The SAT is a national test and students’ SAT scores, in addition to high school transcripts and other information, are used by colleges and universities to make informed decisions about students' readiness for college-level work. The most recent version of the test, which was first administered in March 2005, consists of multiple-choice questions, sentence completions, and a student-written essay. The test's critical reading section, formerly known as the verbal section, examines sentence completion and passage-based reading. The test's mathematics section examines a student's ability to solve arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics, probability, and data analysis problems.
The writing section consists of two subsections: short essay and multiple-choice. The short essay subsection measures a student’s ability to effectively communicate a viewpoint and to define and support a position. The multiple-choice subsection examines a student’s ability to improve sentences and paragraphs and to identify errors.
Each of the SAT’s three sections is scored on a scale of 200 – 800, with a highest possible score of 2400. When comparing SAT total scores from examinations administered from 2006 to the present, with total scores from examinations administered prior to 2006, only critical reading and mathematics scores are used, with a highest possible total score of 1600.
The School Report Card provides information about the school's average SAT score and the district’s average SAT score. Average SAT scores for the state and the nation are also provided for purposes of comparison. When comparing average SAT scores across schools, participation rate might be a factor, because the larger the test-taking population, the smaller SAT changes tend to be from year to year. Ask your school administrators if you have questions about the SAT and its use as an indicator of student performance in schools.
Additional information about the SAT can be found on the NC Department of Public Instruction's Accountability Services website. For more technical information about these data, please see the Data Sources & Information Guide.