The SAT, The Princeton Review, and You
Welcome! Our job is to help you get the best possible score on the SAT. This chapter tells you what to expect from the SAT as well as some specifics about the test. It will also explain how to make the most of all your Princeton Review materials.
You may have bought this book because you know nothing about the SAT, or perhaps you took the test once and want to raise your score. Either way, it’s important to know about the test and the people who write it. Let’s take a second to discuss some SAT facts: some of them may surprise you.
Just because the SAT features math, reading, and writing questions doesn’t mean that it reflects what you learned in school. You can ace calculus or write like Faulkner and still struggle with the SAT. The test-writers claim that the test predicts how well you will do in college by measuring “reasoning ability,” but all the SAT really measures is how well you take the SAT. It does not reveal how smart—or how good—a person you are.
Even though colleges and universities make wide use of the SAT, they’re not the ones who write the test. That’s the job of the College Board, the organization that creates the tests and decides how they will be administered and used.
The test-writers are often criticized for the SAT. Many educators have argued that the test does not measure the skills you really need for college. This led them in 2005 to overhaul the entire test, only to revise it all over again in early 2016. The important takeaway here is that the people who write the SAT are professional test-writers, and, with some practice, it’s possible to beat them at their own game.
The SAT is 3 hours long for most students. In some states, a 50-minute essay is also required as part of the SAT School Day administration. If you are taking such an administration, check to see whether the essay will be part of it. The SAT consists of the following:
1 multiple-choice Reading Test (52 questions, 65 minutes)
1 multiple-choice Writing and Language Test (44 questions, 35 minutes)
1 Math Test, consisting of a No Calculator section (20 questions, 25 minutes) and a Calculator section (38 questions, 55 minutes)
Both sections of the Math Test contain some student-produced-response questions called Grid-Ins, but all other questions on the exam are multiple choice. All multiple-choice sections on the SAT have four possible answer choices.
Each part of this book covers these tests in detail, but here’s a brief rundown of what you can expect.
Your scores on the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test (see below) together make up your Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score on the SAT. The Reading Test is 65 minutes long and consists of 52 questions, all of which are passage based and multiple choice. Passages may be paired with informational graphics, such as charts or graphs, and there will be a series of questions based on a pair of passages. The selected passages will be from previously published works in the areas of world literature, history/social studies, and science. Questions based on science passages may ask you to analyze data or hypotheses, while questions on literature passages will focus more on literary concepts like theme, mood, and characterization. The main goal of the Reading Test is to measure your ability to understand words in context as well as find and analyze evidence.
The Writing and Language Test is 35 minutes long and consists of 44 questions, which are also multiple choice and based on passages. However, instead of asking you to analyze a passage, questions will require you to proofread and edit the passage. This means you will have to correct grammar and word choice, as well as make larger changes to the organization or content of the passage.
You will have a total of 80 minutes to complete the Math Test, which, as mentioned earlier, is divided into two sections: No Calculator (Section 3; 25 minutes, 20 questions) and Calculator (Section 4; 55 minutes, 38 questions). Most questions are multiple choice, but there are also a handful of what College Board calls Student-produced Response questions, which are also known as Grid-Ins. For Grid-In questions, instead of choosing from four answer choices, you’ll have to work through a question and then enter your answer on your answer sheet by bubbling in the appropriate numbers. We’ll discuss this in more detail in Chapter 18. Exactly 13 of the 58 math questions will be Grid-Ins.
The Math Test covers four main content areas, which the College Board has named the following: (1) Heart of Algebra, (2) Problem Solving and Data Analysis, (3) Passport to Advanced Math, and (4) Additional Topics in Math. This last section includes complex numbers and topics in geometry and trigonometry. Part IV of this book covers each of these content areas in depth.
As of June 2021, the SAT will no longer be offering its optional essay, and if you’ve already signed up, you should have gotten an option from the College Board to cancel the essay portion without any fee. If you are still taking one of the last administrations of the optional essay or are required to take an essay for a school day administration and want to practice the timing of this 50-minute add-on, we have included some sample prompts online in your free Student Tools.
