SAT Advice for a Foreign Student? 100
An anonymous reader asks: "I am a student from the UK who is currently in the process of applying to a university in the US. This means that I need to take the SAT Reasoning Test. I have read study guides and seen sample questions, but the more I look around the more I seem to be seeing general 'study skills' information aimed primarily at explaining how to learn rather than what to learn, which results in a lot of pages to work through for seemingly little data. What would help me immensely is any kind of resource aimed at an audience unfamiliar with the tests. Does anyone have a link to a list of exactly what I am expected to know and in what detail I need to know it, as well as anything else that can help me prepare for the exams?"
What to know... (Score:2)
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I remember on the mat
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Either way, do they even offer SAT prep courses in the UK? That's gotta be expensive if they do...
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Neither are the SATs if it comes to that. I didn't take them and I did just fine. It depends on who you are and the quality of the school. In fact, the better the school, the less necessary they are.
KFG
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Selective schools get inundated with many more highly qualified applicants than spots and the SAT is one of several measuring sticks admissions counselors use to cull the field down to a manageable level.
I agree that the SAT is largely a meaningless hoop to jump through, but realize that t
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I didn't advise anything at all.
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I didn't thumb my nose at it. I thumbed my nose at everything after sixth grade. Me and Jethro Bodine; soul brothers.
. .
Give me a full scholorship? Small, highly regarded private college with ultracompetive admissions. Only place I even applied to. Nor am I unique in this regard. It happens. Depends on the school and who you are. Which is where I came in to this
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*sound of other shoe dropping*
Depends on the school and who you are.
Preach on bother man, truer words never spoken and all that. However, gp is slightly correct in that this "advice" is dangerous, at least to some.
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Information missapplied is always dangerous, but again, I never advised not taking the SATs.
I have, however, advised people not to attend college at all, but not under this "story," where I am under the assumption the questioner is not interested in such advice.
KFG
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No, much like a driver's education course isn't necessary to teach someone how to drive. However, it has serious potential to be helpful when it's time for the real thing. You can do fine without a prep course, but statistically, you can do a heck of a lot better with one. To me, every point in your favor gets you one step closer to things like scholarships.
If $75 for an SAT prep course can save me $20,000 on college thanks to scholarships, then that's one hell of
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PSAT (Score:1)
National Merit Scholarship is awarded to students with good scores on the PSAT.
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No, National Merit Scholarships are awarded to students with good scores on the PSAT and (from their website):
I was a semi-finalist, and knew a winner who had a lower PSAT score than
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Sure, this is a dig at the UK school system (and the University system), but if you had to work next to people who passed this system everyday, you would feel a lot of animosity towards it as well.
Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Insightful)
You seem to have totally missed the point. The SAT is an American standard. The person asking the question is from the UK. Despite Tony Blair's efforts, the UK is still not part of the USA.
Exactly why do you think that a person from the UK would know the content of American tests, and how many prep classes for American tests do you think that there are in the UK?
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Let the linked list jokes commence (Score:1, Offtopic)
From google: (Score:1)
Online SAT prep (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.accoladeprep.com/ [accoladeprep.com]
(Full disclosure: This post is on-topic, but also a shameless plug -- I'm one of the co-creators of the course.)
Contact us (contact at accoladeprep.com) and we'll get you set up.
Alright, end shameless plug
-fren
I did quite well, and I can say only... (Score:2)
If you can write a good argument you're just fine on the writing. Of course, I majored in philosophy and got a 5/5 on the writing portion of the GRE, so my definition of 'good argument' might differ slightly from yours. But I doubt it, to be honest.
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The funny part of forgetting that is that I got a 780 on the math side and 1550 points overall.
Basically, to the point where my grades were going to be what mattered. That's the situation anyways; if your grades are good enough, you only need about a 1200+. After that people will consider your application seriously. That's all you really need.
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With every standardised test you should have at least done one or two test runs imho, they just all have their own little quirks when it comes to logical thinking.
Don't worry about. (Score:3, Interesting)
In case, you wonder, it just has general logic, reading, math, and scientific deduction questions. The only thing to worry about are the analogies, but they're easier on the actual test than they are on the practice tests. Anyway, this test is nothing that any high school freshman in the US shouldn't be able to do at least half-way decently, which means an average high school student of any other industrialized nation should pass with flying colors. If it tells you anything, I flunked out of college three semesters in a row and got a 2.0 GPA in high school and yet I got a 1492 composite (out of 1600) on the SAT I.
