1. College Entrance Exam 101: PSAT, SAT (New vs. Old), and the ACT Why admission test matters: the impact test scores makke Understanding how

2. Why Admissions Tests Matter

3. Some employers today are even asking to see applicant’s old SAT scores** Nearly 90% of colleges placed considerable or moderate importance on test scores* Merit scholarships are awarded based on test scores and grades

4. Why Admissions Tests Matter Admit rates are going down…

5. Test Change Timeline Sept 2015Oct 2015Dec 2015Jan 2016 Mar 2016 ACT: Enhanced Scoring + Writing Test PSAT: New Test Launches SAT: New Test Launches SAT: New Test Launches SAT: Last Current Test SAT: Last Current Test SAT: 2 nd to Last Current Test SAT: 2 nd to Last Current Test

6. Why the PSAT/NMSQT Matters National Merit Scholarships and more Connect students to schools & scholarships Excellent practice for the New SAT

7. CategoryFeatures PSAT/NMSQT Overview 2 hours, 45 minutes Timing Structure No guessing penalty Now scored on a scale of 1520 Scoring Evidence-Based Reading – 60 min Writing & Language – 35 min Math No Calculator – 25 min Math With Calculator – 45 min

8. PSAT & New SAT Scoring PSAT/NMSQT: 320-1520 SAT: 400-1600 300 600 900 1200 1500 Composite Score Range

9. PSAT/NMSQT Essentials The highest score possible on the PSAT is 240 Colleges use PSAT scores to make admissions decisions There is a wrong answer penalty on the PSAT to discourage guessing The PSAT is not like any other test you take in school You can prepare for the PSAT The PSAT is just like the SAT Myth! Fact Myth! Fact

13. The ACT, SAT and New SAT

14. The Essentials The SAT is more widely accepted than the ACT The ACT is easier than the SAT You should only take the ACT if you are good at science The SAT is changing in March 2016 The Class of 2017 will have the option to take the Current and New versions of the SAT The New SAT is easier than the Current SAT Myth! Fact Myth! Fact

15. The Essentials: Anatomy  10 short sections: 1 Essay, 2 Writing, 3 Critical Reading, 3 Math, 1 Experimental  Essay mandatory 4 long sections: English, Math, Reading, Science Essay optional 4 long sections: Evidence-Based Reading, Writing & Language, Math No Calculator, Math Calculator Essay optional Current SAT ACT New SAT

16. The Essentials: Scoring  Total Score: 2400  ¼ point guessing penalty  Total Score: 36  Optional Essay scored separately  No wrong answer penalty  Total Score: 1600  Optional Essay scored separately  No wrong answer penalty Current SAT ACT New SAT

17. The Essentials: Timing  3 hours and 45 minutes  2 hours 55 minutes without essay  3 hours 25 minutes with essay  3 hours without essay  3 hours 50 minutes with essay Current SAT ACT New SAT

18. The Essentials: Administration  Print only  Essay first  Print and digital  Optional essay last  Print and digital  Optional essay last Current SAT ACT New SAT

19. The Essentials: Test Options Class of 2017 Class of 2018 & Younger Current SAT ACT New SAT Class of 2016 & Older

20. Your Next Steps

21. Freshman YearSophomore Year  Take the PSAT in October  Take AP and Subject Tests  Plan Prep for the PSAT, New SAT, or ACT (Class of 2018)  Establish good study habits  Extracurricular Activities  Prep for Honors and AP Classes

22.  PSAT in October for National Merit  Focus on Academics – this is a critical year!  Research admissions requirements for target schools  Prepare for the SAT, New SAT and/or ACT  Take AP and Subject Tests Junior YearSenior Year  Take the SAT and/or ACT for the last time  Take AP and Subject Tests  Request letters of recommendation  Complete and send out college applications  Fill out FAFSA and research scholarships Your Next Steps

23. Scholarships Create an email address just for scholarships: you will get spam Fastweb.com

24. The 2 greatest factors that determine merit-based aid are SAT ® or ACT ® scores and high school grades. Source: Calculated using the average institutional no-need and merit grant figure in National Postsecondary Student Aid Study by the National Center for Education Statistics and the number of students receiving that type of aid, which was approximately 2.1 million; 2008 NACAC Discussion Paper, Financial Aid and Admission: Tuition Discounting, Merit Aid and Need-aware Admission There is $11 billion in merit-based aid to help pay for college.

