SAT

Scholastic Aptitude Test

This is a test for admission into colleges in the United States and one of the oldest tests in the world, having been started in 1901. A lot has changed since it was started, like the standards of scoring and the name of this examination. The SAT consists of mathematics, reading and writing examination. Each paper has ten sections and last 3 hours and 45 minutes exclusive of breaks, form fillings sessions and orientation sessions. There are easy and hard questions in the SAT depending on the score by the candidate in the experimental section. Dates of the SAT exams are released periodically depending on the intakes of the various institutions.

SAT is a worldwide examination but is subject to US laws and will not accept applicants from countries such as Cuba and Iran. Any other country whose nationals are considered as designation nationals will not be allowed to sit the SAT exam. Students from Ghana Nepal Nigeria and India must have valid passports to be allowed. Students from Thailand, Vietnam and Korea are also supposed to present a passport alongside a national ID card. Online registration for SAT is allowed all over the world except in Kenya, Togo, Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon and Ghana. In these areas, registration has to be done by paper and submitted before the registration deadline, failure to which the application will not be allowed. The registration for the SAT examination has to be accompanied by a payment for the SAT examination to the college he wants.

In Kenya, SAT students will register through Frise holdings, which will also coordinate payments for the students. Payment by credit card is not allowed in Kenya. Students from the Far East countries of Korea, Thailand and Vietnam will be required to have a valid passport and a valid national ID to be allowed to sit the exam.

The SAT exam takes three hours and costs $75 for international students. The fee for United States-based students is $47.  The SAT has three parts, reading, writing and mathematics. The verbal part of the exam has three parts, all which last 70 minutes. It means to test the vocabulary of the candidate. Most of the questions in this part of the examination are passage questions with subjects varying from one exam to the other. The first questions in this part are easier and progress in difficulty as you move forward. The mathematics section of the SAT exam also lasts 70 minutes with multiple choice and objective questions. Some of the subjects that one is expected to tackle in this part of the exam include algebra. It is only in the recent times that calculators have been allowed in SAT examinations.

The writing part of the SAT consists of multiple choice questions and the writing of an essay, which contributes 30% of the writing section score. The multiple choice questions will test the grammar of the candidate. The student is expected to identify errors in sentences and tests the logical reasoning of the candidate. Sometimes, the candidate may be asked to correct the grammar in an essay. The essay part lasts 25 minutes and candidates are supposed to write a small essay on a subject matter that has been provided. There is no right or wrong way of writing the essay, only that it has to be grammatical. Most of the time, the essay will ask the candidates opinion on a subject matter which may or may not be controversial. The candidate will be expected to stay within the boundaries of the topic. They are also supposed to maintain a certain number of words.

Last modified: 2011-04-30 09:19:38