The SAT Reloaded
In 1926, when a small group of
students sat down to take the first SAT, the letters
S-A-T stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Back then, everybody thought
the SAT could accurately predict each person’s innate intelligence.
The test was supposedly uncoachable, making preparation of any kind unnecessary.
In 1994, the people who write the SAT backed off of the claim that
the test measures aptitude and began to call it the Standardized
Assessment Test. Slowly, quietly, even the words Standardized
Assessment Test fell out of use. In 1996, the SAT people
sought to clear up the confusion in a press release that declared,
once and for all, “SAT is not an initialism; it does not stand for
anything.” So there you have it, straight from the source:
The SAT stands for nothing.
But that hasn’t stopped the test. Now the SAT has undergone
the most extensive changes in its 75-year history. A whole new Writing
section has been added to the test, analogies have been cut, tougher
math concepts have been added, quantitative comparisons are gone,
and the entire test is now scored on a scale of 2400 instead of the
infamous 1600.
How do you prepare for this radically new test disguised
under a familiar old meaningless name? Read this book. All the facts,
strategies, and study methods you need to meet and beat the new
SAT lie between these two covers.