SAT Exams
Every year, millions of high school students across the globe take the SAT exams. This exams make high school students both laugh and cry. What is this exam that so many students take?
The SAT exam stands for Scholastic Assessment Test and measures students' abilities to perform in academic areas, especially in critical reading, math, and writing. Each section has a maximum score of 800, and the total maximum score for the exam is an 2400. The SAT is a globally recognized exam, and many colleges in the US require a certain score from applicants. One can view it as an American Su-neung. Ivy league schools often require scores higher than 2200 or 2300 out of a 2400. The grading style is somewhat odd; the number of correct and incorrect questions in each section are added up, and the number of incorrect questions are multiplied by 0.25. Then, that number is subtracted from the number of questions correct, and then is inserted into the grading scale consisting from 200 to 800. Fortunately, the SAT is offered six time throughout the academic year, so if students fail, they can test again.
The math section is the easiest known section in the SAT. It is divided up into 3 sections, each consisting of 20, 18, and 16 questions. Students are tested on various mathematics concepts such as geometry, precalculus, and basic algebra. Why do many people recongize math as the easiest section? Simple. The math questions only ask simple concepts, and never ask hard questions. The questions' difficulty is of middle school level, and if one graduated middle school, then one can do well on SAT maths. However, as so many test takers get every single question correct and get a 800, it is hard to get a 800. Unlike reading and writing, in which one can get some questions wrong and still get a 800, one has to get every question right to get a 800.
The writing section is somewhat onerous. It is also divided up into three sections containing an essay, 35 questions, and 14 questions. In this section, students have to write an essay of 2 pages in 25 minutes. Two people will grade the essay and give the students a score from 1 to 6. Then, these scores will be added up to be your final score. However, if the two scores have a difference of more than 2 points, the essay will be re-graded (ex: 6 and 4). The multiple choice questions ask students about simple grammar errors such as subject-verb disagreement, idiomatic errors, number disagreeement, and many other errors. In order to perform well, students will need to know basic grammar concepts.
The reading section is known to be the hardest section. Like the other sections, it is also divided up into 3 sections, containing each 24, 24, and 19 (sometimes can be 25, 23, 18 or 19). Students are tested on reading skills and vocabulary. However, students should note that the words on the SAT is definitely much harder than vocabulary that they learn in high school or su-neung exams. So, students should memorize various vocabulary if they want to score well. In addition to that, students will solve questions that requires them to analyze long and short reading passage. The reading passages are definitely much harder than the TOEFL and su-neung reading passages, so even if you do well on those, don't think that you'll always do well on the SAT. The topics can be virtually about everything. Sometimes, even a story that seems like nonsense, opinions about a certain issue from a physicist's perspective, or even a passage that debates whether the Electoral College of the US should continue can appear, puzzling students. Even if one gets one or two wrong, one can still get a 800 on reading, and 7 or 8 wrong questions still is a 700. This means that the reading section is extremely difficult to perform in.