SAT Mock Test
By Ananya Nair and Sadaf Binu Manaf, Senior Reporters for Light House
The Indian High School provides many opportunities for students to become acquainted with the various tests/exams they may have to write and the SAT-I mock test was one of them, conducted for students of grade 11 by representatives for the FACT coaching centre for a reasonable fee of AED 20/-.
On May 11, about 80 students from grade 11 were called out of their classrooms and asked to line up outside, and taken to the auditorium. With a writing board and calculator in hand, they sat down and waited for further instructions. Then the counsellor of the section took to the lectern and addressed the gathering. She welcomed the person who was going to brief them about what was going to happen. Mr. Sunil Shah strode to the lectern with a bright smile and prepared to begin his talk, aided by a slideshow. He started out by asking the students,”What is your goal in life?” Following that was a chorus of answers ranging from a good family life to an applaudable career. He then emphasized the importance of a career — citing many real-life examples.
“In order to build a good career, it is very essential to get into a good college.” said the founder and CEO of the FACT enterprise, a premium SAT,GRE, IELTS and TOEFL coaching center in the Middle East as well as in India. Mr. Shah proceeded to give the students guidelines on how to go about the procedures for college admissions. He advised them to seek admission in an exemplary college in India, or settle for exclusive colleges abroad. “To be able to get into foreign colleges, writing the SATs is important because most colleges require SAT scores at the time of admission. Also, it is good to note that colleges abroad look for the 9th and 11th grade marks.” Mr. Shah also enlightened the students about the difficulties one may face if going abroad, for example, the expenses to meet, separation from family etc. He stated that scholarships are available to mitigate the additional expenses that arise while studying abroad.
After the instructions of the mock test were given by a verbal trainer of the FACT, Ms. Shraddha Kurmi, the students proceeded to write the mock test with much enthusiasm, understanding the pattern of the paper and going through a new learning experience. The test was conducted in the same manner the actual test is conducted. There were breaks in between the different sections of the paper which help to freshen up for the remaining sections. The test took place for 3 hours and 45 minutes from 9am and concluded at 12:45pm.
WHAT IS SAT?
The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors. The College Board states that the SAT measures literacy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyse and solve problems — skills they learned in school that they will need in college. However, the test is administered under a tight time limit to help produce a range of scores
Starting March 2016, the SAT has undergone a change. Once out of 2400 marks, the new SAT is only out of 1600 with one of the changes being that there is no deduction of points for incorrect attempts.
Tips for Writing the SAT-I:
Some tips for the SAT test takers:
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1) Look for wrong answers to eliminate before searching for the right one
2) Take the test as early as possible so you can improve scores if needed in the next attempt.
3) Know your personal order of difficulty i.e identify the questions you find easy or hard because you are scored on how many questions you answer correctly rather than the number of questions answered.
4) Rely on the strategies learned through SAT prep books and/or website. Khan Academy is a good website that provides customised practice papers.
5) Relax the night before the test.
6) Time and tide wait for no man so calculate the amount of time you will take for each question and stick to it.
All the best to the SAT Test-takers!
“The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.” - Bob Knight.
About the Reporters:
Ananya Nair and Sadaf Binu Manaf are Senior Reporters for Light House.