If you're still worried, order one of those SAT I practice trainers from Amazon.
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The only thing I can suggest is that preparation gives you a huge leg up -- there is only a finite number of kinds of questions you will encounter, and i
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When I was younger, I took the old two parter and got a combined score of 1340.
I wouldn't be surprised if I took it again today with the three parts and still get a 1340. :-/
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Useful Message Board (Score:1)
My advice (Score:5, Interesting)
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Get familiar with the test (Score:4, Interesting)
Assuming you've received a decent high school education, you probably know how to do pretty much anything they're going to throw at you. I don't think studying specific topics is going to do you any good. What you do need is a good working knowledge of the test. You need to be used to the way that questions are posed, and you need to be able to quickly identify what you need to do to respond.
The ridiculous SAT-prep culture in the US bothers me to no end, I think it's just one big feeding frenzy on student-parent pride and insecurity, so I never bought any books or took any SAT classes. What I did was just take it twice. The first time I went in completely cold, having basically no idea about the test other than its length and that there was a math and verbal section. I fully intended this to be nothing more than a dry run, and thus didn't have those scores sent anywhere. This got me familiar with the test format and testing conditions. That way, when I took it the next time, I could concentrate fully on answering the questions.
This exact approach may not be ideal for you, but I can't underestimate the importance of familiarizing yourself with the exam enough so that you can focus exclusively on responding. Just being familiar with what was happening boosted my score 150 pts. (1450 -> 1600)
I second that (Score:5, Informative)
My testimonial: I took the SAT, got a 1270. According to ETS (the people who make the SAT) I was unlikely to gain any score on a retake, in fact they claimed statistically I was likely to lose a couple points. They were correct in that there really wasn't anything I could think to study more of. I knew how to do everything on the test in general, it's not like there was some math I hadn't learned yet or anything, I just screwed some things up, mostly in the English section.
So what'd I do? Got a Princeton Review book ans studied the test, rather than studying for the test. 9 months later, I took it again, having learned really nothing more that was applicable to the test in school. That time I got a 1380, the big improvement being in the English section. Wasn't because I got smarter, wasn't because I learned more for the test, it was because I studied the test itself.
As an example something I made big gains in was vocabulary. I had a good vocabulary prior to the SAT, but just not in the kinds of words they liked in general. Well the book identified a hitlist of 275 words that ETS just loves to use on that damn test. So I learned those (275 words sounds like a lot but it really isn't). Sure enough, over half the words on the test came from that list, mostly the hard ones.
Also it gave valuable insights about test construction, like that they order the questions by difficulty and one of the ways they make hard questions is with "idiot attractor" answers. They'll put an answer down that looks intuitively right, but is wrong. So on the first questions, the intuitive answer is the one to go for, and the last few, you don't.
Now you'll want to get a current book as they could have changed it and there's at least one major new part: The writing test, which we didn't have. However I think you'll find that provided you have a good, pre university education (in the case meaning good math education through algebra and some trig and good English skills) your time is best spent studying the test itself rather than the material they claim it'll be covering.
Learn the rules of the game, and you'll find it much easier.
I third that. (Score:3, Interesting)
Fourthed! (Score:1)
Sorry but there are (Score:2)
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I completely agree; the SAT is the kind of test where the best approach is to practice. When I took my first practice SAT, (before the written part,) I scored in the 1200s. After a summer of taking roughly 1-2 practice tests per week, I ended up scoring in the 1300s.
As an aside, I do think there are some real benefits gained by practicing the SAT; I'm much better at avoiding scenarios where marketers try and trick me into giving them my money and time. I also learned how much weight rich Americans put i
Are you kidding me? (Score:4, Insightful)
The SAT isn't testing your math or language skills; it's testing your ability to reason. As such, it's testing something that's innate (re: ability vs training). The prep classes, study guides, and sample questions are geared toward teaching you how to approach the test itself and the questions. They teach you about how the test is scored, how to pick apart the wording of the questions, and what kind of attitude to take with it. Frankly, if you need help with the knowledge end of things, no prep class on Earth is going to save you. Without the basic knowledge (and we really are talking about basic - 8th grade - knowledge), no amount of reasoning or test taking skills is going to save you.
