Reading, writing, practice essential for success on SAT, ACT tests

By: AGNES DIGGS and LOUISE ESOLA - Staff Writers | Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:28 PM PDT ∞

The Scholastic Assessment Test and the American College Test.

That's a mouthful for what are commonly referred to -- in the high school guidance office and during "what are you doing this weekend?" discussions in the cafeteria -- as the SAT and the ACT.

Both tests underwent a makeover in 2005. ACT now has an optional writing test. The SAT was divided into three tests, including a required writing section.

Both tests still gauge a student's college-readiness skills in math and language arts, are administered over three hours on Saturdays throughout the school year, and often help serve as the gatekeeper for university acceptance. And in some cases, they could be the difference in whether a student gets a scholarship or not.

Most colleges require students to take one of the two tests and will inform applicants which -- ACT or SAT -- is necessary for admission.

Because so much is riding on the results, many programs have been developed to give students tips on how to take the tests and practice for them. Classes, online courses, books, computer CD-ROMs, and tutoring programs that cater especially to SAT and ACT preparation are readily available.

But the president of the College Board suggests a more long-range approach to success.

"The best preparation is the day-to-day work students do in school," Gaston Caperton said in a presentation at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The changes in the SAT were made, officials said, to bring the test more in line with high school coursework and to make it a better measure of the skill requirements for success in college.

"The new SAT levels the playing field," college board content specialist Ed Hardin said. "It tests how smart the student is rather than how to take an exam."

Two-thirds of the three-part SAT test focuses on reading comprehension and writing ability.

"Writing is a requirement in this country for doing well in college and doing well in life," Caperton said. "And we are proud that we put writing on this. We believe students in this country will become better writers."

Sorting it out

Most students are knee-deep in preparation courses and books before the 11th grade, when the majority of college-bound students sign up for either test. High school freshmen and sophomores take the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test, or PSAT, to nerve themselves for the real SAT.

The College Board offers free online sample tests and test tips at www.collegeboard.com. Similar resources for the ACT are available at www.act.org. Local schools may offer free preparation and review courses for students. Students should contact their guidance counselors for more information.

The section formerly known as "Verbal" is now called "Critical Reading." The section containing analogies -- comparisons between two sets of things -- has been eliminated, and short reading-comprehension passages added. Math questions have expanded to include advanced algebra concepts. The newest thing, the writing section, includes multiple-choice questions on grammar and an essay.

Previously timed at three hours, test time has increased by 35 minutes. Of the 60 minutes allowed for the writing section, 25 are allotted to the dreaded student-written essay.

Trained evaluators look at how well the essay is composed and developed and how the pieces blend together in a whole, board experts said.

As for multiple-choice questions, the question often arises as to whether it's best to guess an answer. Experts suggest that students immediately eliminate any answers they know can't be right, then make an educated guess among the others. They advise caution, however, because a wrong answer can cost incremental point losses that could detract from the final scores. In the long run, however, an educated guess beats a blank, which will also cost points.

The write stuff

Writing the essay should not cause brain freeze. Students are asked to use reason and examples to support a point of view. The essay is considered to be a draft, so grammar, spelling and punctuation need not be perfect. Handwriting doesn't officially count, but legible writing will help the readers to get the point.

Each idea should progress smoothly to the next, said Daisy Vickers, director for the Pearson Education Measurement Performance Scoring Center, which helped devise the writing test. Students should demonstrate a strong command of language, a very good vocabulary, a grasp of convention, she said. They'll also need to show their critical thinking skills using examples that can be literary, personal or historical, she said.

It's important to remember that, while the typical five-part paragraph essay -- introduction, three examples and a conclusion -- is important, it's even more important to make sure there's coherence and underlying unity to demonstrate composing skills. Students are neither rewarded nor punished for using the formulaic approach, because its use is not necessary to do well on the test, Ed Hardin said. He recommends students use a style that's appropriate to the task.

Each essay is scored on a scale of one to six -- one being "fundamentally lacking" and "severely flawed" in a number of areas, according to information from the College Board. A score of six means "outstanding ... clear and consistent," although it may have minor errors. Criteria will include writing competence and overall quality. Each essay will be graded by two readers -- experienced high school and college teachers trained for the purpose and using a College Board scoring guide --who won't know the student's identity or each other's ratings.

Students can score up to 800 points in each section, with a maximum total score of 2400 for the three parts.

Food for thought

The SAT is a snapshot, said College Board Vice President Jim Montoya. "It gives us an idea where the student is in his or her development at that particular moment."

Obviously, the SAT is not a test a student can cram for. With the heavy emphasis on reading skills, the first and best advice is to read materials of all kinds, including fiction and nonfiction books, magazines and newspapers. Sharpen math skills, and do extra problems. Students who find themselves floundering should hook up with a tutor.

