SAT/ACT
Background Information: SAT & ACT
The SAT
The SAT is a three-hour and 45-minute college entrance exam that is offered each academic year in October, November, December, January, March, May, and June.
Most of our students begin preparation for the SAT in August or September, before the start of their junior year in high school. These students typically take their first official exams in March or May.
Test Format
| Section | Number of questions | Amount of time | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Reading | 67 (19 sentence completions, 48 reading comprehension questions) | Two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section | Vocabulary and reading comprehension |
| Math | 54 (44 multiple-choice questions, 10 student-produced responses) | Two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section | Arithmetic, algebra I and II, functions, planar and coordinate geometry, and probability |
| Writing | 1 essay | 25 minutes | Composition |
| 49 multiple-choice questions | One 25-minute section and one 10-minute section | Grammar and usage | |
| Experimental | Varies | 25 minutes | Critical reading, math, or writing multiple-choice questions |
Each section of the SAT is scored from 200 to 800. Each student will receive a subscore for the essay that ranges from 2 to 12. The essay score is factored into the final Writing score, which is out of 800.
The ACT
The ACT is a three-hour and 25-minute college entrance exam that is offered each academic year in September, October, December, February, April, and June. The February administration is not available in New York State. Most of our students begin preparation for the ACT in August or September, before the start of their junior year in high school. These students typically take their first official exams in February or April.
| Section | Number of questions | Minutes per section | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 75 | 45 | Grammar, syntax, usage, rhetoric |
| Math | 60 | 60 | Arithmetic, algebra I and II, planar and coordinate geometry, trigonometry, functions, logarithms, matrices |
| Reading Comprehension | 40 | 35 | Reading comprehension |
| Science | 40 | 35 | Interpretation of scientific data |
| Writing (optional) | 1 Essay | 30 | Composition |
Each subject area test is scored from 1 to 36. The four required test scores are then averaged to provide a composite score from 1 to 36. The optional Writing essay receives a score from 2 to 12. The score report will provide 6 scores (1 for each of the 5 tests and a sixth score from 1 to 36 that combines the essay score with the English score.).