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First, you need more than "9th grade math" or "8th grade education"; among other topics there's geometry (10th grade for most kids) and some probability/data analysis. (You're correct though that vocab is critically important.)
Second, it's not really a reasoning test in the way that, for example, an IQ test is. It *does* test math and language skills, albeit in a rather shallow and limited way. It also tests *specific* ski
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For a lot of people, Algebra I is 8th grade. For the vast majority of the rest, it's 9th grade. You may see a small number of very basic geo/trig based questions, but they're generally dirt-simple if you read the question properly. Give a 20-minute overview of geo/trig to a 9th grader and they'll have no problems as long as they understand t
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I took the SAT in 7th grade and scored a 1050 combined... 550 Language 500 Math, having had a pre-algebra class in 7th grade. Later I scored a 1350 in 10th grade and a 1540 in 11th. As a 7th grade student I had no experience with the SAT, nor did I read any prep manuals. Later I did read some basic prep manuals and had taken a few test exams before each official test was taken. Granted I had by then gone through most of the curriculum being tested but there were many people I knew from my
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I am not from the UK but very close to that country and live in the USA now and my gf is doing her last year of high school. The lessons in mathematics and other sciences she is viewing (goniometry, algebra,
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I'm impressed that you've figured out how to use the internet, seeing as how you were clearly put into hypersleep 30 years ago and were just thawed out yesterday. I think you're going to be surprised how many other things have changed since 1976.
Find an Indian/chinese friend.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Go to Orkut or something.
I am from India, and one of the reasons there are so many GRE/SAT cracking students there is focussed coaching. There are specialized coaching academies etc., etc.,
Its a big business.
A GRE score of 99 is common. No wonder you see so many Indian students there.
So ask them. They will be more clued.
Check out the books from India on sites like firstandsecond.com which have the type of questions.
These fellows register for SAT/GRE. Send 10-15 people with each person to memorize 5-10 questions.
So you actually have last 5 years papers etc., etc.,
These books cost something like 5-10 Euro atmost.
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I'm not sure how impressive that is, given that the highest score on the GRE is 2400.
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Me too (Score:1)
For the math section in the SAT, if you got an A at GCSE that is probably sufficient. As for the english reading section, it's fairly simple.
Princeton Review seems to be the exam technique for idiots. Sentence completion (me):
1) Read the question
2) Read the choices
3) Point to the correct one (in the r
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You are an elitist tool.
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Unlike, say, the Israeli "psychometri" school-leaving exam (which my Israeli cousin tells me is full of archaic words that you would never see in newspapers, books or pretty much anywhere), there are few words in the SAT that can't be picked up through the normal course of reading. Of course, if you've been reading nothing but the lower third on
I tutor for SAT (Score:3, Informative)
SAT is not supposed to require Trigonometry. I feel it is helpful, but you don't really need it. The key to the math is to know the tricks. It is easiest to get practice tests and see the tricks for yourself. Most mistakes I see (from people who know the math) result from not reading the questions carefully enough and not knowing what to do with a given figure.
- Beware the words "figure not drawn to scale." In many cases, you will want to draw your own, more accurate figure.
- Know basic math terms like: mean, median, mode, prime factor, prime number, midpoint, bisect, etc.
- I know the test gives them to you, but know the area of simple shapes and the special triangles (45-45-90, 30-60-90, 3-4-5, 5-12-13) by heart.
- Look for the special triangles. They will pop up when you don't expect them.
- Any side of a triangle must be greater than the difference of the other two sides and less than the sum of the other two sides. (Seems like common sense, but people cramp on this on under pressure.)
- Remember that finding xy or (x + y) does not necessarily require you to find x or y individually. Additionally, remember that (x + y)^2 has a 2xy term.
- If you get an answer you are sure is right but does not show up in the choices, look to see if there is a way to simplify it or combine terms.
- 1 is not a prime number.
- Grid-In questions have no penalty for guesses. Grid 0 if you don't know.
- The grid-in grid only handles 4 digits. A "." or "/" takes one of those spaces.
- Read carefully!
- Mark the test up!
This isn't exhaustive by any means, and I'm just writing these from the top of my head. Math is what I know best, and I have to catch a bus this morning, but I will post some tips for the rest in this thread if I have time.
