SAT Exam Pattern – An Overview of the SAT Structure

Like its predecessor SAT, the SAT is an entrance exam that is used by most colleges and universities in the United States of America and other countries across the world to make admissions decisions.

The structure, content, and multistage adaptiveness of the SAT serve as a measure of students’ college readiness and as a reliable predictor of students’ university performance outcomes.

The composite score of the SAT ranges from 400 to 1600 and is a combination of the Reading and Writing section score (200-800) , and Math Section score (200-800). The total duration of the test is 2 Hours and 14 minutes. (with breaks).

SAT Exam Pattern Highlights

The SAT consists of two main components: the Reading and Writing section, and Math Section. According to the new multistage adaptive model, the Reading and Writing section consists of two modules with 20 questions each with 30 minutes per module. The Math section also consists of two modules with 20 questions each with 35 minutes per module. The table below illustrates the SAT test pattern.

Why Take the SAT Exam?

The SAT is a standardized test that comes with a plethora of benefits that work towards enhancing your profile while applying to your dream universities. Here are some of the major reasons why you should take the SAT exam:

• A doorway to pursuing undergraduate programs in America and other countries globally including India.
• SAT score not only balances your application alongside your academic performance and extracurricular activities but also helps you get scholarships or explore various alternatives to pay your college tuition fee.

What is Tested on the SAT Exam?

Order of the Sections

As given above, each section is composed of two equal-length modules of SAT question paper pattern. Each Reading and Writing module lasts 32 minutes, while each Math module lasts 35 minutes. Each module is separately timed, and students can move backward and forward among questions in a given module before time runs out.

When time runs out on the first module of each section, the test delivery platform moves students to the second module. When students complete the Reading and Writing section, they are moved to the Math section after a 10-minute break between the sections. A small number of indistinguishable, unscored items are included in each section to aid with the test development process.

SAT Reading and Writing Section

• The SAT Reading and Writing section consists of two modules of 20 questions each with 30 minutes.
• The SAT Reading and Writing section will contain many shorter passages with a single question associated with each passage instead of longer texts with multiple questions.
• The students will see a wide range of topics that will represent the kinds of content they will read in college.

Reading and Writing Content Areas

The questions in the Reading and Writing section fall into one of the four content areas:

• Craft and Structure: Focuses on assessing the comprehension, vocabulary, analysis, synthesis, and reasoning skills and knowledge needed to understand and use high-utility words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make connections between topically related texts.
• Information and Ideas: Assesses comprehension, analysis, and reasoning skills and knowledge and the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, and integrate information and ideas from texts and informational graphics (tables, bar graphs, and line graphs)
• Standard English Conventions: Assesses the ability to edit texts to conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation
• Expression of Ideas: Assesses the ability to revise texts to improve the effectiveness of written expression and to meet specific rhetorical goals.

SAT Math Section Content Area

The questions in the Math section fall into one of the four content areas:

• Algebra: Test the skill to analyze, effectively solve, and produce linear equations and inequalities as well as solving equations and systems of equations with various techniques.
• Advanced Math: Assess the knowledge and capacity crucial for advancing to more advanced math courses, including demonstrating an understanding of absolute value, quadratic, exponential, polynomial, rational, radical, and other nonlinear equations
• Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Analyzes the ability to apply quantitative reasoning about ratios, rates, and proportional relationships; comprehend and apply unit rate; and analyze and interpret one- and two-variable data
• Geometry and Trigonometry (SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10)/Geometry (PSAT 8/9): Focused on concepts involving area and volume; angles, triangles, trigonometry; and circles.

How to Prepare for SAT Exam?

• The Best Study Resources:- Manya – The Princeton Review SAT Prep comes with the most updated, comprehensive SAT study resources, based on the deliberate analysis of our Uber trainers who have studied in the top universities of the world and written the test themselves.
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How Test Scores Are Calculated?

The form of the SAT produces three scores: the total score and two section scores. The total score which is based on the student’s performance on the entire test remains the same as the pencil and paper, i.e. 1600. This is the sum of the two section scores. The section scores for Reading and Writing and Math are produced from a student’s performance in the respective sections.

Important: The SAT does not report subscores or cross-test scores.