<p>Hello everyone, since one always hears European education is much better than education in the USA, I wondered if it was easier to take SAT for Europeans. Did any European here ever take SAT? I come from Belgium and I'd like to go on to American higher education.
And I was wondering if anyone could give some examples from exercices on the math section? (I & II).
Thank you so much, going to college in the USA is my dream!</p>
<p>As long as you can speak English being European doesn’t matter. Go to collegeboard.com to see some practice questions.</p>
<p>Check this thread.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/976193-european-school-student.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/976193-european-school-student.html</a></p>
<p>It is possible that Tim still checks this forum. He might give you plenty of advice. In addition to checking the College Board, check with the international schools in Belgium. Some have information about the SAT, and even might offer free or cheap classes. </p>
<p>Look for the information sessions to take place in October in Brussels. See [Brussels</a> College Night: Don’t miss out on a Chance to Attend the Next One | MyAmerica.be](<a href=“http://www.myamerica.be/vice-versa/brussels-college-night-dont-miss-out-chance-attend-next-one]Brussels”>http://www.myamerica.be/vice-versa/brussels-college-night-dont-miss-out-chance-attend-next-one). and register here [Brussels</a> College Night](<a href=“http://www.fulbright.be/about-fulbright/brussels-college-night/]Brussels”>http://www.fulbright.be/about-fulbright/brussels-college-night/).</p>
<p>As far as your question, students from Belgium should do very well on the SAT, as long as they make the effort to become familiar with the test itself, and spend some time on learning specific grammar and idioms. The math and reasoning part should present few problems.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, if “European education is much better than education in the USA”, why is “going to college in the USA” your dream?</p>
<p>Regarding the “register here Brussels College Night” I do not think I gave the correct link. That should be a registration for schools. As far as I know, the students should attend the event without charge. You should contact St. John’s International School. <a href=“http://www.cois.org/uploaded/documents/HigherEd/2011Tours/Invitation_2011_Brussels.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cois.org/uploaded/documents/HigherEd/2011Tours/Invitation_2011_Brussels.pdf</a></p>
<p>This is how it looked last year:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQGZEALPCDU[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQGZEALPCDU</a></p>
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<p>K-12 is better in Belgium than in the United States. Much better in Flanders than in the United States. The reverse is true when it gets to higher education.</p>
<p>Xiggi thank you very much, and yes it’s what I forgot to mention: I was only talking about European secondary education. Higher education in the US is known for being of a very high level, while Europe’s got, I think, only three universities in the ‘top ten’: Imperial, Cambridge and Oxford, which are all located in the UK. In fact, Belgium’s best university is often only ranked around 70th globally.
I have been going to school in Flanders for the past four years, but next year I’ll be attending an English boarding school: Hockerill College. Do you think that changes anything?</p>
<p>Btw: at Hockerill, I chose to do the International Baccalaureate instead of A-levels</p>
<p>HB, attending the school in the UK should not change anything, except to increase your fluency in English. This should help a bit when taking the TOEFL. Again, I do not think that you will have many problems earning a score on the SAT that corresponds to your preparation. The math tested will be at a level you covered one or two years ago. </p>
<p>I encourage you to check the thread that is stickied above to find out about sources of materials. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-new-feature-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs-please-read-before-posting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-new-feature-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs-please-read-before-posting.html</a> </p>
<p>There are free tests offered on the College Board website. A good start will be to order what has been called the Blue Book. It should be easily available in Belgium through the English bookstores or Amazon. </p>
<p>In general terms, please realize that the admissions at selective schools in the US is highly competitive, and that there is a LOT more than test scores and school averages.</p>
<p>How do you know all this about Belgium? It’s impressive.
I was just wondering why there aren’t more young Americans attending college in Europe? We’ve got some pretty prestigious schools here, admission is way easier, it’s soooo much cheaper and it takes less time to obtain a master’s degree!</p>
<p>If you know French the vocabulary part of the reading section could be easier for you because most of the words have Latin roots. Of course you still need to have a good knowledge of English.</p>
<p>Thanks farfalla!
In fact I speak French and I did Latin for four years, so I hope it’ll help!
I wondered: do you think being European is an advantage at admisson for an Ivy League school? I’d love to go to Columbia…</p>
<p>The Ivy schools have roughly 10% foreigners in every class. You are basically competing against all the international applicants for those 100-150 spots depending on the school. I am not sure if there is any advantage in being european because I suppose the schools would want to have as many countries/continents represented in their class as possible. You should check the stats of a recent class (2014) on every school’s website. They usually publish at least the various countries represented if not the number of admits per country.</p>
<p>I checked, Belgium is not one of the top represented countries…Let’s hope!</p>
<p>HockerillB,</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Math = the same wherever you go in the world. Speaking English doesn’t guarantee a good writing score, in fact many native English speakers face a lot of problems in the writing section because they fail to learn the subtle rules about the English Language. You might be at an advantage if you’ve studied English and Grammar laws; you’ll probably excel in the writing section. As far as CR goes, READ READ READ and you’ll be set :)! </p>
<p>~Aceventura74</p>
<p>I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one. I took the preparation tests for the SAT and I thought the math section to be pretty easy…I’m going to the Belgian 11th grade now and the math section level was mostly like Belgian 9th/10th grade…</p>
<p>Aceventura is right…writing section may be easier BECAUSE we Americans tend to get used to colloquial/non-standard English while foreigners will learn STANDARD english</p>
<p>It should be the same for Europeans.</p>
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<p>beware of the apparent ease of the math section. I suppose, Any 11th grader from any school in the world can achieve 100% on this section given infinite time. But remember that you have to do all the sections in a limited amount of time and this makes the task not so easy</p>
<p>Look, not saying Europeans are stupid.
But I’m also not saying that Americans are stupid either.</p>
<p>There are regions where students do really well in school EVERYWHERE NO MATTER IF YOU ARE FROM EUROPE OR NOT.</p>
<p>Not to mention, if “European” Education is “SO MUCH BETTER”, then why are you applying to USA? </p>
<p>Okay. I’m just sick of people always saying our school system suck or so “easy”, THEN WHY ARE YOU APPLYING HERE?</p>
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<p>Because higher education in America is much better than higher education in Europe, as OP explained earlier.</p>
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<p>In reality, the math section level doesn’t test material covered after 10th grade in America, either. The SAT Math section doesn’t test anything past Geometry, I believe. The difficulty, in my opinion, lies in the way the test writers attempt to force students to apply basic skills to not-so-obvious problems.</p>