The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a nationally standardized test designed to evaluate a student’s verbal and math abilities. It is taken by more than 80% of college-bound students, typically in their junior year. This test is one of the most critical elements of a college application because of the great weight admissions counselors give to SAT performance when considering a student for admission. The SAT is three hours and 45 minutes long and measures skills in three areas: critical reading, math, and writing. Although most questions are multiple choices, students are also required to write a 25-minute essay.

The SATs are standardized tests, formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, frequently used by colleges and universities in the United States to aid in the selection of incoming freshmen. The SAT is the product of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a subsidiary of the private, non-profit firm, the College Board. These organizations have a mail address in Princeton, New Jersey, but are not associated with Princeton University.
The tests are generally taken by high school students or graduates wishing to progress to higher education. Test results of applicants are provided to colleges and universities. Universities use tests such as the SAT and the ACT as a standard way of assessing students that come from many different schools that use different GPA or grading systems.

Entrance to these universities is also almost always based on other factors such as GPA, teacher recommendations, and participation in extracurricular activities, but there is often a threshold score that automatically qualifies a candidate for admission who has scored at least that high. Scores on the SAT have also been used as a criterion for the awarding of many academic scholarships.

The SAT I: Reasoning Test is in two sections: math and verbal. Scores on each test range from 200 to 800. The test is presented in seven sections, three math, three verbal, and one ungraded experimental section which may be either math or verbal. Each of the seven sections is ordered first by question type, then by difficulty, with the exception of the critical reading question type, which is organized chronologically. For each correct answer, one raw point is added; for each incorrect answer on a question with 5 answer choices, a fourth of a point is deducted; for each incorrect answer on a question with 4 answer choices, a third of a point is deducted.

Ten of the questions in the quantitative section are not multiple-choice. They instead require the test taker to input the actual result of their calculations in a five column grid. For these questions, no points are deducted for a wrong answer. Answer choices are often littered with distractors or Joe Blogs (usually common mistakes or incomplete calculations). The average student for whom ETS designs the test will usually rush through the first portion of easy questions and will usually get the difficult questions which follow wrong.

The SAT II: Subject tests are one-hour mostly multiple-choice tests given in individual subjects. The 22 Subject Tests include: Writing (with an essay), Literature, U.S. History, World History, Math Level IC, Math Level IIC, Biology E/M (Ecological or Molecular), Chemistry, Physics, French Reading, French Reading with Listening, German Reading, German Reading with Listening, Spanish Reading, Spanish Reading with Listening, Modern Hebrew Reading, Italian Reading, Latin Reading with Listening, Japanese Reading with Listening, Korean Reading with Listening, Chinese Reading with Listening, and the English Language Proficiency Test. Each individual test is worth 800 points, and colleges often require the writing test, a math test, and a test of the student's choice.

Above reproduced from the Educational Testing Service Website, http://www.ets.org.