Studying Abroad, The Mini-Series. Part 3: The SATs

Hi everyone. Today, we'll be talking about the SATs. So grab a chair, a snack, and relax. If you have any experience with external exams, then you shouldn't fear because the SAT is just another one and that's where the similarities end. And on that note...

images from collegeboard.org and wtoc.com

The SATs are organized by the College Board just like our SSCE is organized by WAEC.

Note that some schools have waived their SAT requirements this application cycle because of COVID19 but if your school still requires it then read on.

First, let's start with the structure. Then we'll head on to curriculum and preparation.

The SAT comprises 4 sections (plus an optional essay section); a Reading Section, Writing and Language Section, (these are the English tests) Math( No Calculator), and Math (Calculator) section (the Math tests).

Reading Summary (from college board website)

The Reading Test always includes

• One passage from a classic or contemporary work of U.S. or world literature.

• One passage or a pair of passages from either a U.S. founding document or a text in the Great Global Conversation they inspired. The U.S. Constitution or a speech by Nelson Mandela, for example.

• A selection about economics, psychology, sociology, or some other social science.

• Two science passages (or one passage and one passage pair) that examine foundational concepts and developments in Earth science, biology, chemistry, or physics.

Writing Summary (from college board website)

To answer some questions, you’ll need to look closely at a single sentence. Others require reading the entire piece and interpreting a graphic. For instance, you might be asked to choose a sentence that corrects a misinterpretation of a scientific chart or that better explains the importance of the data.

The passages you improve will range from arguments to nonfiction narratives and will be about careers, history, social studies, the humanities, and science.

Math Summary

The Math section really just requires you to have an understanding of a mix of foundational and important secondary concepts. In the No Calculator section, you are not allowed to use a Calculator so the questions are usually easier but don't be fooled, cause they can still hide some tricky questions. The Calculator section is where most of the 'harder' math really is. This makes sense because you are now allowed to use a calculator so they'll want to see how well you can follow processes not just give accurate numbers.

The Essay which I mentioned is optional has a more straightforward structure. You read an essay/passage and then you'll write an essay explaining how the author builds his argument. So if you read an essay where the author is trying to explain why all children under 18 need to be in school. Your job is to then pick out elements of his essay and explain how they make a convincing argument. So for example, if the author writes,

"According to research, the brain is not fully matured until the early twenties, therefore it is necessary for such an individual to be in an environment where he is allowed to grow, learn and make mistakes without having immense repercussions."

you as the applicant could write,

"The author uses a scientific backup adding credibility to his claim. He then ties this with a logical assumption that the audience can relate to."

I know this sounds like a lot of big English and you don't have to use it all but you also want to make sure that the person reading your essay understands that you have a wide vocabulary. So you need to find your middle ground.

You don't want to go "The peripheral layer of this photosynthesis of this equation is unfathomable to the minuscule human thinking station." but you also don't want to write "So what the author is saying is that the children have to be in school because they are not old enough to be mixing with older people." You get? Hopefully yes😄

Now curriculum. The SATs are quite different from most of the exams that we are used to because they want to test different skills like accuracy, thinking, precision but also speed.

Personally, I would say that there is no hardcore list of topics to read in order to get a perfect score but the best place to get an idea of what you need to know would be the CollegeBoard website or practice websites like KhanAcademy. At the end of the day, it's still Math and English so if you survived ss2, you should be fine. Only that you might need to relearn some things, especially in the math section. The way they test your knowledge is a little different from ours. Our questions are like,

"If this is the principal, what is the simple interest? Easy, plug in the formula and answer.

Their questions are like

"If company A's interest is this and company B's interest is this, over time who will have a bigger account balance?"

It's still simple interest but you have to really understand what you're looking for and how to get there.

Another important is timing. Like any exam, the SAT is timed but a little different in the fact that after you finish each section, you can't go back. So when you finish the reading section, that's it. So if you finish early, take your precious time to triple-check, cause once you start another section, ain't no turning back. (Even though it's paper, the invigilators are usually very strict and it's counted as cheating if you turn back because it gives you an unfair advantage over others so yh, rules🙄)

Timing is important because even though the SAT measures accuracy, they also measure speed. Most times, people barely manage to get the work done on time so please practice taking the 4-hour test like it was real (even if you have to do it at midnight, I know about dem house chores😔)

Last but definitely not least, Grading. The SATs 4 sections are graded separately. The Reading section which has 52 questions is allotted 65 minutes, the writing section of 4 passages of 11 questions each (44 in total) is allotted 35 minutes, the math no calculator section has 25 minutes allotted for 20 questions and the math calculator section has 55 minutes for 38 questions. All together 96 questions in 100 minutes for the English section and 58 questions in 80 minutes for the Math section. The SAT is graded over 1600 starting from 400. This means 400 is the lowest possible score. Most schools have an average score of 1000-1300 in their applicant pool except the school is a selective school like Yale where the average score could be between 1470 and 1520.

And for the scholarship crew, there really isn't a cut-off mark for scholarships. Except, you are looking at private or organizational scholarships, most schools have their own range of scores so make sure to check those and make your target score something closer to the higher end of their range.

Links to helpful websites:

Collegeboard, Take your time, wander around the website. There's a lot of info and you might not get it all at once but that's why the website is there. It's not going anywhere.

Khan Academy, a CollegeBoard recommended website where you can practice for the SATs to your heart's content. And the best part, it's free!

PrepScholar, a blog that has some really good info on how to maneuver this entire process. Note, they write really long articles but they are very thorough.

Whew! That's a wrap.

Hope y'all were able to get some info or at least not fall asleep😅

See you next week.

Peace✌🏽