The SAT is a standardized test that colleges use to evaluate applicants. Over two million students take the SAT every year and it is used by nearly every college in America for evaluating a student’s college preparedness. It is designed to measure a student’s ability to understand and process elements in three subjects: reading, writing, and math. SAT scores are calculated based on a student’s performance relative to other test-takers, and have proven to be an indicator of collegiate success.
The SAT consists of three sections: math, critical reading, and writing. Each of these sections is scored on a scale of 200 to 800, making 2400 a perfect score.
| Total Length | Subsections | Question Types | Scoring | |
| Math | 70 minutes |
Two 25-minute sections One 20-minute section |
44 Multiple-Choice 10 Grid-Ins |
200-800 |
| Critical Reading | 70 minutes |
Two 25-minute sections One 20-minute section |
19 Sentence Completions 48 Reading Comprehension |
200-800 |
| Writing | 60 minutes |
One 25-minute student-written essay One 25-minute grammar section One 10-minute grammar section |
18 Identifying Sentence Errors 25 Improving Sentences 6 Improving Paragraphs |
200-800 |
| Experimental | 25 minutes | One 25-minute section |
Math, reading, or
grammar section |
not scored |
| Total | 3 hours 45 minutes | 10 sections | 600-2400 |
The math sections measure a student’s ability to reason quantitatively, solve mathematical problems, and interpret data presented in graphical form. These sections focus on four areas of mathematics that are typically covered in the first three years of American high school education: Arithmetic, Algebra and Functions, Geometry, and Data Analysis. The Algebra section was recently expanded to include basic College Algebra. To test these skills, the SAT employs two different question types:
The multiple-choice questions carry a .25-point penalty for incorrect answers. The grid-in questions carry no penalty for wrong answers, because the likelihood of guessing the correct answer is negligible.
The format of the three sections is:
The Critical Reasoning section of the SAT measures a person’s ability to understand and analyze written material. The questions carry a .25-point penalty for incorrect answers. The Critical Reading Section consists of two types of questions.
The format of the three sections is:
The writing section measures a student’s ability to recognize and conform to the conventions of standard written English. This section consists of one student-written essay and multiple-choice questions. The multiple-choice questions carry a .25-point penalty for incorrect answers. The writing section contains three types of multiple-choice questions:
The format of the two multiple-choice sections is:
The experimental section of the SAT is an additional 25-minute section. It can be a math, critical reading, or grammar section. It does not count towards the examinee’s score. The inclusion of this section within the SAT ensures a more fair and balanced scoring method, and allows the College Board to compile data on previously unreleased questions.
