Helping Students Get the Most Out of SAT School Day Testing

Helping Students Get the Most Out of Testing 

This information is taken directly from the SAT School Day Guide. For further information, visit collegeboard.org 

CREATE A FREE COLLEGE BOARD ACCOUNT 

All students, regardless of registration method, will need to have an email address and a free online College Board account to take advantage of the entire SAT School Day experience. The College Board offers a wealth of information and services to students, many of which are enhanced by the creation of a free online account. If they have previously taken the PSAT/NMSQT®, your students will already have accounts.

If they need to establish an account, they simply go to collegeboard.org and click “Sign Up.” As part of the process of establishing an account, students must provide an email address. There are a number of ways to open free email accounts online using Google, Yahoo, or other such services. If a student must supply a third-party email address, it is strongly recommended that the student provide his or her parent’s or guardian’s email address. The screens and information students must provide are shown on pages 6 and 7 of this guide.

 PRACTICE WITH THE OFFICIAL SAT ONLINE COURSE™ 

Students can get ready to show their true potential on test day by taking advantage of The Official SAT Online Course™, provided as part of the SAT School Day experience. When students prepare for the SAT with this official SAT practice resource, they become more familiar with the test experience and increase their test-taking comfort and confidence. Here is an overview of the benefits available for your staff and students:

Interactive Instruction and Official Practice Tests 

• The course’s 18 interactive lessons cover the SAT’s critical reading, writing, and mathematics sections using interactive activities and multimedia content to create an engaging learning environment.

• Students gain valuable experience by taking 10 practice tests, answering more than 600 practice questions, and responding to practice essay questions — all developed by the test maker. Students increase confidence by practicing with questions just like the ones they’ll see on test day. 

Valuable Feedback 

• Students receive explanations of answers to all questions in the online course. They can use the detailed explanations to pinpoint areas where they need improvement.

• Students receive personalized score reports on all practice tests and quizzes. With this information, students can better understand where to focus additional study.

• With the auto essay scoring service, students practice for the SAT essay by responding to essay questions and getting back immediate, computer-generated scores. The auto essay scoring service employs artificial intelligence to emulate the process used by expert human scorers on the SAT.

• See your Director of Guidance for additional information about the online course and access information for your students.

COMPLETE THE SAT QUESTIONNAIRE 

Please strongly encourage your students to answer the SAT Questionnaire when they register. If students are being registered through the electronic bulk process (see page 12), arrange for them to complete the paper questionnaire enclosed with this guide. The questionnaire provides a way for students to show what interests they have and what they are looking for in colleges and the workplace after high school. Colleges and educational programs, including scholarship programs, use the information students provide on the questionnaire through the Student Search Service®. By completing the questionnaire and participating in this free service, your students can start making connections with programs that are looking for students like them.

Student responses to the questionnaire also accomplish two other important objectives:

• They help counselors better understand what students are looking for so that you can give more useful future planning advice.

• They provide information that the College Board uses to ensure the fairness of the test and that it accurately reflects the college readiness of all students who take it.

SEND SCORE REPORTS 

In addition to encouraging your students to complete the questionnaire, you should also help them see the value of the four free score sends that are available to them as part of registration. They can order online at any time up until nine days after the test (after that, the score report fee will be charged). Sending scores to colleges is a great way for students to show interest in an institution, especially since higher education institutions view interest as an important quality in potential candidates. 

OTHER SCORE REPORTING SERVICES 

Your students may be interested in ordering the Question-and-Answer Service (QAS) or the Student Answer Service (SAS). These two services give more information about the test a student took, including question type and level of difficulty for each question and whether the student’s answer was correct, incorrect, or omitted. QAS is a test-disclosure service that also provides a copy of the test booklet and the student’s actual answers. It is only available for the test given on April 15, 2015.

Students can order QAS or SAS during the online registration process. Bulk-registered students can order the services by calling Customer Service.