25. Your Next Steps What can you do now?  Keep up to date: www.kaptest.com/satchange www.kaptest.com/satchange  Practice: http://kaplannewsat.testive.comhttp://kaplannewsat.testive.com New! Practice Questions for the New SAT

26. Social Media 82% of College Admissions Officers use Social Media to recruit students  Manage your privacy settings  “Like” and “follow” schools that interest you  Participate in conversations that showcase your interests and talents  When engaging with a school, check for typos, don’t use shorthand  Don’t use inappropriate language  Don’t post anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable putting on your applications  Be mindful, but be yourself! This is an opportunity to interact with schools apart from your applications

27. Options to prepare for these tests (in addition to working hard in school)  Buy a test prep book & schedule regular practice  Khanacademy.org has practice videos / tests  Use test prep service, like Kaplan or Princeton Review (they have in person and online options)  Form a study group  Don’t kid yourself – effective prep will take time and effort $11.49 – bn.com $10.59 – bn.com$20.53 – bn.com$18.81 – bn.com

28. On Demand Self-paced, online course $299 Try a Test Prep Service – like Kaplan Unlimited access to classes $1,499 Unlimited Prep Prepare with a teacher near you or online $749/849 SAT or ACT Classroom Will prepare you for the New PSAT, the current SAT, the New SAT, and the ACT To sign up for Kaplan Contact Joe Twohig 760 468-4013 or Joe.twohig@kaplan.com

29. Some ACT – SAT Comparison

30. ACT versus New SAT Timing and Sections The New SAT has only one reading section and one writing section—the math section is divided into a calculator portion and a no-calculator portions. The sections will always be in the same order. The test will be 3 hours, plus the optional essay. The exact breakdown, in order, looks like this:  Reading: 52 questions, 65 minutes  Writing and Language: 44 questions, 35 minutes  Math: no calculator—20 questions, 25 min; with calculator—38 questions, 55 min  Optional essay: 1 prompt, 50 min The basic ACT structure and timing is remaining the same, with the exception of the new essay, which will be longer.  English: 75 questions, 45 min  Math: 60 questions, 60 min  Reading: 40 questions, 35 min  Science: 40 questions, 35 min  Optional writing: 1 prompt, 40 min  As you can see, the format of the redesigned SAT will be more similar to that of the ACT than to that of its previous incarnation.

31. Scoring – New SAT versus ACT New SAT  Returning to the 400-1600 scale  No more wrong answer penalty  The essay will be given three different scores and no longer affects your total score The essay score itself is also changing: rather than one score between 2 and 12, you'll get three scores, for reading, analysis, and writing, between 2 and 8.  Lots of subscores. As part of their attempt to provide more helpful information to colleges, the College Board will be providing a number of subscores and cross-test scores: Analysis in History/Social Studies, Analysis in Science, Command of Evidence, Words in Context, Expression of Ideas, Standard English Conventions, Heart of Algebra, Problem Solving and Data Analysis, and Passport to Advanced Math. It's unclear how, or if, colleges will be using these scores, so you shouldn't worry about them for now. ACT  The ACT scoring, on the other hand, is staying mostly the same—section scores from 1-36 averaged to create a composite also between 1 and 36.  The exception is the ACT Writing. A separate score on a scale of 1-36; like the new SAT essay, it will be scored across multiple domains: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. Each of the subscores will be between 2 and 12.