Students can register for the tests through their high school guidance office or on the Internet at www.collegeboard.com for the SAT and www.actstudent.org for the ACT.

At the student's request on the test application, scores are automatically sent to colleges and universities. And students can retake both tests if they are not satisfied with their scores.

The keys to SAT success are read, read, read and practice, practice, practice. The College Board and ACT Web sites can help.

SAT and College Board are registered trademarks of the College Board, which administers the tests.

Sources: Information from the College Board and from several Internet Web sites.

ABOUT THE SAT TESTS

- 789,325 (53 percent) of SAT takers are female and 686,298 (47 percent) are male.

- 38 percent of SAT takers in the class of 2005 were minorities, the largest percentage of any class of SAT takers to date.

- 36 percent of SAT takers are first-generation college students.

- 58 percent of first-generation college students are female. This female dominance holds true for all the racial/ethnic groups.

- Founded in 1900, the College Board is a not-for-profit membership association composed of 4,500 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. Each year, it serves more than 3 million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools and 3,500 colleges.

TEST TIPS FROM SAT EXPERT ADAM ROBINSON

- SAT questions are arranged in order of difficulty. The progression is gradual.

- You can get a very respectable score simply by answering the easy and medium questions correctly.

- Don't worry about the words you don't know or the math you haven't covered -- you can do very well without knowing everything if you just answer correctly the questions you can answer.

- Don't interpret on the SAT or read between the lines, or search for hidden meanings. There are no hidden meanings, and there's nothing between the lines.

- Your goal on the SAT is to hang on to as many of the 2400 points as possible. How? By leaving the fewest number of questions blank and getting the fewest number of questions wrong.

- Each question is worth the same, so spend your time where it's likely to do the most good.

- Bad guessing hurts your score; good guessing helps your score.

- Two things that hurt your score: blanks and errors. Every time you don't answer a question, you lose about 10 points. If you answer incorrectly, you lose on average 12 points. A blank is a guaranteed loss of 10 points. By answering a question, you're risking about two points to save the 10 you'd otherwise lose for sure.

- Guessing sometimes helps your score, but not guessing always hurts your score.

- Once you spend time on a question, you've got to guess. On some questions, however, it may be better not to spend any time at all.

- If you get stuck on a question -- for whatever reason -- immediately circle the question number in your test booklet and move on to the next question. You can return to it later.

- The SAT essay is not designed to test "how well you write." It is designed to test how well -- and rapidly -- you orient yourself to a new topic, organize your thoughts, and write the first draft of a persuasive essay.

- The SAT math test rewards students who notice things -- and punishes those who don't.

- The biggest cause of avoidable math errors on the SAT is not miscalculations, but rather misreading the question. You don't have to reread the entire question, just the final line that tells you what you're looking for.

- Learning to catch errors is one of the fastest ways to improve your math score.

- The only time to catch an SAT math error is either just after you have made the mistake -- or just before.

- Always verify each step of your solution as you work through the question -- right to the end of the solution.

- Value accuracy over speed on the SAT math test: The tortoise beats the hare every time.

From "The Rocket Review Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to the New SAT, Second Edition," by Adam Robinson, New American Library, $29.95. Contact donita.dooley@us.pen guingroup.com for information.

100 Words That Really Impress SAT Essay Graders (and are great words to know in any event)

acute; adage; addressing; aesthetic; allusion; altruism; anachronism; anecdote; antithesis; aphorism; aspect; aspiration; assess; attribute; autonomy; coherent; compromised; concede; contend; context; conventional; conviction; culminate; depict; dichotomy; discord; disparate; distinct; distinguish; doctrine; dogmatic; echoed; egalitarian; empirical; enduring; entail; epitome; epoch; ephemeral; ethical; evoke; exemplify; explicit; facet; feasible; ideology; immutable; implication; indifferent; indigenous; inequitable; inevitable; inherent; intrinsic; irony; lament; legitimacy; manifest; momentous; notably; notion; nuance; objective; orthodox; paradigm; paradox; pervasive; plausible; pragmatic; predominant; premise; presumably; prodigious; profound; prominent; proponent; proposition; provocative; quintessential; realm; relentless; reminiscent; resolve; revelation; revere; rhetorical; scrutiny; secular; subjective; subtle; sublime; thesis; tantamount; transcend; ubiquitous; undermine; unparalleled; unprecedented; viable; widespread;

Don't get overwhelmed and think you have to use every word on this list, said SAT expert Adam Robinson. Just try to include a few of these words or similar ones in your essay.

It goes without saying that you must know the definitions, use and spell the words correctly or they won't improve your essay grade.

These words are especially effective in the first and last paragraphs of SAT essays, which the graders read most carefully.

Compiled from "Rocket Review Revolution, The Ultimate Guide to the New SAT, Second Edition," by Adam Robinson. (New American Library, $29.95.) For information: donita.dooley@us.penguingroup.com

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