<p>I have just finished my sophomore year of high school in Vancouver, Canada and I really want to attend university in the States. (I went to middle school in California so I'm somewhat familiar with the system) Since I'm in Canada, my counsellor doesn't know much about the SAT's, so please forgive me for any dumb questions. </p>
<p>How much do the two essays count for the 800 points of the writing part? </p>
<p>What form are they supposed to be in, five-paragraph? </p>
<p>Graphing calculators are permitted for the math section, right?</p>
<p>For the Subject Tests, are you only allowed to take three or can you take as many as you want and send the highest? From what I've seen, most universities/colleges seen to require only two scores (newer version). I'll defintely be taking the Math IIC but I'm not sure about the others. Are Literature and Chemistry good picks?</p>
<p>I'm a native Chinese, will it look horribly bad if I sent in an 800 on Mandarin? (cuz the samples q's 4 that test was SO easy i could do it in my sleep..:p) </p>
<p>OH AND ALSO, the only AP class my school offers is Calc, which I will be taking in senior year. Does this put me in a disadventage against ppl who have like 8 AP subjects? This is really worrying me...</p>
<p>THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU in advance...</p>
<p>there is one essay for the writing section, and it counts for 1/3 of the writing score. typically, the five paragraph essay seems to be the most common and work the best. however, it does not have to be in that format, just make sure you back up your thesis with developed examples.</p>
<p>graphing calculators are permitted.</p>
<p>for subject tests, you can take it as many times as you want, but it looks best if you do not retake them. pick the tests you are strongest in.</p>
<p>and do not take chinese if you are a native speaker. even an 800 will not be overly impressive. show admissions your other strengths by taking either literature or chem. </p>
<p>no, admissions cares that you take the most demanding courseload that your school offers. since your school only offers one ap course, they will not hold that against you.</p>
<p>You can take as many subjects as you want, but you don't pick which scores to send, collegeboard sends your 6 most recent sat subject tests and 6 most recent sat reasoning tests.</p>
<p>Check the websites of the colleges to which you want to apply. Usually they tell you the last time you can take the sats before you apply to the college.</p>
<p>Usually colleges take your highest scores. So if you were to take 5 subjects, your 3 highest scores would be taken into consideration. Also, remember that you can't take subjects and the reasoning test on the same test date.</p>