Dear

Michelle
,
ThenewSATconsistsoffoursections:reading,writingandlanguage,math,andan
optionalessay.ThelowestpossiblescoreonthenewSATisa400,whilethehighestpossible
scoreisa1600.Averagescoreswillvaryacrossuniversities,however,themedianscorefor
graduatingclassesof2017+iscurrentlyprojectedtobeatascoreof1000.Thoughthenew
SATdoesnotpenalizeforwronganswers,leavingquestionsblankand/orchoosingincorrect
answerchoiceswillnegativelyimpactthecompositescore.Belowisachartsummarizing
Emma
soverallperformanceonthisinitialexam.

January17,2016

Total
Numberof
Questions

Number
Correct

Number
Incorrect

Reading

52

29

16

Writing&Language

44

30

Math(nocalculator)

20

Math(w/calculator)
Essay

Blank

Percent
Correct

Scaled
Score

56%

580

14

68%

10

30%

38

14

18

37%

450

Intotal,
Emma
scoreda1060outofapossible1600onherinitialSATpracticeexam,
whichisequivalenttoacompositescoreof23ontheACT.

Onthereadingcomponent,
Emma
answered56%ofthequestionscorrectly.The
readingsectionassessesstudentscomprehensionandreasoningskillsinrelationto
appropriatelychallengingprosepassagesacrossarangeofcontents.Somepassagesare
pairedwithanother,othersareassociatedwithoneormoreinformationgraphics,whilethe
majorityaresinglepassages.Contentareascanincludeanalysisinscienceandanalysisin
history/socialstudies.Thistestalsoprovidesquestionspertainingtoexpressionofideas,words
incontext,standardEnglishconventions,andcommandofevidence.
Emma
struggledmostwith
questionswhichrequirehertogobacktothetexttolookforevidenceaswellasinference
basedquestions.Wewillteach
Emma
howtoannotatenotonlythepassage,butalsothe
questionsinordertogetabetterunderstandingofwhatitisasking.Wewillalsoteachher
strategieswhichencouragehertorevisitthetextwhenfacedwithevidencebasedquestions.
Wewillbesuretoprovide
Emma
withweeklyreadingassignmentstoimproveheraccuracyand

strategyapplication,ascontinuedpracticeisnecessaryforhertoimproveherscore.Once
Emma
iscomfortablewiththematerialwithinthissectionofthetest,wewillmoveontohelping
herdeveloppacingskillstoavoidrunningoutoftime.
Withinthewritingandlanguagesection,
Emma
correctlyanswered68%of44questions.
TheSATwillcombinebothherreadingscoreandherwritingandlanguagescores.Onthis
initialexam,
Emma
scoreda580outofapossiblescoreof800.Onthisportionofthetest,
Emma
wasaskedtoeditvariouspassagesinthefollowingways:revisetoimprovethe
expressionofideas,editerrorsinsentencestructure,usage,punctuation,anddetermine
whetherthepassagealreadyconformstotheconventionsofstandardwrittenEnglishand
shouldnotbechanged.While
Emma
hadtroublewithvarioustypesofquestions,shemainly
struggledwithhowtohelpthepassagebetterexpressideas.Wewillworkwith
Emma
to
strengthenheroverallwritingconventionsasitappliestothissectionoftheexam.
OneinterestingcomponentofthemathportionoftheSATisthat,asthestudents
progressthrougheachsection,thequestionsbecomemorechallenging.Theeasiestquestions
areinthebeginning,themediumonesareinthemiddle,andthehardonesareattheend.This
isgenerallyachallengingaspectoftheSATformoststudents,and
Emma
wasnoexception.In
totalsheanswered34%ofthequestionscorrectly,resultinginascoreof450outofapossible
800.TheSATmathematicscomponentisdividedintwosubsections.Forthefirsttwenty
questions,calculatoruseisnotpermitted.Fortheremainingthirtyeight,sheisallowedtousea
scientificcalculator.
Emma
struggledmostwiththefirstsection.Thissectioniscomposedof
mathproblemssuchas:solvingforvariables,irrationalnumbers,algebraicexpressions,and
linearequations.Thegridinsectionsalsoprovedtobeaslightchallengehoweverduetoits
lackofcompletion,wepresumesheranoutoftime.
Emma
performedbetterwithinthesecond
halfofthemathsection,butalsoseemedtorunoutoftime.Thissectioniscomposedofthe
sametypesofquestions,aswellasquestionspertainingtoangles,graphing,absolutevalue,
functions,polynomials,inequalities,andwordproblems.DuringherSATsessions,wewillteach
Emma
strategiesforsolvingallofthetypesofquestionsontheSAT,whichshould,inturn,
strengthenhermathskillsingeneral.Wehavemultiplestrategiesthataddressthesetopicsand
canworkwith
Emma
tomasterthem.
AnothernewchangetotheSATistheessayisnowanoptionalcomponent.Inthepast,
studentsweregiven30minutestorespondtoatheoreticalprompt.Now,studentsaregiven50
minutestoanalyzeanessay,generallyanexcerptfromabook,andprovideawrittenresponse
tovariouscomponentssuchastheauthorsuseofanecdotesandotherpersuasivetechniques.

Thisparticularpromptasked
Emma
to:
explainhowtheauthorbuildsanargumenttopersuade
hisaudience
.
Emma
sresponseessayscoreda3outof6.
Emma
sessaymaintainedgreat
structureandflow.However,
Emma
needspracticemakingherprosemoresophisticated.She
tendedtorepeatwords,andchoseonlybasicvocabularywords.Moreimportantly,
Emma
neededtousemorespecific,concreteexamplestostrengthenherargument.Once
Emma
is
abletopushherselftothenextlevel,weareconfidentheressayscorewillincreaseand,inturn,
increaseheroverallwritingscore.

Weat
TheRightApproach
wouldliketosee
Emma
performherbestasshepreparesto
taketheofficialexam.Wewillprovideherwiththetoolsandstudystrategiesnecessaryforher
toincreaseherscore.Welookforwardtodiscussingherperformancemoreindepthatour
meeting.Thankyou!

Warmly,
TheRightApproachTeam