The SAT Reloaded

In 1926, when a small group of students sat down to take the first SAT, the letters S-A-T stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Back then, everybody thought the SAT could accurately predict each person’s innate intelligence. The test was supposedly uncoachable, making preparation of any kind unnecessary. In 1994, the people who write the SAT backed off of the claim that the test measures aptitude and began to call it the Standardized Assessment Test. Slowly, quietly, even the words Standardized Assessment Test fell out of use. In 1996, the SAT people sought to clear up the confusion in a press release that declared, once and for all, “SAT is not an initialism; it does not stand for anything.” So there you have it, straight from the source:

The SAT stands for nothing.

But that hasn’t stopped the test. Now the SAT has undergone the most extensive changes in its 75-year history. A whole new Writing section has been added to the test, analogies have been cut, tougher math concepts have been added, quantitative comparisons are gone, and the entire test is now scored on a scale of 2400 instead of the infamous 1600.

How do you prepare for this radically new test disguised under a familiar old meaningless name? Read this book. All the facts, strategies, and study methods you need to meet and beat the new SAT lie between these two covers.

The New SAT

Like many people in America’s image-obsessed culture, the old SAT didn’t think it was up to snuff. So it went under the knife, Michael Jackson–style. A nip here, a tuck there—and wham!—you’ve got a whole new test. The SAT doctors performed four major surgeries to make the old test new:

The SAT Extreme Makeover

PROCEDURE	STUFF ADDED	STUFF CUT	STUFF KEPT
The Verbal Face Lift	Short Reading Comp; name changed to “Critical Reading”	Analogies	Everything else
The Math Nose Job	Algebra II content	Quantitative Comparisons	Everything else
The Writing Transplant	All new section, with an essay and multiple-choice questions on grammar	All new section	All new section
SAT Enlargement Surgery: Length and Score	45 minutes longer; perfect score now 2400	1600 no longer a perfect score	A better shot at 1600

That’s the summary of the changes to the test. Here’s a little more detail about what the test looks like now that the bandages are off.

Just the Facts

The new SAT is 3 hours and 45 minutes long. It covers three major topics—Critical Reading, Math, and Writing—divided into seven timed sections. Each section is graded on a scale from 200–800, and a perfect score is a 2400.

The New Critical Reading Section

The former SAT Verbal section has been replaced and renamed “Critical Reading.”

• 70 minutes long. Those 70 minutes are divided into three timed sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section.
• Three types of questions. The Critical Reading section contains Sentence Completions, Reading Comprehension questions about short paragraphs (100 words), and Reading Comprehension questions about longer passages (500–800 words).
• Critical Reading Skills. Unlike the old Verbal section, which was essentially a glorified vocabulary test, the Critical Reading section really does test critical reading skills.

The New Math Section

Here are the basic facts of the new SAT Math section.

• 70 minutes long. The section is divided into two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section.
• Quantitative Comparisons have been cut. The Math section contains the standard multiple-choice questions and grid-in questions.
• New math topics. Math questions cover topics in basic numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. The algebra in the new SAT now includes a bunch of topics from Algebra II.

The New Writing Section

The Writing section is the one everybody’s talking about. An essay! Grammar! Aaargh! But, actually, it’s just as beatable as every other part of the new SAT.

• 50 minutes long. There will be 25 minutes to write an essay and 35 minutes for three different types of multiple-choice questions.
• One essay topic. For the essay, you’ll have to take and justify a stance on a broad topic. You won’t have a choice of topics.
• Multiple-choice questions. The Writing section contains three types of multiple-choice questions: Identifying Sentence Errors, Improving Sentences, and Improving Paragraphs.
• Writing skills. The essay and the multiple-choice questions test both your writing skills and your understanding of grammar and language usage.

The Experimental Section

The new SAT also contains a 25-minute experimental section. It doesn’t count toward your final score. It’s in there just so that the test-makers can try out some of their new questions on you.

We know what you’re thinking: It would be nice if you could figure out which one was the experimental section and, since it doesn’t count toward your score, just blow it off during the test. You can’t do that. The experimental section looks exactly like one of the other test sections. Unfortunately, you need to treat every single section of the test as if it counts.