International Student Admissions

An incredibly rich resource for relevent information regarding the PSAT, SAT and SAT Subject Tests is the FAQs maintained by Compass Education Group. I highly recommend taking a look even though the questions are not specifically aimed at international students -

PSAT FAQ

SAT FAQ

SAT Subject Test FAQ

We have previously talked about the SAT but what is the difference between the SAT and its biggest rival – the ACT.

Comparative Features of the SAT I and the ACT

(1) ACT content/SAT I problem solving

The ACT is an achievement test; it assesses what students should already know. The SAT is more like an aptitude test; it attempts to measure critical thinking ability, particularly in the area of problem solving, as well as test–taking skills.

(2) SAT I is coachable – ACT less so

The ACT is probably less coachable in the short term. The SAT is very coachable in the short term; problem–solving strategies are necessary in the multiple–choice format and these are often not emphasized as much as they should be in the traditional classroom.

(3) Students may score higher on one test than on the other

Because of the ACT’s limited dependence on vocabulary and emphasis on achievement, research seems to favor use of the ACT for students of limited English proficiency, for students with higher GPAs (above 3.4), and for females. This is not an unlikely result, since the ACT is an achievement test and in effect rewards those who have mastered the curriculum. On the other hand, students who are good problem solvers, particularly academic underachievers, might prefer the SAT.

(4) Less emphasis on defensive test taking strategies

SAT scores are adjusted for incorrect answers; the ACT format encourages guessing. Students can relax and try to answer as many problems as they can on the ACT. There’s no need to second–guess their decisions about whether they should or should not answer a question.

Deducting for incorrect responses is another ETS ploy to “level the playing field” . If a test taker is randomly guessing and does not really know any of the correct responses, then he/she should theoretically get one out of every five multiple–choice problems correct in the long run, (since there are five answer choices). Hence, the decision to deduct 1/4 point for an incorrect problem. The complete random guesser therefore will theoretically score a zero, (i.e., a 200), since there will be four 1/4 points deducted to match every correct one.

So the theory is that the scoring penalty will discourage test takers from guessing and will keep scores from being artificially inflated by any guessing successes. The truth is that good test takers know that if they can get the number of possible answer choices down to three or less, then guessing in the long run is a good strategy; novice test takers do not always know this and choose not to guess at all, (thereby hurting their scoring chances), or guess too often, even when they only have eliminated one choice or no choices, (and again hurt their scoring chances).

(5) ACT provides a more detailed score report

The ACT scores are reported in much greater detail than the SAT. Colleges are going to receive subscores that will let them know the extent of the student’s mastery. For example, a student who took no math beyond Algebra II is not likely to produce a high subscore in Geometry/Trigonometry but may do well in the Elementary Algebra and Algebra/Geometry subscores. The SAT simply reports a 200–800 math score. The ACT also presents a more detailed student profile section to the colleges. All colleges accept the ACT score in the admissions process.

If you’d like to check out the College Board’s website on this topic, just visit: http://www.collegeboard.org/ and then search for a topic like “SAT and ACT” to see what they currently have.

Why isn’t the ACT a more popular choice for test takers?

 (1) The ACT has been emphasized in the middle of the country where it is created and the SATs dominate on the two coasts. Old habits die hard, so that even though both exams are accepted everywhere, some do leave home without it. My point is that some people, (administrators, parents, students, teachers, but certainly not counselors), aren’t aware of it as an acceptable alternative to the SAT. So that may change.

 (2) The ACT is a content–based exam. You actually have to have learned some things in school in order to do well on the exam. The SAT I is a problem–solving exam. So you can do well on the exam if you’re a good test taker and can solve problems given new information. You won’t get so zapped with a poor score if you didn’t do your homework all of those years in school. That makes for a popular and tempting choice for many test takers. That may never change.

 (3) The SAT is still the established major player in the admissions market. It’s hard to dethrone the Yankees when they have the money to continually get better players, outdraw you at the ballpark, and advertise those facts like crazy. And the ACT people are the Washington Nationals of the testing business, but this is definitely changing.