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This is very good advice. While the language in Britain is largely the same, and we even use miles and so on just like the Americans, it's important to remember that many things are not the same.
American pints, for example, are smaller than British pints (presumably because American beer is so horrible that nobody would want to drink a proper pint of it). Similarly,
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- watch for right triangles. One things that almost screwed me when I took the GRE was a simple problem involving a right triangle. Like an idiot, I almost didn't recognize it as a right triangle because the 90-degree angle was on top, not on the bottom like you usually see it drawn.
A good SATA device (Score:1)
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?Drive
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Try the ACT also (Score:2, Informative)
The ACT and SAT are really quite different, and I much preferred the ACT. While the SAT tended to test on things you *knew* (analogies, vocabulary, etc.), the
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Also, the ACT does not deduct points for guessing.
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Seconded! I took both the SAT and the ACT many years ago. Both tests are good at indicating your abilities. If you would do well on one, you would do well on the other. However, I found that the questions on the ACT are more natural compared to the weird SAT questions. It also has a science portion, which may play to your strengths.
The ACT doesn't have as much politics and controversy around it as the SAT. Furthermore, since only college admissions officers are familiar with the ACT, it's only use
A couple of other questions; partly offtopic (Score:2)
1. How old are you people when you take the SAT? Is it really that important as some make it up to be?
2. Is there reasonably cheap/free way to take the SAT over the internet/something for foreigners? I know it's not available here atleast. It's not that I need it, but it sounds like fun :)
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The tests are usually taken by high school juniors and seniors, about 17-18 years old. They are important because they allow colleges to quickly compare students from very different educational backgrounds in a standardized way. In my mind, the larger the college is that you are trying to get into, the more important the SAT score seems likely to be, because they won't be able to spend a lot of time with
loop hole (Score:2)
Practice Tests (Score:2)
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probably not what you want to hear, but... (Score:1, Troll)
Friends don't let friends to to the US.
Re:As a brit who did his undergrad in a US college (Score:1)
"Hey, look, I flunked all my classes! Can I get a job with you? I tried to go to college. I'll bring pot."
Practice taking the test (Score:2)
The best way to score well is to familiarize yourself with the test. Get a copy of The Official SAT Study Guide [amazon.com]. It's the only book with real tests from the company that administers the SAT.
<shameless-plug>You might benefit from this SAT prep book [amazon.com] that I am affiliated with. It covers all aspects of the test, but focuses on the verbal section (which most people find more difficult to improve than the math section).</shameless-plug>
Take a prep course (Score:1)
You're asking the wrong questions. (Score:1)
> and in what detail I need to know it
No.
The SATs are not intended to test what you know. They're intended to test how you think. A certain amount of knowledge _is_ necessary, mostly of math and English vocabulary, but it's your ability to figure stuff out that is being tested. It's not the sort of test you can cram for very effectively, if that's what you're asking. You'll see what I mean when you take the test.
Now, my exper
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> two weeks before the test.
Exception: If you take Ritalin or caffein for ADHD, and you have difficulty sitting still without it, make sure you time your doses so that it does NOT wear off during the test.
Some SAT tips (Score:1)
1) When writing your essay (definitely the most stressful part of the new SAT), remember that the graders are looking for a specific format. It is a persuasive essay that should fall into the standard 5 paragraph: Thesis, Support, Support, Support, Conclusion format. Do not be equivocal (even though intelligent essay writers tend to equivocate)... focus on supporting y
Buy book of prior tests (Score:2)
Also you'll need a recent book because the SAT changed rad
US students take lots of practice tests (Score:2)
I'm not sure what the testing level is in the UK. But I recommend takeing the SAT twice. The first is for practice and maybe you can take it a year early. I think I read somewhere that people taking it twice have 8% higher score on one of the two than whose who take it once.
take lots and lots of practice tests (Score:2)
However, the following year, I worked as an assistant in one of those prep classes, and I took the tests along with the students, one math and one verbal, 4 days a week, and helped explain difficult ques
Practice and Repeat (Score:2)
Learning vocabulary words can help, but the most important thing is to learn to get a good feel for the test. Go and take it several times, and
What SAT measures.... (Score:2)
In the United States, each highschool graduation level is more or less different. So what the SAT tries to measure is
According to the tests at the college I attended, my highschool educate