Is because...
I have to take the SAT's tomorrow... :o
*bites fingernails*
You are afraid of your SAT? Haha! Sorry, I was and it turned out to be a near-joke, especially during the Science section. If science consists of looking at obvious graphs and charts and answering accordingly, then maybe I was doing something else all throughout high school.
I think you'll do fine. I got a 26 on mine with minimal studying.
FFs right. SATs are freakishly easy. You write more on the board than you ever need to for the english, and most of the questions in general can be one-word answers. Just give a logical answer and you're already half right. The page-long essays can look daunting, but trust me, they'll be over in no time.
Okay, covered Spam's science and English lessons. Anyone for maths?
when did the SAT's change? When I took it, it was out of 1600. Are they making it easier for you youngsters? Saying it makes me feel mock old, but actually not knowing when it changed makes me older for real.
Ah, i didn't realise that the SATs took place in America as well as here in England.
Don't take my advice if you're not from England, Spam. I don't know what I'm talking about. ;)
I did good on the Math portion, surprisingly. I actually drew a bouncing ball on the last Trigonometry question and wrote "I have no idea!".
Seriously, they cancelled Trigonometry in my high school. How was I supposed to know?
I thought, Spam, that you were American, and my age? Perhaps there are american SAT and english SATS. Us brits take SATS in english, maths and science when we're 14.
Good luck anyway :)
I am pretty sure the SATs in the US and UK are different. In the US, kids typically take the SAT as juniors and seniors in high school and they are often part of the admission criteria for colleges.
The SATs are pretty easy, but, with so much riding on them, people are understandably anxious about them.
afterburn, the US SAT scores have been adjusted ("re-centered") a couple of times in the history of the test (most people think it's done to account for falling test scores as more and more high school students started applying to colleges). For dinosaurs like me who took the test during the fifty years ending in spring of 1995, the scores will not be directly comparable to those who took them in Spring of 1995 or later. This most recent (that I know of) scale runs from 920 to 980 for each subsections.
If you want to know how your 200-800 score fairs against the newer scale, see this PDF (http://www.colinfahey.com/oldpages/2003apr5_sat/sat_recentering.pdf) which is a paper put out by the College Board reviewing the topic of scaling. You can skip much of the text and just look at Figures 12 and 13. Very roughly, to get the new English score, divide your 200-800 score by 10 and add 907. Math isn't quite as linear. To get the new Math score, if your 200-800 score was between about 300 and 500, divide it by 10 and add 903 or 904, above 550, just divide by 10 and add 900.
QuoteI am pretty sure the SATs in the US and UK are different. In the US, kids typically take the SAT as juniors and seniors in high school and they are often part of the admission criteria for colleges.
As a former private schoolteacher in the States, I can tell you that the most commonly used school achievement tests in all grades are technically SATs at well. In the States, however, we don't call them SAT's, even though they are. Only college admissions tests by SAT (Stanford Achievement Test) company are referred to as such.
Well, sounds like some of ya'll had some good experiences...
Anyone know how long it took them? Just wondering...
Anyways, I guess I was just over-psyching myself. I took a practice test earlier today, and feel a bit better about it...
Hopefully I'll do okay. :)
FORIAMSPAM!
Good luck!
Quote from: catwhowalksbyhimself on June 01, 2007, 02:37:38 PMQuoteI am pretty sure the SATs in the US and UK are different. In the US, kids typically take the SAT as juniors and seniors in high school and they are often part of the admission criteria for colleges.
As a former private schoolteacher in the States, I can tell you that the most commonly used school achievement tests in all grades are technically SATs at well. In the States, however, we don't call them SAT's, even though they are. Only college admissions tests by SAT (Stanford Achievement Test) company are referred to as such.
Good point. Even when I was a kid, we took some sort of SAT variant that was part of the National Merit Scholarship program.
BTW, doesn't the College Board's SAT == Scholastic Aptitude Test? If I recall, and it's been a long time since I read anything about this, the Stanford Achievement Tests (e.g. SAT10) are more grade specific and are more useful for more specific knowledge testing. They are even more common now that NCLB standards require that kind of standardized testing.
Also, I just did a little Wikipedia lookup and it turns out that the (College Board) SATs changed again in 2005. Now there are three sections, each with a scaled score from 200-800 again. The whole thing takes just under four hours to take (which is about what I remember from back in the day, when we had to write our answers on clay tablets). The math and reading sections are still scored easier than the pre-Spring 1995 tests and there are different conversions for comparison. See the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholastic_Aptitude_Test) for more info.
