Well, CollegeBoard says that :

The SAT is a globally recognized college admission test that lets you show colleges what you know and how well you can apply that knowledge. It tests your knowledge of reading, writing and math - subjects that are taught every day in high school classrooms. Most students take the SAT during their junior or senior year of high school, and almost all colleges and universities use the SAT to make admission decisions.

That being said - the SAT is a very particular exam: it contains questions unlike those students have ever seen in school. This fact is so true that many experts caution that the SAT can truly test you one thing and one thing only: How well you did on the SAT.

This may sound alarming, but it shouldn’t be. What it means is that the SAT is a highly coachable and practice-able exam, with almost ALL students improve their score with preparation.

The SAT Reasoning Test has 3 different sections: Critical Reading, Writing, and Math. Each section holds equal weight in your overall score.

SAT Critical Reading: This section tests your critical reading abilities with sentence completion questions and passage-based reading questions. It has two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, a total of 70 minutes.

SAT Writing: This section tests your writing and grammar knowledge in 3 ways: your ability to recognize sentence errors, improve paragraphs, and write an essay. There is one 25-minute essay, one 25-minute multiple choice section, and one 10-minute section, a total of 60 minutes.

SAT Math: This section is tests your math knowledge of Algebra, Geometry, Statistics & Data Analysis, and Geometry. It consists primarily of multiple-choice questions but also has grid-in questions. There are two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. 

There are a total of 2400 possible points on the SAT. There are three sections, and each section is worth 800. The sections scores are added together to make up your total score. Here is an example of an SAT score breakout:
 

There are a total of 12 possible points for the SAT essay. Every essay is graded by two essay graders who assign a score from 0-6. The two scores are added together for your total essay score. Your essay score is then factored into your total writing score. It is worth about 30% of your overall writing score.

The vast majority of colleges will accept either the SAT or the ACT. And because colleges generally accept either test, which test is best for you may come down to a nail-biting personal decision. It comes down to the question: Which test makes the most sense for you? So to help you decide, we’ve prepared a list of signs that might shine some light into this perpetual conundrum (conundrum means dilemma – oh hello, SAT vocabulary!).

Here are signs that the SAT might be right for you:

1) You did well on the PSAT. Because the PSAT is kind of like the SAT on training wheels, it is a great indicator of what the SAT would be like. That being said, don’t be discouraged by a lower-than-expected PSAT score. There are a lot of things that can be done to prepare for the SAT. In fact, that’s why we exist.

2) Whether or not you excelled at high school tests, you consider yourself a quick-thinker. A large part of the SAT is a reasoning exam. This means you aren’t as much being tested on advanced concepts that you may have forgotten as you are being tested on your ability to reason and think on your feet.

3) Grammar is definitely your thing OR you don’t mind making it your thing. The SAT Writing Section tests common grammar errors, often testing the difference between the way we “speak” and the way we should “formally write.” Most SAT students improve the MOST and also the MOST QUICKLY on the grammar section of the exam. So if you do choose the SAT, we definitely recommend you brush up on your grammar skills.

4) You struggle to concentrate on long exams. Although the SAT is technically 20 minutes longer than the ACT, it has 10 shorter sections instead of the 4-5 longer sections on the ACT. This makes students generally feel that it moves faster.

5) All your friends are doing it. With all your friends doing it, the SAT may seem as much of a rite of passage as prom. Also it may be a common yardstick that your friends and your parents use to compare scores. Besides, the whole drama of the high school experience would be incomplete without it.

Here are signs that the ACT might be right for you:

1) You did well on the PLAN (that’s the PSAT for the ACT). Or you found that you did much worse on the PSAT than you usually do in school. Or even more, you’ve been practicing the SAT for a while now, but you can’t seem to get the score that matches your academic performance. This might mean that you are a good student normally but you just aren’t good at the specific types of questions the SAT asks. In this case, the ACT may be right for you.

2) You prefer to learn curriculum material than to think through reasoning questions. Although students generally find that the ACT has “harder” material (like those advanced concepts that you may have forgotten), the ACT is commonly regarded as “more straightforward.”

3) Grammar just isn’t your thing. Many students find that the English portion of the ACT to be more straightforward, testing on things like sentence structure and punctuation.

4) All your friends are doing it. There are strong regional preferences in the ACT vs. SAT dilemma, with most students on the West Coast and East Coast favoring the SAT and most students in the Middle states favoring the ACT.

My-eSAT specializes in teaching SAT material only. We do this for two reasons:

1) We find that the SAT is more “coachable.” This means we find that live, tutoring help, whether it’s going through practice problems or walking through test-strategy, makes a larger difference for the SAT than it does for the ACT. Many students find that it is more manageable to self-study for the ACT than for the SAT.

2) We find that we’re better at what we do because we specialize. Our team and teachers are all SAT experts only. And that is how we like it.

We recommend that you take a practice exam in both and see how you do. Even taking it at home with your kitchen timer as your proctor will give you a good sense of each test. After taking both tests, ask yourself:

Which one did I score better on? Which one do I feel more comfortable with? Which one can I most easily improve upon?


Once you decide which test is right for you, you should concentrate on preparing only for that specific exam. We don’t generally recommend students prepare for both. High school students are busy people! They have enough trouble fitting ONE study schedule into their frantic lives. Fitting two in might compromise the amount of effort they can give each one.

The dates for 2011-2012 are below. The fastest way to register is online at www.sat.collegeboard.com. Fees for registration are $47 for regular registration and $71 for late registration. Fee waivers are available upon application.
 

 
* As of 3/11, exact registration dates have not been determined. Check collegeboard.com for registration deadlines as test date approaches.

** We recommend students to allot 4 to 8 weeks to finish their My-eSAT course.

Register at Collegeboard.com.

College Board, the company that administers the SAT, now has an option called Score ChoiceTM. Score Choice is designed to lessen test-day pressure on high school students by letting them select which scores you want colleges to see. That means if you take the SAT twice, you can choose your higher score and only send that one to colleges.

HOWEVER, keep in mind that not all colleges participate in Score Choice. The ones that don’t will be able to see all your scores. So you should check to see what your college’s SAT score policy is before you make plans to, say, take the SAT six times. We generally do not recommend a student take the SAT more than 2-3 times.

It depends. Remember: you don’t get penalized for not answering a question but you DO get penalized a quarter of a point for every wrong answer. Why? Because CollegeBoard doesn’t want you to gain points for randomly guessing.

You see, when you randomly guess on multiple choice, there is always a chance (20% to be exact, since there are 5 answer choices) that you will guess the right answer. So there is chance you will gain a point even though you had no idea how to solve the question. The guessing penalty neutralizes this possible gain.

So, in conclusion, random guessing has, on average, ZERO effect on your SAT score. Therefore, we do NOT recommend students randomly guess. It’s unlikely to help, and it will waste time. However, if you are able to eliminate even one or two of the answer choices, then the odds are in your favor. In that case, please, please guess!

A good score ultimately depends on what college you want to go to. Look at your prospective school's admission page on their website to find out what kind of scores have gotten other students in historically.

For most students, the best time to take the SAT is your junior year in high school. We recommend you take it either your fall or spring semester as that allows you wiggle room in case you decide to re-take the test. Most students start preparing for the SAT in their junior year.

Take a look at our SAT Testing Timeline here or call a My-eSAT expert at 888-693-2728 with any specific questions.