32. Reading – ACT versus New SAT New SATACT Time65 min35 min # of questions5 passages, 52 questions4 passages, 40 questions Passage types 1 U.S. or World Literature, 2 History or Social Studies, 2 Science 1 Prose Fiction or Literary Narrative, 1 Social Sciences, 1 Humanities, 1 Natural Sciences Question types Main Idea, Inference, Vocab-in-Context, Evidence Support, Data Reasoning, Technique, Detail-Oriented Main Idea, Inference, Vocab-in-Context, Detail-Oriented

33. Redesigned SAT Reading  Redesigned SAT Reading  Although the sentence completions and short passages are being eliminated, the remaining long reading passages look more or less the same as they always have, with a few exceptions.  Inclusion of classic texts. As part of the plan to make the reading texts more complex and therefore more similar to what you might read in college, the new SAT reading will include excerpts from texts from the Western canon, including stories and essays by famous authors, U.S. founding documents, and other historically important works. Because these are often quite old, they include a lot more challenging language.  Evidence questions. These tricky questions ask you to indicate which part of the passage supports your answer to a previous question.  Questions go in chronological order. This really sets it apart from the ACT.  Charts and figures in science passages (2/5 of the passages).

34. ACT Reading  The big difference between the ACT and the SAT remains how you need to budget time. While the SAT is more focused on analyzing specific points in the passage and understanding how the author constructs an argument, the ACT is more about reading comprehension.  Randomly ordered questions. The SAT reading tells you where to look for the answers to most questions, but one of the biggest challenges on the ACT reading is finding the information you need. The questions are ordered randomly and often do not give line numbers, which can make finding specific details very tricky.  Less time per question. The strict time constraints are the other big difficulty most students fact with the ACT reading: you have roughly eight and half minutes per ten question passage for the ACT reading, compared to 13 minutes per 10-11 minute passage on the SAT.

35. Writing New SATACT Time35 min45 min # of questions4 passages, 44 questions5 passages, 75 questions Content Standard English Conventions: 20 questions (45%), covering sentence structure, conventions of usage, and conventions of punctuation Expression of Ideas: 24 questions (55%), covering development, organization and effective language use Usage and Mechanics: sentence structure (20- 25%), grammar and usage (15-20%), and punctuation (10-15%) Rhetorical Skills: style (15-20%), strategy (15- 20%), and organization (10-15%) Both are now in passage based format of questions; New SAT like the ACT will focus on more grammatical concepts, like punctuation

36. Differences Redesigned SAT Writing Section As I noted above, the SAT overhaul involves a complete redesign of the writing section, so that all of the questions are presented in context.  Writing and Language section included in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score.  Slightly more focused on writing style.  Includes charts and graphs.  Some word choice questions involve challenging vocabulary ACT English Section Again, the similarities between these sections are much greater than their differences, but the ACT does emphasize slightly different skills than the new SAT.  A lot more questions – almost twice as many (not necessarily more difficult, but needs a different approach).  Slightly more focused on grammar and conventions.  Big-picture (main idea) questions (not only on the Reading section)

37. Math Differences Redesigned SAT Math The changes to the SAT math are designed to make it more similar to the tests you take in math class, meaning you'll be asked harder questions in a more straightforward way.  With a calculator section & a no calculator section (basic calculations that you can do in your head)  Heavily focused on algebra. As I mentioned above, one of the goals of the new SAT is to make it more similar to what you do in school and what you'll need for college: 61% of the questions will deal with algebra topics, including manipulating equations and expressions, writing equations to solve word problems, solving quadratics, and working with formulas.  More data analysis. Almost a third will deal with manipulating ratios and percents and understanding graphs and charts.  Very little geometry. (Only six questions; test provides common formulas)  Still has grid-ins. 13 of these ACT Math  Far more geometry and trigonometry. If you like geometry, the ACT will be the test for you. A quarter to a third of the questions on the math section deal with geometry or trig. However,, the ACT doesn't provide formulas, so you'll have to know the common ones.the common ones  Wider range of material. In fact, the ACT tests more topics in general that the new SAT does. You may see questions about logarithims, graphs of trig functions, and matrices, none of which appear on the SAT.