SAT/IELTS TEST PREPARATION
I tutor two levels of international level English and you see links to them on the top of my website. They are IELTS/SAT TEST PREPARATION and ACADEMIC TUTORING. This section is only about SAT/IELTS Test Preparation.
A Closer Look at the SAT Test
The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is the second most widely used entrance test for U.S., Canadian & Thai universities after the competing ACT Test. Throughout Asia, the SAT is the most widely taught test and is easily accepted in the U.S. which has 4,300+ colleges and universities. My students target the top 3% of those 4,300 U.S. universities or roughly the top 150. Good English writing skills is essential for successful admission.
It is a timed test (!) with four required parts. Total time = 3 hours 50 minutes including the optional essay. 50% of the test is the math grade (= 800 points) 50% is the English grade (= 800 points) with 1,600 being a perfect grade. Most of my ASEAN students require little training on the mathematics tests and achieve grades >750 (part one). However, those same students receive lower grades on numbers 2-4 thereby preventing their entrance to top universities.
1. MATHEMATICS TEST (2 PARTS) : 48 Questions - 120 Minutes
2. SAT WRITING and LANGUAGE : 44 Questions - 35 Minutes
- This tests how effectively a student analyzes sentences and paragraphs for good grammar and broad knowledge of English. A very simple example would the that a child could alsobe called a child, kid, boy, girl, son, daughter.
- The student needs to analyze essays in terms of their correct structure, tone and effectiveness.
3. SAT READING: 52 Questions - 65 Minutes
This tests how effectively a student interprets, analyzes and draws inferences in liberal arts and the sciences. The student needs to distinguish between writing which is an argument, narrative, personal or expository.
The student needs to draw inferences from graphs, tables and diagrams in the reading passages on the SAT.
4. SAT ESSAY (Optional): 1 Question - 50 Minutes
This is often called an evidence based essay. The student first reads a difficult reading passage.
The student then analyzes the effectivenesse of the article by writing a five-paragraph essay about it. This is usually the hardest part of SAT for ASEAN students.
Your SAT essay will be scored by two raters, each of whom will assign a score of 1 to 4 on the reading, analysis, and writing dimensions. The two raters scores for each dimension will be added together. This, you'll receive three on your essay, each ranging from 2 to 8.
This is often called an evidence based essay. The student first reads a difficult reading passage.
The student then analyzes the effectivenesse of the article by writing a five-paragraph essay about it. This is usually the hardest part of SAT for ASEAN students.
Your SAT essay will be scored by two raters, each of whom will assign a score of 1 to 4 on the reading, analysis, and writing dimensions. The two raters scores for each dimension will be added together. This, you'll receive three on your essay, each ranging from 2 to 8.
SAT SCORE RANGES
Having taught SAT skills for 8+ years, I try not to focus on SAT grades but I focus on SAT skills. A student with good SAT skills usually gets high scores. What are high scores for U.S. or Canadian admission? Here is a good assessment of it with 80% of my students scoring in the top 20%.
These scores will put you in the top 10% of all test takers.
EVIDENCE-BASED READING AND WRITING: 670 – 800
MATH: 690 – 800
These scores will put you in a highly competitive place in admissions (top 25% of all test takers).
EVIDENCE-BASED READING AND WRITING: 610 – 660
MATH: 600 – 680
These scores put you ahead of the pack (50%+), but won’t be as advantageous when applying to highly competitive programs.
EVIDENCE-BASED READING AND WRITING: 540 – 600
MATH: 530 – 590
