SAT 101 Required

[RoaringInferno]

Hi guys. I will be completing my O' Levels in May/June 2013, and I'm confused about what SAT is as opposed to A' levels. When do I give the SAT tests? After AS, or A2? And in what month? What is the difference between SAT 1 and SAT 2? How many SAT subjects are preffered by the Ivy League universities? Is the syllabus different from A' levels or pretty much the same?
Hope you guys can help me out. Thanks.

 

[Queens]

Hi guys. I will be completing my O' Levels in May/June 2013, and I'm confused about what SAT is as opposed to A' levels. When do I give the SAT tests? After AS, or A2? And in what month? What is the difference between SAT 1 and SAT 2? How many SAT subjects are preffered by the Ivy League universities? Is the syllabus different from A' levels or pretty much the same?
Hope you guys can help me out. Thanks.

Although i'm not giving SATs but form what i hear from seniors and fellows and teachers , i would advice you to prepare and appear for the SATs during the first year (A1 or AS). It's upto you in which month you want to appear. The exams are taken throughout the year in different months. SAT 1 is essential , but some universities require SAT 2 aswell .
As for the subjects question , check on the websites of the universities you wanna apply to . The syllabus is pretty mcuh the same. (The AS course of Chemistry covers all of SAT 2 Chemistry)- but again you should check the syllabus online just in case.

 

[RoaringInferno]

Thanks. So do I have to give both SAT1 and SAT2 in the same session? Or is it more like SAT 1 after AS and SAT2 after A2?
Again,I really appreciate your help.

 

[Queens]

Thanks. So do I have to give both SAT1 and SAT2 in the same session? Or is it more like SAT 1 after AS and SAT2 after A2?
Again,I really appreciate your help.

You can give SAT 2 at a later time. It's not compulsory to give both in the same session.

 

[hassan100]

Hi guys. I will be completing my O' Levels in May/June 2013, and I'm confused about what SAT is as opposed to A' levels. When do I give the SAT tests? After AS, or A2? And in what month? What is the difference between SAT 1 and SAT 2? How many SAT subjects are preffered by the Ivy League universities? Is the syllabus different from A' levels or pretty much the same?Hope you guys can help me out. Thanks.

You cannot give SAT 1 and SAT 2 at the same time. I gave my SAT in AS but my score was not good enough for Ivy leagues ,s o i am preparing to give it again in October. Just remember, that never ever compromise your AS studies for SAT. And practice a lot. At least a test a day in summers.
I hope this helped.

 

[RoaringInferno]

You cannot give SAT 1 and SAT 2 at the same time. I gave my SAT in AS but my score was not good enough for Ivy leagues ,s o i am preparing to give it again in October. Just remember, that never ever compromise your AS studies for SAT. And practice a lot. At least a test a day in summers.
I hope this helped.

Thanks

 

[oldfashionedgirl]

Like someone pointed out above, SAT 1 and SAT subject tests cannot be taken together. If your aiming for the Ivy's, then try and give atleast 3 SAT subject tests.

 

[sayantan]

SAT 1 is a general test and consists of Critical Reading, Writing and Maths (Its Grade 10 maths - maybe even that's an exaggeration lol). Basically a 2/3 of the paper is English!
SAT 2 are Subject-specific tests. You do the particular subjects you want to. It is at AS-A2 level + a few more topics which aren't covered in A Levels but aren't that hard to get a hold of really!
For example I did Physics, Chemistry and Maths Level 2.

SAT 1 is much more important than SAT 2 for American universities, because most people get 2400 or near 2400 in their SAT2s, so the differentiating criteria becomes the SAT 1.

For ivy leagues you need a minimum of 2100 (preferrably 2200) in SAT 1 but if you can get 2300+ you have good chances. As far as SAT2s are concerned do 3 of them! And anything below 2300 is really useless and puts you in a bad situation...

I would suggest a trial SAT1 during Year 12 (AS) either Oct, Nov or Dec anything, because realistically, its hard to get a hold of it in the very first attempt..
Then the second attempt for October in Year 13 (A2). That way you can stay with the option for Early Action/Decisions to universities too!
Keep SAT2s for either May,June during AS (Can be a little risky I guess - but you can resit them if it goes sideways) or just prepare really well and sit them in November in Year 13 (A2)

And as far as ivy league universities are concerned... only academics probably won't get you in. You need a strong extra-curricular record and/or sports (Not just playing in school clubs or anythings - it has to be Nationals or so)

I lacked a bit of the above so I got rejected from Columbia, Stanford. I got into Cornell, Berkeley, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, USC and Carnegie Mellon.
I got 2310 in SAT1 and 2380 in SAT2 (Phy,Chem,Math L2)

If you have any other questions - feel free to ask away!

 

[Martee100]

SAT 1 is a general test and consists of Critical Reading, Writing and Maths (Its Grade 10 maths - maybe even that's an exaggeration lol). Basically a 2/3 of the paper is English!
SAT 2 are Subject-specific tests. You do the particular sub.......

How did you prepare for SAT?

Wastage of space ​

 

[sayantan]

Mostly practice really..
For SAT1 I used
Official SAT Study Guide for its 10 practice tests
Princeton Review for its guides, tips and tricks but more importantly for its harder practice tests
And I had Barron's for Writing and Reading, as well as Grubber's for Reading (Both are really good for their specific CR and Writing exercises) PS. I got these online!

And for SAT2 I just did 3-4 practice tests each only. (Preparation time for me: 10-12 days)
I used Princeton Review books to prepare the material - then used McGraw Hill's books to do the easier practice tests and then finally went on to do the harder Princeton Review tests!