Best wishes, Spam (and anyone else taking the SATs).
Best of luck Spammy. It's normal to get over-psyched coming up to a test and it can be a powerful motivator too. It sounds like you've got a good outlook coming into it.
w00t! Just got back, and I'm overtly happy. :)
I don't think I did too bad overall. Hopefully I did good enough that I don't have to take it again.
Then again, I can really only hope...
FORIAMSPAM!
I don't think I ever took it.
I know I took tons of the grade-specific ones (3 R's tests), as well as the PSAT (pre-SAT?) but not the actual SAT.
There is also the ACT, which can be taken if you plan to go to college in-state.
I think I took the ACT.
Oh, heck, it was 19 years ago. I have no idea.
Wait'll you prepare for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination, also developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service)) (or an equivalent exam) ...and then wait until years afterward when you realise just how easy it should have been ...
ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat
P.S. Proto, apparently your avatar collection greatly amuses my baby boy. :)
Glad I could help. Must've been the squirrel. or the lizard.
sats in the UK are taken in year 6 and year 9
year 6 = 10-11 year olds
year 9 = 13-14 year olds
grades are usually 3-5 but i believe it went up to 8 on the higher teir papers
they mean next to nothing in the UK, they only really help them determine what class your gonna be in in the next year which can change easily after then anyway
I was tempted to say there that the SATs aren't important.
Then I remembered I was English.
Quote from: Reepicheep on June 05, 2007, 11:08:09 AM
I was tempted to say there that the SATs aren't important.
Then I remembered I was English.
Yeah, in the US SATs are the primary college entrance exam as we have no standardized high school exit exams. The ACT is also sometimes used, but primarily in the Midwest, while the SAT is more universally accepted.
The (American) SATs soon after I graduated from HS, 2006 I believe. Before, it was 500(?) to 1600 with no written component, now it's 800 to 2400 with a written component.
I *believe* my score was 1430. Of course, it's not a very accurate predictor of college success. I'm proof of that. ;)
Bah...SATs are easy...now ATS's, now those everyone should be afraid of!!
Or in your case, LFTs! *
*Liver Function Tests
Quote from: Midnight on June 05, 2007, 03:56:43 PMI *believe* my score was 1430. Of course, it's not a very accurate predictor of college success. I'm proof of that. ;)
Yeah, but Middy, you're not an accurate predictor of *anything*! :P
I had to take the SATs (American) for a second time back in March. I'll probably end up taking them again next year too.
Anywho, I got a 1960 out of 2400. I would have done better, but I'm a terrible test-taker.
God, why can't they test on computers, philosophy, world view, and sarcasm?
Quote from: Uncle Yuan on June 06, 2007, 09:47:39 AM
Or in your case, LFTs! *
*Liver Function Tests
Ach...dannae remind me....I faile dthose bloody things the last three time I took 'em....man, I truly need to find someone else to take them for me....
Another reason why teenagers feel fear?
Jason Vorhes. :D
Hehehe, I never had to do SAT's but we had some weird goverment level academic competitions.
Quote from: Deaths Jester on June 08, 2007, 08:48:29 AM
Quote from: Uncle Yuan on June 06, 2007, 09:47:39 AM
Or in your case, LFTs! *
Ach...dannae remind me....I faile dthose bloody things the last three time I took 'em....man, I truly need to find someone else to take them for me....
Well, ya know it's your own fault for not studying for them beforehand. Did you bring a #2 pencil with you last time?
Quote from: lugaru on June 08, 2007, 09:32:41 AM
Another reason why teenagers feel fear?
Jason Vorhes. :D
Hehehe, I never had to do SAT's but we had some weird goverment level academic competitions.
Or Freddy Kreuger... ^_^
FORIAMSPAM!
Quote from: Panther_Gunn on June 08, 2007, 11:24:49 AM
Quote from: Deaths Jester on June 08, 2007, 08:48:29 AM
Quote from: Uncle Yuan on June 06, 2007, 09:47:39 AM
Or in your case, LFTs! *
Ach...dannae remind me....I faile dthose bloody things the last three time I took 'em....man, I truly need to find someone else to take them for me....
Well, ya know it's your own fault for not studying for them beforehand. Did you bring a #2 pencil with you last time?
A #2 pencil?!?!?! I thought we were suppsoed to bring a bag of Penicillin with us for the LFTs.