Measuring Your Mind: What the SAT Tests

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Statistically, the SAT tests whether or not you'll be successful in your first year of college. Admissions officers keep track of their students' SAT scores and have a pretty good idea which scores signal trouble and which scores indicate clear sailing.  Many college guides list the average SAT scores of entering freshman.

That said, the picture gets complicated whenever the wide-angle lens narrows to focus on an individual, such as you, and admissions offices are well aware of this fact.  How rigorous your high school is, whether you deal well with multiple-choice questions, and how you feel physically and mentally on SAT-day (Fight with Mom? Bad romance? Week-old sushi?) all influence your score.  Bottom line: Stop obsessing about the SAT's unfairness (and it is unfair) and prepare.

The college admission essay is a great place to put your scores in perspective. If you face some special circumstances, such as learning disability, a school that doesn't value academics, a family tragedy, and so on, you may want to explain your situation in an essay.  No essay wipes out the bad impression created by an extremely low SAT scores, but a good essay gives the college a way to interpret your achievement and to see you, the applicant, in more detail. 

The SAT doesn't test facts you studied in school you don't need to know when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic or how to calculate the molecular weight of magnesium in order to answer an SAT Reasoning question.  Instead, the SAT takes aim at your ability to follow a logical sequence, to comprehend what you've read, and to write clearly in standard English.  The math portion checks whether you were paying attention or snoring when little details like algebra were taught.  Check out the next sections for a bird's eye view of the three SAT topics.

Critical Reasoning

This topic pops up three times per SAT, in terms of what counts toward your score.  (All SAT's include an extra section either in reading or math that the SAT-makers use for research only.) You fact two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section of Critical Reasoning, a fancy term for reading comprehension.  Each section may contains Sentence Completions and/or Reading Comprehension passages that are either short (about 100 words) or long (700 to 800 words).  You also see a set of paired passages - a double take on one topic from two different points of view.

Sentence Completions

The Sentence Completions are just fill-ins.  You may encounter one or two sets of nine or ten questions.  Sentence Completion test vocabulary and your ability to decode the sentence structure, as in the following:

Example Exam

The SAT Sentence Completion is guarantee to give you a headache, so the test-makers thoughtfully provide _________ with each exam.

(A) aspirin

(B) dictionaries

(C) answer keys

(D) tutoring

(E) scalp massage

Answer: (A). Given that the sentence specifies "headache", your best choice is "aspirin,"  at least in SAT world.  In real life you may prefer a day at the spa, but the test-makers haven't included that option.  (E) is a possibility too, but the SAT goes with the best answer, not the only answer.