Scoring details – In the SAT if a student answers a question incorrectly a quarter credit (1/4) is deducted from their overall score. No credit is deducted for blank responses or incorrect Grid–In responses. The SAT Verbal, Writing and Math scores range from 200 to 800 (making the SAT total anywhere from 600 to 2400). The average subscore is close to 500 or 1500 overall.

Essay grading is done via the Internet by high school and college English teachers. The College Board trains these graders in what makes for a good essay and monitors their work. Two readers read each essay, assigning 1 to 6 points based on quality. If the two readers are more than two points apart, a third reader weighs in, (which only happens 2 percent of the time).

The College Board provides readers with an explanation of what merits scores of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. According to their scoring rubric, “an essay that rates a 6 is an effective and insightful writing task, well–organized and fully developed with appropriate examples to support ideas, with consistent facility in use of language variety and sentence structure and vocabulary.” The essay tests basic writing skills, not creative writing talent.

College admissions staff have access to an applicant’s SAT essay. This is an important development. If there is a significant disparity between what is submitted by the student in the testing environment and what is submitted on the application, everyone will wonder how the same writer (theoretically) could produce both essays. No spell-check or grammar aid in word processing could make up for such a disparity. The student must have had help on the application essay; therefore the SAT essay may be a better indicator of his/her writing ability. That said we should not completely dismiss the time variable. The SAT I essay is timed; therefore, an applicant might be able to put together a better essay later in college with more time to complete the writing task. This would imply that the SAT essay underpredicts writing ability.
 
Other Issues - Colleges use standardized tests in a variety of ways, and it varies from school to school. Some colleges, including a few small elite private schools, do not require them for admission, but the vast majority of four–year colleges do. Some admissions officials said they like the idea of seeing the timed writing sample to see how it tracks with the essay submitted as part of the college application process. Robin Mamlet, dean of admission and financial aid at Stanford University, said she would be less interested in the score assigned to the essay and more interested in seeing the essay itself. It would provide another tool for evaluating a student. Here’s a list, albeit incomplete one that is and growing daily, of schools that do not require SAT scores: Mount Holyoke, Lewis and Clark, Pitzer, Hamilton, Holy Cross, Bard, Gettysburg, Bowdoin, Dickinson, Drew, Franklin and Marshall, Union, Middlebury, Muhlenberg, Hampshire, Connecticut College, Hobart and William Smith, Lawrence University, Providence College Saint John’s in MD and NM, McDaniel.

The SAT tests problem solving ability. It does not test for mastery of specific content nor does it measure intelligence. It simply attempts to determine if a student is able to process new information quickly and make some decisions. As you probably know, there are special accommodations for students with learning differences to take the SAT. This is a fairly controversial topic. You can obtain from the College Board special testing accommodations, e.g., extra time per section, alternate test delivery methods, etc.

Over the next few days (before we return to the question of financial aid) we will discuss the most widely taken standardized test for undergraduate admissions to U.S. colleges – the SAT Reasoning Test. 

What are the features of the SAT? This is the test that most students use during the admissions process. The SAT I is “designed to help predict freshman grades in college,” according to the College Board. Notice the use of the word help. The SAT I is only designed to work in conjunction with a student’s high school grade point average (HSGPA) – we will be discussing more on the HSGPA later. Students might want to checkout the book The Official SAT Study Guide by the College Board. The College Board is the company that manages the SAT and contracts with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to obtain test items and other services.

The SAT is divided into three distinct sections – Critical Reading, Writing and Math. These sections are further divided into smaller subsections. Here is a brief breakdown of each -

Critical Reading: Sentence Completion (19 problems, 25 minutes); Passage Based Reading (45 minutes, 48 questions) - scored on a  scale of between 200 and 800 points.
Writing: Identifying Sentence Errors (18 problems, 25 minutes); Improving Sentences (25 problems, 25 minutes); Improving Paragraphs (6 problems, 10 minutes), Essay (25 minutes) - scored on a  scale of between 200 and 800 points.
Math: Multiple Choice (44 problems, 25 minutes); Grid-in (10 problems, 45 minutes) - scored on scale of between 200 and 800 points.

Total: 170 Problems + Essay, 200 minutes, out of 2400 points.