The SAT, a program of the College Board and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), is the required or preferred entrance exam for most selective colleges and universities. The SAT is a three-hour multiple-choice test designed to measure your verbal and mathematical reasoning skills. Along with the other academic information you provide to the college, the test is designed to predict your readiness for college-level studies and to predict your academic performance in college. The test is organized into seven sections: three verbal sections, three mathematics sections, and a section of equating questions. The verbal sections test your ability to understand and analyze what you read, to recognize relationships between parts of a sentence, and to establish relationships between pairs of words. Your vocabulary skills are tested using reading passages, sentences, and word-pairs. The math questions test problem-solving ability in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. Most math questions assume you've had a year of algebra and some geometry. You will not know which is the equating section on your test: it is used to test new questions and to help make statistical adjustments in the test. The equating section is not graded, and your performance on it will not change your score.

It is important that you register for each test you take from the College Board in the same way. Always use the same first, middle and last names, birth date, social security number, etc., or your scores could be delayed or lost. When registering, you need not complete the Student Descriptive Questionnaire, but about 90% of test-takers do. The questionnaire asks for you to provide information about your background, your school courses, your grades, your activities, and your college plans. The information is sent to the schools to which you are reporting your scores, along with your scores.

When you register for the SAT, you may select up to four colleges, universities, scholarship programs (ROTC, state scholarship program), or other programs (Congressman's Office for Academy nomination, private coaching course) to which your scores will be sent. If you want to send your scores to more than four recipients, you can do so in several ways by paying an additional fee. Since you will probably take the SAT again in your senior year, it is not necessary to be final about your reporting plans when you register for the test in your junior year. In fact, it is wise for some students not to have their first SAT scores sent to any college. If you’re anxious to learn your score before you receive your score report, you can call ETS ten days after your test, pay a fee, and learn your score. There is also an "urgent" reporting service available, and the phone number and additional information for this service is available in the registration booklet. You should learn your school’s CEEB code, or school code; it is available at your guidance or college counseling office.

The numbers on your SAT score report which are used for admission purposes are your verbal and mathematics scores. Both range from 200-800. Remember that SAT score reports are cumulative-- each successive report includes all of your previous scores. Taking the test twice or three times is the common practice; to take it more than three times is excessive and unnecessary. While some colleges consider your highest total score as your best, most colleges will use your highest verbal and highest math score as a composite, even if they were earned at two different sittings. Sometimes the military academies and a few other schools will take an average of your verbal and math scores; still other schools will use only your most recent scores.

SAT TEST DATES 2003-2004

October 11, 2003
November 1, 2003
December 6, 2003
January 24, 2004
March 27, 2004 (SAT I only, not SAT II)
May 1, 2004
June 5, 2004

Registration deadlines are usually four to six weeks before the test date. All SAT II’s may not be offered on each of the testing dates.