Austin PSAT results

The results for the PSAT should be mailed to your high school in early December...

Which Test? ACT vs. SAT

This story in the NYTimes offers a thoughtful comparison backed up by research.

Five Differences Between ACT and SAT

1. Length

The SAT is 3 hours, 45 minutes long, plus breaks, etc.
The ACT is 2 hours, 55 minutes long, plus breaks, etc. This does not include the writing portion, which adds another 30 minutes if you choose to take it.

2. Format

The SAT has ten sections: 3 critical reading, 3 math, 3 writing, and one unscored section they use to try out new test questions. The test always begins with the essay and ends with a 10-minute writing section. The second section through the seventh are 25 minutes long; sections eight and nine are 20 minutes. They can come in any order -- reading, math, reading, writing, etc.

The ACT has four sections that always appear in the same order:

English: 45 minutes

Math: 60 minutes

Reading: 35 minutes

Science: 35 minutes

3. The ACT English tests punctuation, grammar, and syntax. The SAT focuses on vocabulary as well as grammar.

4. The ACT has a science section. The SAT does not.

5. The SAT claims to test reasoning and problem-solving ability. The ACT claims to test curriculum-based knowledge.

Here is what the College Board says about the SAT:
"It tests students' knowledge of subjects that are necessary for college success: reading, writing, and mathematics. The SAT assesses the critical thinking skills students need for academic success in college—skills that students learned in high school."

Here is what the ACT makers say about the ACT:
"The ACT is curriculum-based. The ACT is not an aptitude or an IQ test. Instead, the questions on the ACT are directly related to what students have learned in high school courses in English, mathematics, and science. Because the ACT tests are based on what is taught in the high school curriculum, students are generally more comfortable with the ACT than they are with traditional aptitude tests or tests with narrower content."

ACT vs. SAT and practice tests

Want to know which test you should take?

The answer is easy: both.

The tests are really different. Some students do better or one than the other. There is no good way to predict who will do well on the ACT vs. the SAT, so take them both. If you don’t want to sign up for the official tests, no problem. Buy a practice book (get the ACT book from the ACT test makers and whichever SAT book you prefer) and take the test. Here are a couple things you need to do when you take the practice tests:

1. 1. Get sleep for two nights running before the taking the tests.

2. 2. Get up by 6 or 6:30 the morning you plan to take the test.

3. 3. Eat a good breakfast.

4. 4. Read something to wake up your brain.

5. 5. Go somewhere incredibly quiet to take the practice test –perhaps one of your parents’ offices on a Saturday morning. I hear the engineering library at UT is really quiet too. It is imperative that the place you take the practice test be quiet, just like the room for the real test will be.

Time yourself meticulously, or ask someone to do it for you. When your time is up, stop. If you finish a section early, wait until the full section time has elapsed. Do not go on to the next section until the the entire time for that section has elapsed.

In other words, take a practice test just exactly as if it is a real test. Exactly. That will give you a much better sense of how well you’re doing on the test than if you take a section here and there.

With the SAT, you can grade the vast majority of the practice test yourself -- and I can grade your essay quickly. With the ACT, you can grade the whole thing yourself and get your score.

Tests Getting More Important to College Admission

In Inside Higher Ed, I read that some colleges are thinking about dropping the test requirement altogether. And at the same time, the percentage of colleges that say testing is very important has grown by more than ten percent since 1995. Of course, very few current high school students will be affected by this call to do away with standardized tests, but their younger siblings might be.

Here's the whole story:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/22/testing

A couple of interesting highlights:

"Calling on colleges to 'take back the conversation,' a special panel convened by the National Association for College Admission Counseling will this week encourage colleges to consider dropping the SAT or ACT as admissions requirements."

"And in May, Wake Forest University announced it would go SAT-optional. Wake is No. 30 on the U.S. News & World Report list of top national universities and however much most educators may dispute the meaning of that list, it is influential with many prospective students, and this marks the first time that an institution that high on the list for universities has ever dropped its standardized testing requirement."

"

Colleges Attributing ‘Considerable Importance’ to Admissions Factors

Factor	1995	2000	2005
Grades in college-prep courses/strength of curriculum	80%	78%	74%
Admission test scores	47%	58%	59%
Essay	21%	20%	23%
Class rank	39%	34%	31%
Extracurricular activities	7%	7%	8%

SAT/PSAT Critical Reading Tip

Everyone always says that you should read a lot in order to do well on standardized tests. I can’t disagree—reading a lot helps on a lot of fronts, including the SAT. But many of my students have had much better luck with practicing *critical* reading skills. Think about it -- is the name of the section on the test "Reading" or is it "Critical Reading?" (It's critical reading...)

In order to become a great critical reader, you can practice asking questions as you read. You can read most anything – a newspaper article, a blog entry, the latest Pulitzer-prize-winning poetry – and ask yourself a few key questions in order to help raise your score. This whole process can take no more than fifteen minutes, and it’s great for raising scores, especially if you do it regularly – twice a week, for instance.

Here’s how to do it.

--Read an article. (Or blog entry or poem or what-have-you.)

--Identify a fact or a concrete image. (Any one will do.)

--Ask yourself WHAT the purpose of that fact/image is. What is its job in the article?

--Is the fact there to support a point that the author is trying to make? (This is often the case.)

--Consider what the author’s main point/thesis is. What is the author trying to get across?

--Does the fact or image support the main point?

Going through these steps will help you become a better critical reader. As you get started, choosing articles that are well-written is often a good idea because well-written articles will have more logic and order, so reading them critically is much easier. As you get good, you may realize that you can learn as much from badly-written stories as well-written ones (‘this fact has no point at all – why is it in here??’).

So, read something good. Determine the author’s main point. Choose a detail. Identify the detail’s job. Become a critical reader. Raise your SAT reading score.

Upcoming Test Dates -- ACT/SAT 2008-2009

SAT
November 1, 2008
December 6, 2008
January 24, 2009
March 14, 2009
May 2, 2009
June 6, 2009


ACT
October 25, 2008
December 13, 2008
February 7, 2009
April 4, 2009
June 13, 2009