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About SAT Exam
Test Section Overviews
The SAT Reasoning Test is a measure of the critical thinking skills you'll need for academic success in college. The SAT assesses how well you analyze and solve problems-skills you learned in school that you'll need in college. The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors.
Each section of the SAT is scored on a scale of 200-800, with two writing subscores for multiple-choice and the essay. It is administered seven times a year in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and U.S. Territories, and six times a year overseas.
I The Writing Section
Time: 60 min
Skills Tested: Grammar, usage, word choice
Question types: MC 35 min, essay 25 min
Scoring: 200-800
The writing section includes both multiple-choice questions and a direct writing measure in the form of an essay.
- Short Essay
- Multiple-Choice
The multiple-choice writing questions measure your ability to:
- Improve sentences and paragraphs
- Identify errors (such as diction, grammar, sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, proper word usage, and wordiness)
There are three kinds of multiple-choice Writing questions:
- Identifying Sentence Errors
- Improving Sentences
o Improving Paragraphs
II. Critical Reading
Time: 70 min (two 25 min sections and one 20 min section)
Sills Tested: Critical reading and sentence-level reading.
Question Types: Reading Comprehension and sentence completion and paragraph-length critical reading-
Scoring: 200 to 800
The critical reading section, formerly known as the verbal section, includes short as well as long reading passages. Questions can be based on one, or sometimes two, reading passages. Some questions are not based on reading passages, but ask you to complete sentences.
There are two types of Multiple-Choice Critical Reading Questions:
- Sentence Completions
- Passage-based Reading
III. Math
Time: 70 min-two 25 min sections and one 20 min section-
Skills Tested: Number, operation, algebra and functions, geometry; statistics, probability and data analysis-
Question Types: 5 choice (mc) and grid-in (sometimes called Student Produced Response)
Score: 200 to 800
The SAT includes mathematics topics up through a third-year college preparatory course, such as exponential growth, absolute value, and functional notation. It also places emphasis on such topics as linear functions, manipulations with exponents, and properties of tangent lines. Important skills such as estimation and number sense are measured through the multiple-choice and student response (grid-in) questions (formerly measured in the quantitative comparison format).
The mathematics section has two types of questions:
- Multiple Choice
- Student-Produced Response Questions
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