The SAT is scored on a scale of 400 to 1600, which is a combination of your scores for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (a combination of your Reading and Writing and Language scores, scored from 200 to 800) and Math (also scored from 200 to 800). The exam also has a detailed scoring system that includes cross-test scores and subscores based on your performance on each of the three tests. Your score report for the SAT will feature scores for each of the following:
Total Score (1): The sum of the two section scores (Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Math), ranging from 400 to 1600
Section Scores (2): Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, ranging from 200 to 800; Math, also ranging from 200 to 800
Test Scores (3): Reading Test, Writing and Language Test, Math Test, each of which is scored on a scale from 10 to 40
Cross-Test Scores (2): Each is scored on a scale from 10 to 40 and based on selected questions from the three tests (Reading, Writing and Language, Math):
Analysis in History/Social Studies
Analysis in Science
Subscores (7): Each of the following receives a score from 1 to 15:
Command of Evidence (Reading; Writing and Language)
Words in Context (Reading; Writing and Language)
Expression of Ideas (Writing and Language)
Standard English Conventions (Writing and Language)
Heart of Algebra (Math)
Problem Solving and Data Analysis (Math)
Passport to Advanced Math (Math)
This scoring structure was designed to help provide a more holistic profile of students’ skills and knowledge, as well as readiness for college. However, colleges aren’t likely to look at the cross-test scores or the subscores.
Your Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score is determined in the following way:
Verbal Scaled Score out of 800 =
Since the two verbal sections are tied together, an improvement in either area will increase your Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score. The Math score is a bit less complicated, with a direct relationship between the Math Test Score and the number of questions answered correctly in the Math sections. The scale may change slightly from test to test, but this chart will give you a good idea of the approximate score you would get with each number of raw points.
|
Math Scale Score |
|
|
Scaled Score |
Raw Points |
|
350 |
12 |
|
400 |
16 |
|
450 |
20 |
|
500 |
26 |
|
550 |
32 |
|
600 |
39 |
|
650 |
44 |
|
700 |
50 |
|
750 |
54 |
|
800 |
58 |
The SAT schedule for the school year is posted on the College Board website at www.collegeboard.org. There are two ways to sign up for the test. You can either sign up online by going to www.collegeboard.org and clicking on the SAT link, or sign up through the mail with an SAT registration booklet, which may be available at your school guidance counselor’s office.
Try to sign up for the SAT as soon as you know when you want to take the test. If you wait until the last minute to sign up, there may not be any open spots in the testing centers.
If you require any special accommodations while taking the test (including, but not limited to, extra time or assistance), www.collegeboard.org has information about applying for those accommodations. Make sure to apply early; we recommend applying six months before you plan to take the test.
This book is organized to provide as much—or as little—support as you need, so you can use it in whatever way will be helpful to improving your score on the SAT. But before you can decide how to use this book, you should take a practice test to determine your strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to make an effective study plan. If you’re feeling test-phobic, remind yourself that a practice test is a tool for diagnosing yourself—it’s not how well you do that matters, but how you use the information gleaned from your performance to guide your preparation.
So, before you read any further, take Practice Test 1, which starts on this page of Part VI. Be sure to take it in one sitting to mimic the real test-taking experience, and remember to follow the instructions that appear at the beginning of each section of the exam.
After you take the test, go online and input your answers to get a detailed score report or check your answers against the Answers and Explanations that start on this page, reflect on your performance, and determine the areas in which you need to improve. Which sections or types of questions presented the most difficulty to you? Which sections or types of questions did you feel most confident about? Based on your performance on each of the sections, should you focus your study more on math, reading, or writing?
How you answer those questions will affect how you engage with Part II (How to Crack the Reading Test), Part III (How to Crack the Writing and Language Test), and Part IV (How to Crack the Math Test). Each of these parts is designed to give a comprehensive review of the content tested on the SAT, including the level of detail you need to know and how the content is tested. At the end of each of these chapters, you’ll have the opportunity to assess your mastery of the content covered through targeted drills that reflect the types of questions and level of difficulty you’ll see on the actual exam.
In addition to content review, this book provides essential test-taking strategies that will help you avoid traps and manage your time in order to maximize the number of points available to you. Strategies are discussed in every content chapter, but you can also find a helpful overview in Chapter 2 of the ones that come up frequently throughout the book. Chapter 2 will help you think about your approach to the various question types on the exam.
You’ll have the chance to apply these strategies in Part VI, which contains the remaining practice tests. If you need additional practice, you can download four more practice tests online by registering your book on our website and following the steps to access your online resources. (See “Get More (Free) Content” on this page.) You do not have to take every practice test available to you, but doing so will allow you to continually gauge your performance, address your deficiencies, and improve. And, our experience at The Princeton Review has shown that students who take more practice tests tend to see greater score improvement.
And remember, your prep should not end with this book. There are a host of resources available to you online, including the online tools accompanying this book (see the “Get More (Free) Content” spread at the front of this book) as well as the College Board website, www.collegeboard.org.