The SAT is offered seven times throughout the year and taken mostly by college-bound juniors and seniors. It costs $45 to register for the test up to five weeks before the test date, and increases in cost as the test date approaches. Most students take the SAT multiple times before applying to colleges.
The test is taken over a 3-hour, 45-minute period, and there are three academic areas tested: math, critical reading and writing. The writing section was added in 2005 in lieu of the analogy section on the verbal portion of the old version of the test.
The three subjects on the SAT are broken down into 10 sections for the test, with one being an experimental section that does not count toward your grade.
The math section increases in difficulty as the test goes and covers high school math subjects up to Algebra II, including plane and coordinate geometry, multi-variable algebra, ratios, functions and permutations and combinations. Unlike the ACT, the SAT does not contain any trigonometry, much to the glee of students everywhere.
The critical reading section contains two types of questions. The first includes completing a sentence that has one or two words missing in it based on what is given of the sentence, and the second involves answering questions about the basic themes and characters of reading passages.
The writing section includes two parts as well. The first is an essay to be answered by a thesis statement and supporting evidence. The second part of the writing section tests your grammar abilities by presenting a sentence and having you identify errors in it.
Each section of the SAT is scored from 200 to 800 for a composite range of 600 to 2,400 points. Scoring tables based on raw scores are available through the College Board linked below.
In the past, colleges got to see scores for every test taken by a student. Now, however, you are able to decide which of your scores you would like colleges to see. You can choose up to four schools to send your scores to for free when you register for the test, and you can send your scores to additional schools for a small fee.
The top colleges and universities in the country most frequently admit students who score 2,100 or above on the SAT. There are exceptions, of course. The average SAT score for the country is a 1,500 composite.
There are a wide variety of options available for preparing for the test. Some of the most popular options are practice test and preparation booklets, computer programs, classes and private tutoring. The prices vary widely on these options, from a few dollars for a booklet to thousands for tutoring.