Foreign Student Series #8: SAT and ACT

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

Colleges and universities in the United States generally consider
three things when they decide which students to accept. They
consider the grades that a student has earned in school. Experts say
marks are the most important thing.

But officials also consider the difficulty of the classes that
the student took. And they consider the scores that the student
received on college entrance tests.

Today, in part eight of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss
the two tests known as the S.A.T. and the A.C.T.

The S.A.T. measures reasoning skills in mathematics and language.
This includes how well a student reads and understands what is read.
Students may also need to take S.A.T. subject tests in areas like
history, science and foreign language.

After January, the S.A.T. will cost forty-one dollars and fifty
cents, a twelve dollar increase. The international processing charge
is an additional twenty dollars.

Next March, there will be changes in the S.A.T. For example,
students will have to write an essay. But they will no longer be
tested on word analogies. The test is now three hours long. The
changes will add forty-five minutes.

You can get more information about the S.A.T. at the College
Board Web site, collegeboard dot com.

The A.C.T. has tests in English, mathematics, reading and
science. It takes about three hours and thirty minutes to complete.
Starting in February, students can also take a writing test. The
A.C.T. costs forty-five dollars to take outside the United States.
The Web site for more information is actstuden.org.

Some schools may suggest that foreign students also take the Test
of Spoken English or the Test of Written English. But most American
schools require the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign
Language. That is our subject next week.

Internet users can find the reports in our Foreign Student Series
at WWW.testbig.com. The State Department has information for
international students at educationusa.state.gov.

Now here is a quick test. Do you know what A.C.T. and S.A.T.
mean? A.C.T. stands for American College Test. S.A.T. used to stand
for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Then it became Scholastic Assessment
Test. Now, the College Board, which owns the test, says S.A.T. does
not stand for anything.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.