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SAT Exam Format

 

TIME ALLOTTED

NO. OF QUESTIONS

READING

65

52

WRITING AND LANGUAGE

35

44

MATHS

80

57

TOTAL

180

153

ESSAY (OPTIONAL)

50

1

Critical Reading

The Critical Reading (formerly Verbal) section of the SAT is made up of three scored sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, with varying types of questions, including Sentence Completions and questions about Short and Long Reading Passages. Critical Reading sections normally begin with 5 to 8 sentence completion questions; the remainder of the questions are focused on the reading passages. Sentence completions generally test the student’s vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure and organization by requiring the student to select one or two words that best complete a given sentence.

The bulk of the Critical Reading questions is made up of questions regarding reading passages, in which, students read short excerpts on Social Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, or Personal Narratives and answer questions based on the passage. Certain sections contain passages asking the student to compare two related passages; generally, these consist of shorter reading passages. The number of questions about each passage is proportional to the length of the passage.

Mathamatics

The Mathematics section of the SAT is widely known as the Quantitative Section or Calculation Section. This  section consists of three scored sections. There are two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, which are as follows:

One of the 25-minute sections is multiple choice, with 20 questions.The other 25-minute section contains 8 multiple choice questions and 10 grid-in questions. The 10 grid-in questions have no negative marking for  incorrect answers.The 20-minute section is all multiple choice, with 16 questions.

Notably, the SAT has done away with quantitative comparison questions on the Math section, leaving only questions with symbolic or numerical answers.New topics include Algebra II and Scatter Plots.

 These recent changes have resulted in a shorter, more quantitative exam requiring higher level Mathematics courses relative to the previous exam.

Calculator Use

With the recent changes to the content of the SAT math section, the need to save time while maintaining accuracy of calculations, has led some to use calculator programs during the test. These programs allow students to complete problems faster than would normally be possible when making calculations manually.

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