For most of the seniors in high school, earning a high score on the SAT is a huge wall they have to break through in order to enter their ideal colleges.

First of all, what is the SAT?

The College Board states Scholastic Aptitude Test is “a suite of tools designed to assess your academic readiness for college. These exams provide a path to opportunities, financial support and scholarships, in a way that’s fair to
all students. The SAT and SAT Subject Tests keep pace with what colleges are
looking for today, measuring the skills required for success in the 21st century.”

The ACT (formerly American College Testing, still based in Iowa City, Iowa))  has up to 5 components: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science,
and an optional Writing Test. The SAT has only 3 components: Critical

Reasoning, Mathematics, and a required Writing Test. The math on the ACT is
also a little bit more advanced than the math on SAT. The ACT is an achievement test, measuring what a student has learned in school. The SAT is more of an aptitude test, testing reasoning and verbal abilities.

The method of scoring is also different. On the SAT, there is a penalty for
getting a question wrong (when you fail to guess the right answer), but the ACT
is based on how many questions you get right.

Recently the SAT announced that the structure of the test will change significantly  in the spring of  2016 .

The biggest change is to drop the penalty system in scoring which will increase a lot of scores.

There is also a change in the essay section. The essay has been a requirement for the SAT test since 2005, now is going to be an optional
section starting in 2016.

The vocabulary in SAT is  a  struggle for many students, no matter their nationality. But in 2016, they are going to focus on  more common vocabulary that test takers may have heard before, rather than those “SAT vocabulary” which have been torturing the students.

As a result the SAT has planned to lower some difficulty in order to make the test more accurate and increase earn its popularity with universities and students.

The ACT test, which has been increasing more and more in nations and eventually became even in popularity to the SAT, according to Cotter counselor Mrs.O’Brien.

Here are some studying tips which a lot of students use to increase their score on the test:
— Memorize the vocabulary everyday on a regular basis
— Solve problems, go over the wrongs—it is important to know what you
have got wrong on practice tests in review books.
— Reading books can improve your reading skills and can also be used for
noticing grammar mistakes.  So increase your daily reading habits.
–Most of the students improve their scores up to plus 70-80 a year in SAT from their previous scores, however, it is usually depending on the starting level of each students.  For students doing well in core curriculum their daily work in classes should increase their score.
— Every college has a different requirement for SAT or ACT scores, thus all students shouldprepare and study for their own ideal colleges and focus on preparing to earn the score they need to be admitted to that school.