COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TESTS ….THE WHAT AND THE WHY

TRUE OR FALSE Test scores are all that colleges look at when considering potential students?

PRELIMINARY SAT (PSAT/NMSQT)  Preliminary SAT or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test  Practice for the SAT Reasoning Test  Designed 11 th grade students*  Three-Sections: Critical Reading, math, and writing  Test Dates: mid-October

PRELIMINARY SAT (PSAT/NMSQT) (cont’d) Test Duration: 2 hours and 10 minutes Skills Tested: Critical Reading Section: extended reasoning, literal comprehension, and vocabulary in context Math: algebra, functions, geometry, measurement, data analysis, statistics, and probability. Writing: grammar, usage, and word choice

PRELIMINARY SAT (PSAT/NMSQT) (cont’d) Format/Questions : Critical Reading: uses sentence completion and passage-based readings. Math: uses multiple choice questions and student-produced responses Writing: uses multiple choice questions that include improving sentences, identifying sentence errors and improving paragraphs Study Resource:

PRELIMINARY SAT (PSAT/NMSQT) (cont’d)  Scoring Information : The PSAT uses a negative scoring system in which a student loses a fraction of a point for each incorrect answer. ( Hint: Students must learn to recognize the questions they should skip in preparation for the PSAT).

THE ACT ASSESSMENT  “American College Test”  College entrance examination that measures students’ knowledge and skills in English, math, reading, and science reasoning, and the application of these skills to future academic tasks.  Most colleges will use either the ACT or SAT scores for admissions purposes.

THE ACT ASSESSMENT (cont’d)  The writing test on the ACT is optional and dependant upon individual college requirements  Test Duration: 2 hours and 55 minutes  Test Dates: The ACT is given several times throughout the traditional school year.

THE ACT ASSESSMENT (cont’d)  Skills Tested: English: punctuation, grammar, usage, sentence structure, and rhetorical skills including strategy, organization, and style. Math: measures math skills usually acquired by the end of the 11 th grade year. Students will need knowledge of basic formulas and computational skills.

THE ACT ASSESSMENT (cont’d) Skills Tested Reading: Requires students to show understanding of both direct and implied meaning. Science: This test assumes that students are in the process of taking three years or more of core science classes. These classes should include earth science and/or physical science and or biology. Writing (optional): Requires students to define an issue and describe two points of views on that issue.

THE ACT ASSESSMENT (cont’d) Format/Questions: With the exception of the writing test, multiple choice questions are used in all the sections. Study Resources: Additional Information: Unlike the SAT, the ACT does not use negative scoring. Students may use certain types of calculators on the mathematics section, but not on the science section.

THE SAT REASONING TEST “The Scholastic Aptitude Test” The SAT is widely used in college admission to assess a student’s readiness for and potential for success in college. This test measures a students’ abilities in critical reading, mathematics, and writing. Test Duration: 3 hours and 45 minutes Test Dates: The SAT test is offered several times throughout the school year.

THE SAT REASONING TEST (cont’d) Skills Tested: Critical Reading: This section measures a student’s ability to identify genres, relationships among parts of a text, cause and effect, rhetorical devices, and comparative arguments. *Reading passages are taken from different fields including the natural sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, and literary fiction.

THE SAT REASONING TEST (cont’d) Skills Tested: Math: This section measures a student’s ability in numbers and operations; Algebra I, II, and functions; geometry, and statistics, probability, and data analysis. Writing: This section is multiple choice and it measures a student’s ability to recognize errors, improve sentences, and improve paragraphs within a written context.

THE SAT REASONING TEST (cont’d) Essay: This section measures a student’s ability to develop and support a position on a topic. Format/Questions: Critical Reading: This sections includes sentence completions and multiple-choice items based on the reading passage. Math: Includes multiple-choice and student produced responses. Writing: This section requires students to answer multiple-choice questions and write an essay.

THE SAT REASONING TEST Study Resources: board.org Scoring Information: Like the PSAT the SAT uses a negative scoring system.