About the New SAT

The Writing Section

Overview
Time - 60 min. Content - Grammar, usage, and word choice. Item Types - Multiple choice questions (35 min.) and student-written essay (25 min.). Score - 200-800.

Short Essay

The short essay measures your ability to:
Organize and express ideas clearly
Develop and support the main idea
Use appropriate word choice and sentence structure
You'll be asked to develop a point of a view on an issue, using reasoning and evidence, based on your own experiences, readings, or observations, to support your ideas.
The essay will be scored by trained high school and college teachers. Each reader will give the essay a score from 1 to 6 (6 is the highest score) based on the overall quality of the essay and your demonstration of writing competence.

Essay
Directions: Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

The principle is this: each failure leads us closer to deeper knowledge, to greater creativity in understanding old data, to new lines of inquiry. Thomas Edison experienced 10,000 failures before he succeeded in perfecting the lightbulb. When a friend of his remarked that 10,000 failures was a lot, Edison replied, "I didn't fail 10,000 times, I successfully eliminated 10,000 materials and combinations that didn't work."

Myles Brand, "Taking the Measure of Your Success"

Assignment: What is your view on the idea that it takes failure to achieve success? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

How the essay is scored?

Multiple-Choice

The multiple-choice writing questions measure your ability to:
Improve sentences and paragraphs
Identify errors (such as diction, grammar, sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, proper word usage, and wordiness)

Identifying Sentence Errors - three types:

Identifying Sentence Errors
Improving Sentences
Improving Paragraphs

The Critical Reading Section

Overview
Time - 70 m in(two 25-min. sections and one 20-min. section). Content - Critical reading and sentence-level reading. Item Types - Reading comprehension, sentence completions, and paragraph-length critical reading. Score - 200-800.

The critical reading section, currently known as the verbal section, will include short reading passages along with the existing long reading passages. Analogies will be eliminated, but sentence-completion questions will remain.

Directions: The passage below is followed by two questions based on its content. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.

Dinosaurs have such a powerful grip on the public consciousness that it is easy to forget just how recently scientists have become aware of them. A two-year-old child today may be able to rattle off three dinosaur names, but in 1824 there was only one known dinosaur. Period. The word "dinosaur" didn't even exist until 1841. Indeed, in those early years, the world was baffled by the discovery of these absurdly enormous creatures.

1. The reference to the "two-year-old child" (line 2) primarily serves to
(A) challenge a popular assumption
(B) highlight the extent of a change
(C) suggest that a perspective is simplistic
(D) introduce a controversial idea
(E) question a contemporary preoccupation

Correct answer: B
Choice (B) is correct because the reference to the "two-year-old child" who can "rattle off three dinosaur names" shows how dramatically the situation has changed since 1824. Today even little children know more about dinosaurs than many scientists did in the 1820s.

2. The statement "Period" in line 4 primarily serves to emphasize the
(A) authoritative nature of a finding
(B) lack of flexibility in a popular theory
(C) stubborn nature of a group of researchers
(D) limited knowledge about a subject
(E) refusal of the public to accept new discoveries

Correct answer: D
Choice (D) is correct because the word "Period" gives emphasis to the preceding statement that "there was only one known dinosaur" in 1824. Clearly, people at that time had "limited knowledge" about dinosaurs.

The Mathematics Section

Overview
Time - 70 min. (two 25-min. sections and one 20-min. section). Content - Number and operations; algebra and functions; geometry; statistics, probability, and data analysis. Item Types - Five-choice multiple-choice questions and student-produced responses. Score - 200-800.

The new SAT will include expanded math topics, such as exponential growth, absolute value, and functional notation, and place greater emphasis on such other topics as linear functions, manipulations with exponents, and properties of tangent lines.

Another change will be the elimination of the quantitative comparison questions. Important skills now measured in the quantitative comparison format, such as estimation and number sense, will continue to be measured through the multiple choice and student response (grid-in) questions.

Can I use a calculator?
Yes. Students can continue to use a four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator. The College Board recommends that students use a calculator at least at the scientific level for the new SAT, although it's still possible to solve every question without a calculator.