By ROBERT HALIWAY
While many musicians need to have a good-paying day job to support their music, that often requires getting into a good college first. And that means scoring high on the SATs.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush scored around 1100 on the SATs. Ke$ha and Will Smith got near-perfect SAT scores. And yes, none of them have to worry about a day job. But for most of the rest of us, scoring high on the SATs is the key to financially supporting the music habit.
The United States is home to some of the best colleges and universities with the highest education standards. If you are someone who wants to study in the US and open up new career options, then you will certainly come across the SAT exam. SAT, originally called Scholastic Aptitude Test, is one of the standard admissions tests that is used by colleges in the United States. The SAT test is designed in such a way that it can help colleges measure your skills to see how well-prepared you are for the next level of education.
There are various types of calculations that are part of the SAT test. These include things like computational ability, comprehension and more. Many of the well-known colleges in the United States highly regard the SAT scores during admissions, and it is said that 50 percent of the admissions decisions are made solely on the SAT scores.
Topics Covered
The SAT tests cover 3 main topics which are further divided into sections. A detailed description will be given below.
- The first topic that is part of the test is critical reading, which is further divided into 3 sections. Two of the sections should be completed in 25 minutes each, and have a total of 48 questions that are passage-based. The third section requires 20 minutes to complete and consists of 19 sentence completion questions.
- The second topic is mathematics and it is also divided into 3 sections. Two of them are of 25 minutes’ duration and consist of 44 multiple choice questions. The last section is of 20 minutes and comes with 10 questions.
- The third and final topic covered in the SAT exam is writing. The first section requires the student to write an essay in 25 minutes and also has 25 more short questions. The second section has 18 questions making you identify error in the sentences within a time limit of 25 minutes. The last section is just 10 minutes long, and requires the student to just improve 6 provided paragraphs. Visit PrepAway Website For SAT Practice Test.
How to Prepare for the SAT Exam?
The best way to prepare for the SAT exam is with the help of the SAT practice test. In order to succeed in your SAT exam, you should try to take at least onefull-length practice test every week. In this way, you will be able to keep track of your progress and make improvements where they are needed. You will also learn to get used to how lengthy this test is, it lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes, and this will help you avoid unwanted pressure during the real exam.
This is a great way to go because you don’t want the actual test day to be the first time that you are seeing the exam questions. During this preparation period, you will learn important techniques that will help you deal with exhaustion and manage your time. Every time you take an SAT practice test to take a moment to analyze your performance and then start to work on your weaker areas.
By taking the practice test you will learn about the format of the exam and how the various sections are incorporated into it. In this way, you will already know what to expect when the actual test is laid in front of you.
You should make reading an important part of your life during these days, this is because you never know what reading topic you will face on the exam. You should read articles and blogs on topics that you don’t know a lot about. Go slowly and try to understand everything the author is saying. By doing just some simple reading you will be preparing yourself for the comprehension section of the SAT exam.
Vocabulary is an important part of the SAT test. You can be sure that you will not be getting anywhere in the comprehension section if you do not have a good vocabulary. When you take the SAT practice test you will see that the passages that appear in the test are not very easy. You really should have a good comprehension level to give the right answers.
Some Helpful Tips
While taking the SAT practice test one thing that you will realize is that the mathematics portion of the test requires some serious calculations. This is why during the few hours of the SAT test a calculator is your best friend. By using a calculator, you can save yourself from making silly mistakes that can ultimately cause your scores to drop. You should know all the handy shortcuts of your calculator, and basically do everything to make your test easier.
Try to remember as many formulas as you possibly can as this will save you a lot of time. Although you will be given all the necessary formulas during the SAT Practice Questions, you should still try to remember them simply because this will save your time during the exam, as every time you flip a page to look at the formula you are wasting precious seconds. Besides, the more you know, the better.
The essay task is the first thing that you will see on the test and, to be honest, planning, writing, and proofreading an essay in 25 minutes is almost an impossible task. However, practice does make a man perfect so why not write as many essays as you can while preparing for the exam? The more essays you write, the faster your writing will get. Time is everything that you need during the SAT test, so make sure that you use it carefully.
Conclusion
These were some things that you should know about the SAT practice test. If you wish to study in the United States, then you have to learn everything about the SAT exam. Almost every well-known college in the country demands this test and that is why there is no getting away from it. The SAT score that you get will have a huge impact on whether or not you get the admission to a college. So make sure that you do practice enough.