora of realistic Reading passages that closely mimic the style and form of the passages you'll be given on test day. In addition to official practice tests, you can also use unofficial SAT Reading materials — as long as they contain high-quality Reading passages similar to those on the SAT.
This way you can familiarize yourself with the type of materials you'll see on test day. Process of elimination is an excellent strategy and even one recommended by a perfect scorer! As we already know, each Reading question offers four possible answer choices of which just one is correct. Some of the most common reasons answer choices are eliminated are that they're:.
Remember, even a single word in an answer choice can make it incorrect , so look closely for any reason to eliminate a choice before deciding on the correct one. Unlike the old pre SAT, which often tested obscure vocabulary words in complete isolation, the new SAT only tests vocabulary knowledge within the context of passages.
Additionally, current SAT vocabulary is only about medium difficulty , meaning many of the words tested are ones you've likely seen and may have even used before. Woo hoo! The challenging part of SAT vocabulary, however, is being able to identify lesser-known tertiary meanings of common words.
What this means is, while you no longer need to dedicate hours upon hours to memorizing thousands of vocabulary words, you do need to familiarize yourself with some of the rarer meanings of common words. Likewise, you should also know how to decipher a vocabulary word's meaning based on how it's being used in a passage. In other words, the Writing section is all about your proofreading and editing skills!
Like the Reading section, the Writing section revolves entirely around passages. Unlike Reading passages, however, all Writing passages are nonfiction , taking the form of narratives, arguments, and explanatory texts. Your primary mission on the Writing section is to correct or leave as is, if no errors are present words and sentences within these passages.
For science-based passages containing charts or graphs, you may be asked to replace an incorrect sentence with a new sentence that more accurately reflects the data provided.
I then provide you with our top three tips for getting a great score on SAT Writing. These types of Writing questions focus primarily on the big picture of a passage and usually ask you to provide evidence for why you are making a particular change. These questions require you to think about the various ways ideas can be expressed in words. More specifically, you must rearrange, add, combine, or delete sentences to improve the overall flow of a passage.
For Standard English Conventions questions, you must correct incorrect words or phrases, so that they adhere to the basic rules of English grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
This doesn't mean you must review every single grammar rule in existence — just the ones most commonly tested on the SAT. For more details on what these rules are and how you can master them, check out our in-depth guides to SAT grammar and SAT punctuation. Because none of the Writing section's passages are works of fiction, your best bet is to read real-life newspaper and magazine articles, persuasive texts, and essays.
As you study, you'll use these texts to hone your editorial eye, identifying transitional words and connections in thought. You'll also want to examine how the author builds his or her argument or main point throughout the text. What evidence does he or she provide? Is it ultimately effective? Why or why not? There will be a wide array of topics for Writing passages, so feel free to dig into a variety of texts.
To be a sharp editor, you must understand how to write well. And to write well, you must learn from the feedback on your own writing. Begin by noting any red marks on essays you turn in at school, making yourself aware of any errors you continuously make on your writing.
As you write essays for school, make sure you're also paying attention to the structure of your arguments. Consider the simple "hamburger" structure of essays: you've got your introduction top bun , your evidence and supporting details lettuce, tomato, and meat , and your conclusion bottom bun.
Knowing how to effectively structure your own essays should over time allow you to develop a keener understanding of how SAT passages are organized.
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