The SAT is one of the two most common and important standardized tests that college applicants need to consider. Most juniors will take the SAT for the first time in March or May. Others will wait until the fall of their senior year. If you are considering some of the more selective colleges and universities, you may need to take SAT Subject Tests as well, in October, November, and/or a date or two in the spring. Some colleges require two or three SAT Subject Tests in addition to the SAT for admission.

Nearly as many students nationwide now take the ACT as well.

Make a date
We recommend that juniors give serious thought to taking the SAT at least once in the spring. We don’t suggest that sophomores attempt it, or that juniors should feel rushed to take the SAT in the fall or winter. Every time you take the SAT or an SAT Subject Test, the score will appear on your score report that gets sent to colleges during the fall of senior year. You need not, and probably should not, send the scores anywhere during junior spring. Unless you cancel the scores from a test you have taken by the Wednesday following the exam, the score will be part of your permanent record.

What admission officers are looking for
We anticipate that most of the selective colleges that previously required or strongly recommended the old SAT II Writing test (which has been discontinued) will interpret the Writing section of the SAT in much the same way, as the tests are very similar. Colleges now have the option to view a scanned version of your essay on the Internet, if they choose to do so. They can then compare this to your application essays and English grades when trying to interpret your overall profile and presentation.

Without the analogies, the Critical Reading test puts more emphasis on short and long paragraph interpretation and vocabulary in context. Doing well on this section will help colleges assess your ability to handle college-level reading and analytic requirements.

On the Math section, you will need to show mastery of math through Algebra II. If you are taking Algebra II as a junior, you might want to delay your first run at the test until June.

A new benchmark
Since the test is still relatively new, you may be wondering how your scores will be interpreted. As schools consider their entire applicant pool, they may notice patterns in average scores, and if they seem lower the colleges might begin to establish new score goals and benchmarks for themselves. No one will know for certain until results from several administrations begin to produce a pattern, and that pattern is then compared to past averages and score ranges.

Students pursuing an enriched college preparatory curriculum with strong courses in reading, writing, and advanced math will benefit from the format. We fear that students without this curriculum and without access to strong preparation will see further inconsistencies between their scores, their grades, and the scores of those students in schools with more resources.

How to interpret your scores
There are two key ways to interpret your test results: in terms of your own expectations and abilities and in comparison to reported college averages and score ranges. On the first count, if you have been doing a reasonable amount of test practice, you should have a sense of a realistic score range to expect for yourself. If you exceed that range, then you probably don’t need to retake the test.

If you are substantially below the range, then you probably should have another try. If you hit somewhere in the middle of what you hoped for, then take a break from the test and consider retaking it, after continued review shows you that you have a reasonable expectation of bringing up your scores about 30 to 40 points in one or more sections. Colleges will generally look at your highest score in a section, even from different test administrations.

As you look at your scores compared to reported college scores, consider the middle-50-percent range as the most reliable indicator of what most students entering the college score on the SAT. If you are well below the range, this college is likely a stretch for you. Personal scores well above the range can indicate a high probability of admission. Colleges usually post a detailed “freshman class profile” of last year’s class on their Web site. This can help you assess score ranges, GPA, class rank, and other factors in more depth.

Howard and Matthew Greene are the hosts of two PBS college planning programs and authors of the Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning series and other books.

The SAT: What’s What?

Wondering what’s up with the SAT? Read on and find out!

^{The Critical Reading section}
When your parents took the SAT, there was a "Verbal" section on it. Now, it's called Critical Reading. Why? The entire section consists exclusively of critical reading questions designed to test your reading skills at the sentence, paragraph, and passage level.

This 70-minute portion of the test includes two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute segment. The questions include paragraph-length critical reasoning problems, sentence completions, and reading comprehension passages. The topics of the given texts represent a wide range of subjects, including science, literature, humanities, and history.

The Math section
The Math section of the SAT now includes some Algebra II. This section also includes five-choice multiple-choice and student-produced responses. It's the same length as the Critical Reading segment, with two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute portion. (And yes, you can use a calculator!)

The Writing test
The Writing section consists of two parts: an essay and a multiple-choice section. The essay portion is always the first part of the SAT and allots you 25 minutes to answer an essay question that asks you to agree or disagree with a point of view. A good essay will support your chosen position with specific reasons and examples from literature, history, art, science, current affairs, or even your own experiences.

Essays are graded on a scale of 1 to 6 by two independent readers, and the two scores are combined to form an essay sub-score that ranges from 2 to 12. If the two scores vary by more than 2 points, a third reader also scores your response. The evaluators are high school teachers and college professors who teach composition. To ensure that essays are scored in a timely manner, they are scanned and made available to readers on the Internet for grading purposes. (If you view your score report online, you can access this scan, which can help you to understand your score.)

The Writing section also includes thirty five minutes of multiple-choice grammar and usage questions. Some of these questions ask you to improve given sentences and paragraphs. Others present you with sentences and require you to identify mistakes in diction, grammar, sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, proper word usage, and wordiness.

Scoring
The highest possible score on the Writing section is 800. (Your essay counts for about a ninth of that score.) Scores on the essay and multiple-choice section are combined to produce a single score. A Writing sub-score is also be assigned. The highest possible scores on the Critical Reading and Math sections are 800 each, making 2,400 a perfect score.

Article complements of Peterson's. Learn more tips about testing college entrance exams and take a free practice tests by clicking here.