<p>Is the SAT easier than most people mae it seem to be? At first I thought that it was hard, but when I came across this website I saw many people with near perfect or perfect scores. Are classes in the united states taught in a format to allow better results on tests like the SAT or are there just a bunch of smart people on this form? Where I live the SAT is just an option and not that much people do it and scores arent really that spectacular. There are some people who get the high scores but its not unusual to see very smart persons get pretty low scores on the SAT. English is a string subject area here but the general math syllabus lacks as much topics that of the US. Are multiple choice questions common in classes because that is considered a sin over here.</p>
<p>well, the sample of people you see here is FAR from a diverse selection. a lot of these kids with straight 800 scores typically do so after extensive hours in test-prep classes (outside their normal high school curriculum)</p>
<p>so that having been said, i don't think it's a matter of US schools being better, just these kids being better at taking standardized tests.</p>
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Are classes in the united states taught in a format to allow better results on tests like the SAT or are there just a bunch of smart people on this form?
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<p>The second one. </p>
<p>Multiple choice is common enough - at my school it seems that about 40-60 percent of classes involve at least partial multiple choice quizzes/tests.</p>
<p>I see. I thought everyone except me was some sort of genius. Well I guess I am one of the few people over here who really cares about getting a college degree anyway. MOST high school kids over here just flounder through school and bank on getting a job in the tourism industry( makes up over 60% of our gdp) while I am here worried about being accepted into a good school. I envy you people.</p>
<p>The SAT is what you make it out to be. Some study and do very well. Some don't study and still do very well. And of course some study or don't study and do poorly.</p>
<p>the national average will probably be something like 1500-1600.
The US schools don't really teach for the SAT test. Although, some schools do offer additional prep classes for the SAT.</p>
<p>I attend an international school in Taiwan, and thankfully my school stresses the importance of SAT, AP, ACT...etc so I'm not completely lost in the college application process. However, from my own observation, I think foreign (overseas) students seem to be quite polarized when it comes to SAT performance. First, there's this group of near-perfect-scorers (who thrive because most Asian/European curricula are more difficult, making the oversea students "smarter" in a sense). Then, there's this group of poor scorers (many of whom English wasn't their first language). Then, there's this mix of both (who's been exposed to a harder curriculum but English difficult for them). I think I'm a mix of both because English was my third language, and I only started learning it when I was 10 years old. However, I am a middle-high scorer when it comes to SAT's...so yeah the purpose of that huge tangent was to say that one can't really say classes in America create better scoring students. Most posters on this site go to elite (on the intellectual scale) schools in America and one can't really compare them to the average Joe who takes the SAT.</p>